A little rant on the state of America

[5thGenOwner]

Originally Posted by cab2g

We ARE America. Do your part and don't let your kids settle for 2nd best. The only way to make sure that we stay on top is to make our kids see that they can always do better than their parents.

Lets stop giving out trophies for 'participation'!

Higher expectations...

Higher achievements...

Higher rewards!!!

[Blade]

We are known for Big Corruption now, politics and business.

[2001ragtop]

Originally Posted by bigearl

......America has ALWAYS been the leader at something big.......At first it was big ideas........Thanks for letting me rant. I apologize in advance to the TL/DR crowd.

Just because you don't READ about America being the leader in something revolutionary, doesn't mean we aren't doing it.

If anyone was able to just take a walk into a special Lockheed Martin facility I am SURE you would be blown away by some things. They probably can fly around the earths equator in one hour by now. Or they have many revolutionary propulsion devices.

Chances are anything you wonder if its possible are not, is possible right now.

AND i DON'T want any LHC collider anywhere near where I live. Let them have all the fun playing with Anti-matter and worm holes.

soon bending the fabric of space and time will be mundane as well.

[bigearl]

Originally Posted by 2001ragtop

Just because you don't READ about America being the leader in something revolutionary, doesn't mean we aren't doing it.

If anyone was able to just take a walk into a special Lockheed Martin facility I am SURE you would be blown away by some things. They probably can fly around the earths equator in one hour by now. Or they have many revolutionary propulsion devices.

Chances are anything you wonder if its possible are not, is possible right now.

AND i DON'T want any LHC collider anywhere near where I live. Let them have all the fun playing with Anti-matter and worm holes.

soon bending the fabric of space and time will be mundane as well.

I understand what you're saying. However if it's hidden, it doesn't count. The things I'm talking about are things that the world in general knows we are doing. The LHC is important because it's bringing world class physicists to the LHC to do their work. It's also important because it's a big ideas project- even we hacks here at a Camaro site know about the LHC. Can you name 3 other colliders without googling?

[Kyle2k]

Originally Posted by 5thGenOwner

Lets stop giving out trophies for 'participation'!

Higher expectations...

Higher achievements...

Higher rewards!!!

I don't necessarily agree with that because if you teach people to only go after things that give the highest possible rewards the long term investment that we need in the country isn't going to happen. They are going to invest in the companies that are there for solely big profits, not the ideas and innovation that might come with a smaller profit (but profit nonetheless). That...is one of the problems in my opinion.

EDIT: For clarification I'm not in support of participation or loser awards.

[Havok]

I understand where you are going with this, but Americans were never really big on the future technology. We just took people from other countries (see above) gave them money and made them do what they did best while the rest of the world tried to recover after WW1 and WW2.

Look at Japan right now. They are already testing solar sails which once something like this gets going will be better and faster than any coneventional rocket. Also for the 2022 World Cup they plan on creating holograms of the games that can be beamed to any sports stadiums in the world live.

What we need to do is start getting more kids into math and science at a younger age. All the countries that we got pepole from back in the day have money to throw at them so they no longer coming here. We are so far behind in that compared to the rest of the world and thats why we have been lagging behind the rest of the world. BTW don't take this as teaching Calculus to 5th graders, I just mean doing a better job teaching these kind of things. Sadly China will probably be where all the great developments will occur this century.

[hot_rod]

>>>Sadly China will probably be where all the great developments will occur this century.

You are safe in removing the "probably" out of the above statement.

Playing with the China numbers / statistics provides some insight to your world

for example....

The 25% of the population in China with the highest IQs ....
is greater than the total population of North America.

Translation for teachers:they have more honors kids than we have kids.

China will soon become the number one English-speaking country in the world.

If you took every single job in the U.S. today and shipped it to China . . .
it still would have a labor surplus.

Name this country . . .
Richest in the world
Largest military
Center of world business and finance
Strongest education system
World center of innovation and invention
Currency the world standard of value
Highest standard of living

England
in 1900

Nintendo invested more than $140 million in research and development in 2002 alone.
The U.S. federal government spent less than half as much on research and innovation in education.
The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.

The world if flat, welcome to the 21st century....

[Havok]

Originally Posted by hot_rod

>>>Sadly China will probably be where all the great developments will occur this century.

You are safe in removing the "probably" out of the above statement.

