USA’s Problem Is It Has Become Complacent, Scared of Change, & Entitled

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We’ve had a few great articles published recently about Ford & GM’s struggles, Jack Welch’s leadership failings (part of that previous article, too), and how China has taken the mantle from us on batteries and clean energy. Reading through the comments of that first article (especially two of those comments), combined with countless articles on how the cleantech transition is happening in the US versus China and also combined with the political situation in the US for the past several decades, the idea for this article came to mind.

The story of the United States is one of a young, innovative country. Built by adventurous immigrants* who wanted to create a new kind of society, a democracy, the country was fearless, innovative, and led the world. We inspired others to implement democracy. We industrialized rapidly. We invented countless technologies, including the internet and smartphones later in our evolution. We led in the new entertainment industry of movies, TV, and globalized music. We were the global superpower of the 20th century in multiple regards.

However, as we’ve aged, we’ve gotten less willing to change, less willing to break down old powerful industries and replace them with new ones, and less willing to disrupt the super rich people and corporations that run society in order to lead the way into the future. We cling to the past, and some people even openly want to go back to the past again. I understand nostalgia, and I am drawn to the “simpler” life of the past in some clear ways, but as a society, we need to be focused on innovating and opening doors, not blocking entries, putting locks on the handles, and throwing the keys in the river.

How does this all relate to cleantech? The issue is that, although we have stimulated and kickstarted the solar energy industry and electric vehicle industry in some ways, as we’ve globally gotten to the stage of scaling those up, a fossilized conservative culture of blocking change has dramatically limited our efforts and leadership in these industries. All the money and influence within fossil fuel industries essentially bought one of the country’s two core political parties. Oil, gas, and coal cling onto all the wealth and power they can by buying votes (almost entirely in the Republican Party) and blocking significant progress.

As Jennifer and Michael have explained, the extremely short-term thinking of the Jack Welch era of business management has led to Ford and GM being focused quarter to quarter and not having the vision needed to keep up with Chinese and European automakers on EVs, let alone lead on them. Again, the degree to which oil barons have blocked political progress has made it all the easier for the Detroit automakers to cling to the past, or all the harder for them to lead. Even in the case of Tesla, there seems to be a complacency creeping in, an idea that “we led the way, so we’re always the leaders” rather than a concerted effort to keep innovating quicker than everyone else and leading. Many have accused Tesla of sticking with stale vehicle designs and technology, and it’s hard to argue against that — particularly when you watch the rapid rollout of new electric models and more and more advanced technology over in China.

Policy wise, instead of saying “we have to be #1,” we have a constant pull on our coattails and efforts to maintain the status quo, to not disrupt what we’ve been doing for 100 years, to not use the powers of government to think about the future and ensure the most innovative, forward-thinking companies sprout and grow within our borders. China has a plan. It is pushing out old technology rapidly (with big, scary ICE vehicle bans and limited license plate registrations for them) in order to make sure it has the top automakers of the 2030s and 2040s. It is not concerned about protecting old, stale, entitled, fat and rich industries, companies, or people who don’t want China to change, who don’t want a new era of technology to replace a worse one.

Some people hype of the “free market” and claim that unfettered capitalism is the only way to succeed. But they somehow miss two big points. One is that externalities are a disease for free-market capitalism, and if you don’t deal with externalities, your economy and society are going to be dragged down and dragged backward by them. This is a basic of a pure capitalist theory — you have to deal with externalities. People who claim government should have no involvement in the economy conveniently ignore that government is critical for weeding out inefficient externalities.

The second point is that everyone will get to the future, but if you want to get to the future faster than your competitors, you’ve got to step on the accelerator. If you can see where things are headed, you can just go with the flow and get there later than others, but then you are going to be paying rent to the societies that got there faster. If you can see where things are headed and want to be the ones who get there first and build the future, you’ve got to incentive or even require that the economic engines of your society speed up and innovate faster, rather than clinging to quarterly profits and the technologies people want today because that’s what they had 10 or 20 years ago.

US society was once the country of immigrants. Now we are the country of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation immigrants who want to shut the doors and lock people out. US society was once the society of big dreams and long-term projects, like going to the moon and building out the power plants of the future. Now we are the country of “let’s not change, and let’s even go back to the past again.” Without vision, how can one lead? With an obsession with staying put and not challenging ourselves with new adventures, how can we open up new economic eras?

Many in the US — people and corporations — think we will remain #1 because we’ve “always been” #1 and we’ve been sitting at the top of the economic food chain for so long. They feel entitled while being complacent and not wanting to change. It’s a recipe for disaster and downfall, not the continuation of the American Dream. We are drowning the American Dream in a bathtub, just as we claim we are doing the opposite by shackling government vision and innovation. We are trodding on the people who make great things happen, by focusing on quarterly profits and hype rather than community building and broader economic success.

I think the solution is to support leaders who think big and want to take us into the future. I think the solution is to keep supporting the innovators and leaders, rather than those who become too rich, arrogant, and entitled. Support the hungry, not the ones wanting to keep others from eating. That’s the only way forward, especially in the US, where we rely on each other in order to move forward.

*Who stole the land from Native Americans, of course. We didn’t simply build the country on empty land.

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