No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

Democrats and a National Competitiveness Strategy

From The Emerging Democratic Majority weblog, Ruy Teixiera wrote:

Historically the Democrats have been the party of security, but that's an identity they need to reclaim. ….The challenge of a global labor market demands more of them than a commitment to mid-career retraining; defending the American middle class means creating the kind of global standards that the Democrats created on the national level during the 1930s and '40s, the time of their greatest popularity. That's a daunting challenge, one that requires the Democrats to think and develop a story about the new threats to the American dream.

Put this together with last night’s Charlie Rose panel discussion with the COO of Intel and the CEO’s of Cisco, Google and Yahoo who all agreed that the US is currently in competition with China and Europe, both of which have effective national competition strategies while the US has no strategy at all.

The four agreed that the US led the world in technology throughout the twentieth century, but now is an also-ran in the fielding of the single most significant technology infrastructure of the 21st Century, broadband connection. This is because there is no statement of national priorities. Broadband infrastructure can’t be left to the unguided private enterprise because without guidance, the companies can’t tell if a profit if possible, so they don’t do it.

The problem with this is that fielding broadband is expensive and slow, and until it is up and running, the follow-on economic development is stifled. That is why South Korea is so far ahead of the US in internet usage. They made going broadband a national priority, and did it. China and Europe are ahead of the US in this.

So a position for the Democrats would seem to be to push a national competitiveness plan or set of priorities.

Just a thought.