Remedies

Law 4—
An Important Aspect of Change Is That Things Are Different Afterward

It is not difficult to see that no panaceas exist. Various remedies to ameliorate the situation, however, do.

The present-day situation must be recognized as a crisis. The U.S. government and, to a lesser degree, industry have failed to recognize this as a crisis. Fixing that which is wrong now is many times more difficult than would have been the case just a few years ago.

The Japanese market will have to be pried open for American products. When President Bush appointed Carla Hills to the post of U.S. Trade Representative, he gave her a crowbar to emphasize that very point. To do so, the Japanese must be held to their obligations under current trade agreements, and legislation intended to bring about a more equitable trade situation, perhaps along the lines of the High Performance Computing Initiative, should be passed. Should these measures fail, the U.S. might be wise to consider assuming some vestiges of protectionism, at least as the means to pry open the Japanese market.^[*]

More qualified people are needed in Washington to attend to the problem. Both NSF and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are trying to recruit such individuals, with both experiencing difficulty.

The industry has changed, and American industry must change with it. Many of the lessons to be learned in this case come directly from the Japanese. For example, to survive these days, a super computer company must be vertically integrated and must generate money to be invested in R&D.

More money must be invested in R&D. Another key to industrial survival today is a market share to generate money for investment in research and development. R&D spending in Japan went up 14 per cent during one recent 12-month period, alone, and four or five Japanese companies have R&D budgets that exceed the entire budget of NSF, including NEC, whose budget exceeds NSF's by one-third.

U.S. industry must improve its productivity, change its values, and technologically catch up. A top-down approach to the solution of eroding U.S. leadership in the area of high-performance computing will not work. Fooling with the exchange rate won't work, nor will any number of additional stopgap measures. Changing our values, above all else, means abandoning our short-term view in terms of industrial planning, education, consumer buying habits, and government involvement in industry. Incentives must be introduced if industry is to be expected to assume a long-term view. Unfortunately, industry in this country has a very short-term view. They won't take the technology that is available in the universities. The good technology that is developed there is being siphoned off to Japan, where there are interested people. Meanwhile, industry occupies itself worrying about satisfying the investors at the next shareholders' meeting.

Education—at all levels—must be improved in this country. The decline of public elementary and secondary education is well-documented and demands both increased governmental spending and fundamental changes in values. Similar reforms are necessary at the university level, as well. Improving education in America, however, can not be accomplished in short order. Sy Goodman:

The educational issue, long-term as it is, is still absolutely critical. The U.S. university community, in my opinion, is overly complacent about what it thinks it is, relative to the rest of the world.

Industry should investigate the possibility of government involvement, perhaps to the point of coordination. Summarily rejected by the U.S. government and industry, governmental coordination of Japanese industry by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry has been instrumental in Japan's postwar rise to its current position as a high-tech industrial superpower. Studies cited earlier show that all relevant elements of the public and private sectors are now agreed on those areas in which the U.S. must succeed if it is to remain a world-class competitor

nation. The U.S. must put aside adversarial relationships among government, industry, and workers.