Author: Jock Gill

As Thom Friedman correctly points out, innovation powers “Change”. So if our candidates for president are serious about change, let’s ask them if they are willing to support an innovation agenda. How? And When?

A good place to start, if we are serious about change and about the energy efficiency of one of our foundational infrastructure components, would be our electrical infrastructure and its related markets. Will we, as a nation, be better off spending One Billion Dollars in the other Georgia, or would we be better off investing one billon dollars in Electranet innovation here at home? Which investment is most likely to restore our security and our leadership at home and abroad?

Just what does a billion dollar buy us in the other Gerogia? Oil? A forward base for an attack on Iran? An October surprise? A new Cold War? It is pretty clear that there is FAR more than a billion dollars needed to bring America’s infrastructure up to date. It is much less clear that, after 8 years of Bush’s failed leadership, that we have the billions to do it all. There are limits to our wealth and consequences for the choices we make in applying it. Will our candidates face up to these realities?

Will this election be a conversation about key policy issues, such as the best use of our remaining wealth and innovations that might rebuild it, or will we have an election of nothing more than distractions and resentments?