A bit of perspective on our place in the world, by the numbers

Energy Party consultant Samuel sent me this, which figures. Samuel is the guy who came up with the idea for the endowed chairs program, which bore impressive fruit yet again this week. He’s still the most enthusiastic cheerleader of that program, even after our governor replaced him on the panel that oversees it:

This video — really, sort of a powerpoint presentation, only on YouTube, is worth watching. There are some figures in it that I find suspect (I’m always that way with attempts to quantify the unknowable, which in this case applies to prediction about the future), but others that are essentially beyond reproach, and ought to make us think.

What they ought to make us think is this: So much of what we base the selection of our next president on — party affiliation, ideological purity, our respective preferences on various cultural attitudes — is wildly irrelevant to the challenges of the world in which this person will attempt to be the leader of the planet’s foremost nation. Foremost nation for now, that is. If we don’t start thinking a lot more pragmatically, it won’t be for long.

2 thoughts on “A bit of perspective on our place in the world, by the numbers

  1. Randy E

    There’s a 2.0 version of this out, which has simple but effective graphics. This was originally created by some high school educators in Colorado to initiate dialogue at the school regarding the need to prepare students for globalization.
    I showed it to my students and explained to them that they are now competing with people around the world for jobs. I cited some anectdotes from The World is Flat in which jobs can now be completed online.
    In fact, I recently had an interview for a position. It was conducted entirely online.

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