Food for thought

[original post here] This last week, I had the class write opinion papers about convergence of technologies and how the fact that the U.S. was actually behind technologically in many respects (particularly, in this case, e-commerce convergence).  I got a lot of really interesting thoughts.  The focus that I was particularly looking for - whether it was cultural compulsion or big business or even government that was preventing us from moving forward – was examined from as many angles as there were papers.

In reading one of my regular daily reads (GreenDaily), there was an interesting post made about the underachievement by the auto industry to generate interest in more fuel efficient cars that I feel, oddly enough, summarizes one of the biggest reasons for the techno-deficiency of this country:

Responding to lobby efforts to thwart a bill in Congress to increase light truck mileage minimums to 35mpg by 2020: Could it be that Americans would be more enthusiastic about domestic cars if they actually offered an advantage over their foreign competitors? — i.e. better fuel economy. 35mpg for cars and light trucks does not sound like a very lofty achievement for our auto industry, even by today’s standards. In their letter to congress, the autoworkers group states that we already have the technology now to meet an average of 37mpg (not that I necessarily trust their info). As far as I’m concerned, In 2020, getting 35 miles a gallon should be laughable. If our auto industry can’t meet this kind of goal, it’s in worse shape than we thought.

What are your thoughts?  If you’re interested, here’s the article on Green Daily.