Playing with the China numbers / statistics provides some insight to your world

for example....

The 25% of the population in China with the highest IQs ....
is greater than the total population of North America.

Translation for teachers:they have more honors kids than we have kids.

China will soon become the number one English-speaking country in the world.

If you took every single job in the U.S. today and shipped it to China . . .
it still would have a labor surplus.

Name this country . . .
Richest in the world
Largest military
Center of world business and finance
Strongest education system
World center of innovation and invention
Currency the world standard of value
Highest standard of living

England
in 1900

Nintendo invested more than $140 million in research and development in 2002 alone.
The U.S. federal government spent less than half as much on research and innovation in education.
The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.

The world if flat, welcome to the 21st century....

Someone watched that fact video on youtube .

[5thGenOwner]

Originally Posted by Kyle2k

I don't necessarily agree with that because if you teach people to only go after things that give the highest possible rewards the long term investment that we need in the country isn't going to happen. They are going to invest in the companies that are there for solely big profits, not the ideas and innovation that might come with a smaller profit (but profit nonetheless). That...is one of the problems in my opinion.

EDIT: For clarification I'm not in support of participation or loser awards.

You misunderstood... or as most people do... you assume that Rewards = Profit.

That just isn't the case. Money isn't everything... it really isn't! A trophy for first place is exactly that... just a trophy, usually. But it has this carved in it...

1st Place

(catch my drift? or i'll put it this way...)

Higher personal expectations...

Higher personal achievements...

Higher personal rewards!!!

[Kyle2k]

Originally Posted by 5thGenOwner

You misunderstood... or as most people do... you assume that Rewards = Profit.

That just isn't the case. Money isn't everything... it really isn't! A trophy for first place is exactly that... just a trophy, usually. But it has this carved in it...

1st Place

(catch my drift?)

I understand you completely, but history proves that it is a hell of a motivator for both good and bad.

[5thGenOwner]

Originally Posted by Kyle2k

I understand you completely, but history proves that it is a hell of a motivator for both good and bad.

I absolutely disagree, if you are saying "Reward = Money"... actually in many situations 'money' is an afterthought.

Look at the greatest minds in history like Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, or even Bill Gates. Money did not motivate. Their passion and the drive to be FIRST did.

Ask any member on the Celtics or Lakers if the game on Thursday is about money, etc. etc. etc.

Edit: It's about being the/your best, and not settling for second... because everyone gets a trophy, anyway. Money may or may not be at the end of your rainbow, but Happiness certainly is!

[chiefs58]

That was well said. I'm happy I took the time to read it.

[Kyle2k]

Originally Posted by 5thGenOwner

I absolutely disagree, if you are saying "Reward = Money"... actually in many situations 'money' is an afterthought.

Look at the greatest minds in history like Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, or even Bill Gates. Money did not motivate. Their passion and the drive to be FIRST did.

Ask any member on the Celtics or Lakers if the game on Thursday is about money, etc. etc. etc.

Edit: It's about being the/your best, and not settling for second... because everyone gets a trophy, anyway. Money may or may not be at the end of your rainbow, but Happiness certainly is!

All of which are questions asked after the fact. If you have a steady income from your success it isn't that big of a deal anymore but someone that lets say is the best hot dog eater in the world doesn't have much to show for it besides maybe getting laid by someone that has a hot dog eating fetish (thought I'd add some comedy releif). I don't even know why I'm trying to argue this point because I wish it WOULDN'T be the biggest concern of many people, but if that was a reality I guess I'd expect to see more progress away from the trend that this whole thread originated from.

[5thGenOwner]

Originally Posted by Kyle2k

All of which are questions asked after the fact. If you have a steady income from your success it isn't that big of a deal anymore but someone that lets say is the best hot dog eater in the world doesn't have much to show for it besides maybe getting laid by someone that has a hot dog eating fetish (thought I'd add some comedy releif). I don't even know why I'm trying to argue this point because I wish it WOULDN'T be the biggest concern of many people, but if that was a reality I guess I'd expect to see more progress away from the trend that this whole thread originated from.

I wouldn't exactly call this arguing. Hard to even say it's a debate, because I do think we agree on much of the same principals.

I'm just trying to point out that Money does not equate to Rewards, nor Dreams! And anyone who tries to... is fooling themself. Money doesn't, nor has it ever, bought happiness. (life, liberty, and the pursuit of...)