We live in a global society. Very few people would argue that point since you can get on an airplane and land anywhere in the world in hours, video conference with a business partner in another hemisphere or tweet a picture about a revolution to the entire world. A global society means global problems, global competition, and increasing tense political and economic tensions.

How does America compete in this global society? It used to compete because we had the strongest military supported by the largest economy in the world. We could tell the rest of the world what to do, and they had to listen because we could threaten them with military action or worse, we could close our economy to their nation. The latter usually got the opposing party to quickly change their tune because, until recently, the American economy was the ticket to any nation’s rise out of third world status.

Nevertheless, America’s economy is no longer as strong as it used to be, and our military is facing ever-increasing budget cuts that will eventually affect our ability to use firepower as leverage on the global stage. In order to compete and remain relevant, America must begin to strengthen its core resources, industries, and intelligence.

Our resources, whether they are human, financial or physical are in desperate need of support and improvement. Our education system from pre-school to college is being outshined by second-tier countries, and our undereducated citizens are now adults and forced to compete with superiorly educated counterparts in other nations.

Our financial system is based on a shoddy system supported by government subsidies that are further subsidized by Chinese lending. We must begin to create and maintain our own wealth if we are to compete in a tug of war of global influence. 

Relying on other nation’s good will to pay our bills is not a position of power. We have also been neglecting our physical resources as a nation by hampering, through regulations, the use and availability of our abundant natural resources. America was made strong because we could feed ourselves, power the future and manufacture anything we needed and without the help of other nations. Today, we close factories, abandon commodity reserves and refuse to allow energy production in large areas of the country.

Now is the time for all Americans to demand a new way of doing things in this country take precedence over the political fighting that gets us nowhere while our global competitors move forward. We need to innovate as a nation, reform our education system, unleash the human potential, allow entrepreneurs to take risks again and leverage our abundant natural resources to develop a cleaner future for the world.

The last bite…

Thanksgiving, need I say more? This year was the Boe family Thanksgiving, and no one left hungry or disappointed. From Aunt Karen’s roast to Aunt Arleen’s various dressings, there was enough food for several rounds. Tanya’s smothered peas were full of flavor, and my dad’s turkey had enough kick to welcome in the New Year. Mom’s sweet potatoes were better than dessert, and Paw Paw’s mirliton dressing is an annual favorite. I give eating three rounds of amazing food prepared with love 5 (out of 5) crumbs!

Buddy Boe, a resident of Garyville, owns a public relations and program management company and is well known on the local political (and food) scenes. His column appears Wednesdays in L’Observateur.