Yesterday, House Representative Sharice Davids held an interview with Rep Emanuel Cleaver. These are the two Reps for the majority of the Kansas City metropolitan area that spans the MO-KS state line. The topic was the rage over George Floyd’s death, the protests and police brutality; it was meant to offer hope and suggestions for action.
Fifteen minutes through, Rep Cleaver made a comment that surprised me. In the context of how the world has been reacting to our nationwide unrest, he said (paraphrasing): here we are the richest, most technologically advanced nation, and they pity us.
Are we though; the most technologically advanced country? As someone that has traveled to other westernized nations, that has not been my experience. I had to do some research. And yes, this is related — in fact has everything to do with inequality and inequity, and white privilege — in the United States.
It turns out, the answer has to do with how you define “technologically advanced.” Defined as how much of our GDP includes modern tech companies — like Google and Apple — then, yes, we’re at the top. But to me, this is hand-in-hand with saying that we are the richest country in the world: if total income is all that matters without taking into account the average and mean income, it hides what is really happening.
Let’s look at other definitions and where America stands:
— “National Tech’ Strength”: how much of a percentage of the population has smart technology, internet access and readiness to deploy innovation. U.S. Scores 5th.
— Global leadership in A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) innovation: U.S. scores 1st with China on our heals.
— As Most Technologically Innovative: we’re in 8th place. Here you start to see Asia coming in strong. South Korea leads the pack.
— As the most “High Tech” Countries of the world: this means who is able to “harness the power of information and communication technology” for our economy — the U.S. is in 2nd place behind Japan.
— And finally as the most advanced Infrastructure: We’re 13th.
It’s this last one that I had in mind when I sat incredulous to Cleaver’s statement that we’re “the most technologically advanced nation in the world.” For travelers that can experience other country’s infrastructure first hand, you can see with your own eyes, it’s just not true. Not all have that privilege, though, so it’s easy to dismiss it as a why-does-this-matter? topic. But it is everything when looking to our future and the viability of the United States in generations to come.
Our nation’s infrastructure is outdated, crumbling and absolutely antiquated in comparison to other advanced nations. It doesn’t matter that our nation is “winning” on a GDP level if the advances in A.I. and communications by Google and Apple, for example, are being used for the benefits of foreign citizens in other countries when compared to the USA.
The reason this offhand comment matters is that as America lags behind technological innovative infrastructure (not to mention basic infrastructure) Dems’ — just like the GOP — keep this myth of America’s exceptionalism and greatness alive at the detriment to our future and quality of life. It shows a lack of vision; and that is holding us way back from being the advanced, equitable society we could be given our nation’s total amount of wealth.
Imagine a country where dollars were spent on upgrading our infrastructure to being both durable and available to all citizens: high speed trains for public transportation; wired cities for universal internet access; energy efficient smart infrastructure. The list goes on.
And this is where Dems like Cleaver could start to say: we need to spend money domestically to upgrade all our cities and townships in the U.S. because to do so is to get closer to a more equitable society. And to advocate for that instead of just saying “we’re number one!” gives Dems a platform of getting people back to work, like FDR did with the Civilian Conservation Corps, upgrading our country to look more like South Korea instead of a backwater banana republic.
And having access to premium, affordable public transportation and technology infrastructure means a more equitable society for all citizens in America. More equity means more education, opportunity and power for African Americans and other people of color (and yes, poor whites). This — plus the absolute ambitious reform of our criminal justice system — would lead to a country that lives up to our ideals.
This perhaps was not the forum for Cleaver to go off on a tangent about technology. But I appeal to him, and other Congressional Dems’ to stop repeating the old trope of how supreme America is no matter what the context. We’re not. But we could be.
The Green New Deal addresses both climate change and unregulated capitalism’s failures by calling for equal pay and rights while it provides a road-map to becoming more sustainable as well. That would be a big step in the right direction — Cleaver et al could have a head start with this plan if they would just use it.
We have a chance right now to right the train onto a new set of tracks (literally and figuratively). Let’s stop pretending that all we need is a little bit of police reform, and start offering all citizens real opportunity in the form of an advanced society as well.
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
— Abraham Lincoln
Sunday, Jun 7, 2020 · 2:53:26 PM +00:00
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MaryAEnglish
Thank you all for the recommendations and thoughtful comments. Grateful that it was rescued too (never know who to thank for that).
I have more hope this morning than I have in years now that it appears that Americans are finally unifying against racism and authoritarianism. The work is just beginning; but perhaps progressive ideas now finally have a shot of changing the world as better — and just — laws can get written in the coming years. After November of course. Peace and fight the power.