America’s Greatest Asset

According to Michele Wucker’s book Lockout, America’s greatest asset is its “…record of economic leadership but also — perhaps even more so — the sense of possibility that our national pride in individual freedom has created. American values of liberty, equality, and opportunity are not just nice ideals; they are an economic asset, part of the culture that has drawn the world’s best and brightest here and made America into the world’s center of innovation and progress.”

Wucker uses this as an argument to justify allowing into our country those immigrants we need the most, the high powered engineers and scientists. She does not admit the possibility that our needs might be met by capitalizing on the latent talent in our own citizens. She is willing to consider all manner of change in immigration laws but has no proposals for developing programs to assist American students in achieving their full potential. She would prefer to allow foreign scientists to work on sensitive pathogens and military systems as well as innovative developments of interest to the general public. Industrial and military espionage is unceasing. It would not be good public policy to make it easier to steal America’s secrets, the very secrets that fuel our economic leadership.