The U.S. Technology Skills Gap: What Every Technology Executive Must Know to Save America's Future, + Website

CHAPTER 12

The Consequences of the Skills Gap Become Apparent

The future warns us through current symptoms.

—AUTHOR TOBA BETA1

2010: Rising above the Gathering Storm Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5

In the face of so many other daunting near-term challenges, U.S. government and industry are letting the crucial strategic issues of U.S. competitiveness slip below the surface.

—NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, RISING ABOVE THE GATHERING STORM REVISITED2

Rising above the Gathering Storm Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5 was the second report issued by the National Academy of Sciences, a 2010 follow-up to the first report, Rising above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, released five years earlier. A comparison of the titles of the two reports tells a story: rather than “rising above” the storm in 2005, five years later America was on a path to fly directly into a category-five hurricane, the most dangerous hurricane ranking.

How Does This Scenario of America’s Future Suit You?

Rising above the Gathering Storm Revisited offered a dire long-term view of America’s problem, claiming, “It is widely agreed that addressing America’s competitiveness challenge is an undertaking that will require many years, if not decades, to solve.”

It described what had occurred since 2005 when it released its first warning, Rising above the Gathering Storm:

Our nation’s outlook has worsened, our overall public school system has shown little ...