There is an aged an adage in the halls of the Pentagon that goes “Defense is always battling the last war”. In other words, soon after a army engagement is finished DoD tries to restructure alone so that its abilities are more successful for the final engagement. Economic Damages is an adage that is really true in the heritage of DoD and these days many in DoD function extremely diligently to make certain that it is no for a longer time true.

In a lot of ways when it comes to rebuilding America’s economic competitiveness, a lot of have fallen prey to this time previous adage. And as DoD has found on recurring instances, fighting the previous war can be extremely fatal for the military and the region.

The US has divested itself, each by design and style and by default, of its production base producing a weakness that China and other individuals have exploited for a aggressive gain. This weak point has now been exploited to the degree that its adverse influence on the financial well being of the US is so pronounced, that it can no lengthier be denied by any person except the most nave or out of contact pundits.

In reaction, there is a developing contact-to-arms across the US personal and public sector to rebuild the US manufacturing foundation to its past glory. The strongly inferred, but not constantly stated premise is that rebuilding the US manufacturing foundation is certain to rebuild America’s economic well being– in other phrases the manufacturing foundation of a country is the basis of a country’s financial competitiveness.

It is the scenario that the Chinese observed and exploited the weak spot offered by America’s declining manufacturing foundation but by just removing this US weak point does not equate to a US power–it just eliminates a US weak point that could be exploited by China and other people for a aggressive gain. In effect, getting rid of the US weakness by rebuilding the US producing foundation is just preventing the very last war.

With this US weakness eradicated, China and other folks will just change the fight to an additional battlefield.

To rebuild the economic overall health of the US we must acquire and maintain a competitive gain, not just remove a US weak spot that offers China with the prospect to obtain a aggressive gain relative to the US. Rebuilding the US manufacturing foundation can remove the US weaknesses so that it can no more time be exploited by China or other folks to the detriment of the economic health of the US, and it is the case that the US production foundation could be rebuilt in a manner that supplies the US with a aggressive advantage and therefore enhance the economic overall health of the US. But, opposite to what is getting taken care of in the press and by a increasing amount of authorities, the US manufacturing foundation is not the basis of America’s economic competitiveness–the exploitation of engineering is the foundation of America’s financial competitiveness as nicely as the foundation of all of our competitors’ economic competitiveness.

To rebuild America’s economic competitiveness, and thereby the country’s economic health, and not just remove a weak spot or develop a minimal fleeting competitive advantage in one location, we must out maneuver our competition in the exploitation of the throughout the world technology which is the basis of all competitive advantage.

The dilemma is that at the end of Globe War II, determination-creating in the US for the most element, abandoned technological innovation-dependent organizing and adopted financial-based arranging. In economic-primarily based preparing the basis of all decision-creating is the effective utilization of the resources to achieve a function the place, in a organization in most situations, the purpose is to optimize income. In other words and phrases, the resources are what are becoming manipulated and the measure of accomplishment is how efficiently the money have been manipulated. Adoption of financial-based mostly organizing is the root trigger of America’s decline of its producing base.

In distinction, in technologies-primarily based arranging the basis of all decision-generating is the effective acquisition and utilization of the technologies to make a competitive edge. It is the technologies not the funds that are being manipulated as the basis of decisions. Trying to keep in mind that technological innovation is properly defined as any application of science to attain a operate.

The problem is that following the US adopted financial-based mostly preparing right after WWII, the relaxation of the planet continued using and refining technological innovation-based mostly preparing. China and India have been employing hugely refined, quite aggressive technologies-based preparing to speedily transform their point of view countries into economic superpowers.

Inside of the US intelligence neighborhood below the Reagan administration, I directed a software the Socrates Task, that determined that the underlying result in of America’s declining financial competitiveness was the country’s switch from technologies-dependent preparing to economic-primarily based preparing. The Socrates Undertaking also produced a very sophisticated form of tech-dependent preparing–automatic innovation–that would allow the US and all its non-public and community companies to consistently out maneuver all opponents around the world in the acquisition and utilization of technologies to get and sustain the highest competitive advantage.

So as an alternative of the US just getting rid of the existing weak spot triggered by the country’s waning production foundation, the US and its companies would be in a placement to be the dominant competitor in all existing and long term industries—to incorporate manufacturing.