Let's Focus on the Most Critical Issues

Scoble has a strong message for Democrats after a recent trip to DC. He asks his fellow democrat bloggers to blog about the issues at hand rather than our political opponents. His main issue he says is the loss of high tech jobs inside America - so much of it is going overseas.

The issues he outlines are reposted below - the entire blog post here for further reading:

1. Our education system. Today’s CEOs say they aren’t seeing the quality of graduates that they need to make the next big scientific and technological breakthroughs. After the cameras are off I keep hearing about the better graduates in places like Israel, China, and India. 2. Our taxation and infrastructure. When I went to Israel I interviewed Gil Shwed, CEO of CheckPoint. They have offices in California and Israel. You should listen to the video because he tells how it’s easier for him to get stuff done in Israel than in California. 2b. Our infrastructure is wacked. When we’re 19th in the world in broadband and way behind even China in the use of IPTV and other technologies that can be used to wire new R&D workers together, that tells me we’ve lost leadership and that it’ll take a concerted effort to get it back. 3. Our healthcare costs. CEOs are telling me they are drowning in the costs of our health care system and that’s pushing jobs overseas. Not just those manufacturing jobs, either (many of the people reading my blog are geeks and can’t relate to people who work on factory lines in places like Detroit, let’s just be honest) but the jobs going overseas are our R&D jobs that pay $150,000 a year. Lose rafts of those and you see entire economies changing. 4. Our immigration policies. It used to be that our best workers and best ideas came from people who moved here from somewhere else. But in today’s America we’re angry about immigrants who come to America to take our jobs. That anger, while justified, is causing us to close down our borders to even the smartest who come here for an education and then are forced to leave to go back home. Guess what, our globalization can’t be stopped, so every job that leaves our shores is $150,000 that will never come back (and probably more, because of the trickle down effects of our economy). 5. Our anti-science and anti-technology discourse and beliefs. In the Republican America today we are seeing a debate, not about whether science should drive our national debate, but whether religion should and, let’s just be honest, religion is winning. Stem cell research is being forced off our shores. That research will still be done, albeit now it’s done over in some other country. More $150,000 jobs down the drain. Plus, will we really invest in the right energy technologies? Who is best suited to decide those? A scientist? Or someone who lives close to an energy pipeline? We need to do better and aspire to be smarter. 6. An anti-technology and anti-science stance by those who fear government. When I wrote about America getting a CTO, I was amazed at some of the pushback I got in comments. Driven by fear. An inefficient government is a good thing, quite a few said. After getting out of the Holocaust Museum today, I understand where that fear comes from, but it’s misplaced and misguided because that fear will cause policies that cause us to lose more and more of our $150,000 a year jobs.