Free Economics: America Needs To Take Aggressive Action Towards Supporting Scientific And Techonological Achievement (Biomedical Engineering) Term Paper Example

Abstract

The argumentative discussion involves the justification of America’s need to take an aggressive action towards supporting scientific and technological achievement particularly in the field of biomedical engineering. Being the center of the world superpower, the United States has always been an example of a progressive nation that leads the field of innovation. However, the developments particularly in biomedical engineering is in a slow pace, which is a result of the lack of initiative to leverage on knowledge-based workers and industries in order to secure long-term economic sustainability.

America needs to take Aggressive Action Towards Supporting Scientific and Technological Achievement (Biomedical Engineering)

Introduction
Science and technological breakthroughs have changed the world over and for the past century, the United States is among the countries in the world that led that the technological revolution in several disciplines. However, the as the country into a greater scale of involvement in world affairs, its developmental focus has shifted leaving behind a slow pace of progress in knowledge based economy. The discussion highlights the argumentative position on the subject of supporting the knowledge-based economy in the United States with greater emphasis given to the need for more scientific and technological global leadership particularly in the field of biomedical engineering. Several debates tackle the importance of solving issues with American economy given the complexity and the singular approach given by government towards reinvestment in technology and education. Consequently, the argument that encompasses the reason for setting aside scientific developments in biomedical engineering involves philosophical and ethical dilemmas. Despite the myriad of concerns about the consequences of tinkering with the natural state of human biology, it is more important to realize that biomedical engineering is a leverage that the American society can use to facilitate social and economic progress.

Falling Behind the Paradigm Shift

The fun and interesting part about the United States of America and the economic and political situation is writing about its failures. It is certain that several would agree that the United States is falling behind in many ways and its society will not be able to compete, especially if they fail to change their paradigm or way of thinking. The United States society is somewhat stuck in the old notion brought by its former statute as a world leader in all aspects of economic, technology, military, and industry innovation. However, the country had faced several challenges that created paradigm shift in several aspects of its world dominance. The country’s education system, which 60 years ago was the best in the world. After six decades, several other countries surpassed America’s quality of education system. Although the United States is still considered as a world superpower, its social and economic situation is hanging by a thread. With the recent economic and financial crisis, threats of terrorism, and political conflicts, the country’s developmental priorities have shifted away from the knowledge-based economy.
However, others may argue that America is still a world leader in scientific breakthroughs particularly on the field of biomedical engineering where new innovations in stem cells cultivation was recently introduced such as regrow, reactivate, reproduce, duplicate, and even synthesize tissues from cellular levels. Therefore, there has not been a shift in the way of American thinking, and its society of knowledge workers in the field of biomedical engineering are not falling behind the global competition. This may true as observed in the news and other science literatures. However, other countries where mechanical and biological components were made to function together are carrying the same innovation in biomedical engineering forward. This means that the United States is leveraging on biomedical engineering technology that are also being developed in other countries. Furthermore, having the same innovation with other countries does not indicate breakthroughs or any leadership in the field of biomedical technological development thereof. A legitimate innovation in biomedical engineering is the one that were spearheaded by the Americans with more advanced elements than the rest of the countries worldwide.

America and its economy will not be same way again

It is apparent that America will never again create the economy of its past. There are so many reasons why it will not be able to regain its former economic glory. For one, the Federal government had not put enough consideration to funding the scientific community particularly in biomedical engineering as perceived in the U.S. annual budget, which only has 18% left on its budget to be shared by the rest of federal agencies down from the national to the local levels for development. The lack institutional budgeting to foster the continuous development in various fields of engineering sciences entails limitations in opportunities that could bring forth economic progress. For example, the American economy rely on its financial, banking, manufacturing, military, and consumer-based industries to sustain a strong position of the American dollar in the global financial market. However, the country has .
2008 was the last financial crisis that devastated the United States and its implications had spread globally. Seven years later, the country is still in the recovery phase and its economic condition is still far from how it was ten years ago. This is because the factors that contribute to the economic failure were not totally addressed. Economic problem alone takes too much of the government’s attentions, which results to the undermining of the potentials of the knowledge economy. Others may argue that the United States has already reach stability and that the need to change focus of economic intervention is not necessary. It may by true at some extent, as the country is still among the strong contenders in the top global economy. However, the United Sates is no longer in command of the global economic trend. Several other countries such as Japan and China have replaced U.S.A in the top spots because the aforementioned countries are putting emphasis on the economic contribution of its major knowledge-based industries.
Ultimately, the only way for America to compete is to gather resources and use its remaining powers to educate, and develop a "knowledge worker economy". The fast-paced era of technology and innovation encompasses the 21st century competitive environment for global economies. In this era, knowledge evolves in a faster rate and the lack of attention to knowledge development will leave the country behind the global competition. Education is arguably the most vital component in sustaining economic competitiveness. As such, the United States should focus on creating employment opportunities characterized by an increase in demand for highly skilled workers. Currently, there are only 15,000 job opportunities available for biomedical engineering in the country, which is insufficient to support the demand for the said field of expertise. Apparently, the number of qualified professionals in the field is also insufficient for the demand. As a result, the country relies on importing biomedical engineers offshore.
Others may argue that the utilization of offshore experts in the field of biomedical engineering is already enough to sustain the demand for knowledge-based economic development in the country. However, it is important to consider that homegrown talents are still the best option in cultivating the knowledge economy. For example, the influx of foreign experts from other countries creates a competition between the local talents and given the limitations in available opportunities, the local talents are losing grounds over the foreign talents. The knowledge-based economy cannot be sustained by outsourcing offshore talents because the dollars they earned are often coursed through their country of origin where the dollar is worth more than their local currency. Hence, the U.S. economy is losing dollars paid to outsourced talents because its value was not utilized within U.S. markets.
If the Federal Government only realizes the implications of outsourcing knowledge workers offshore is taking away the opportunities intended for the local knowledge workforce, it would have taken the necessary steps to cultivate its local workforce by enhancing the competitiveness of the local talents through education. It begins with providing support towards the science system, which is essentially consists of institutes of higher education, laboratories and public research. The science system primarily carries out the key functions in sustaining the knowledge-based economy including cultivation and production of knowledge, transfer, and utilization of knowledge for industry application.

The fear of displacement

Supporting the development of knowledge-based economy creates the fear of displacement, which exacerbates the problem where millions will continue to lose their jobs- especially as computers and robotics continue to eliminate the need for human intervention. There is an emerging stigma of displacement in the American workforce where technology is taking over the key functions for human productivity. Such argument contradicts the needed act to support the future growth of the knowledge-based economy. Although there is an aspect of ethical disposition in terms of alterations that biomedical engineering can do to the natural composition of nature, what’s more important is the initiative to find solutions that will aid human survival. For example, the biomedical engineering is looking into the possibilities of cultivating living tissues to replace damaged human body parts. Another example is the ethical dilemma encompassed by the possibilities of human cloning as observed in the recent developments in the application of cloning among animals. Such innovation in biomedical technology is often viewed as a threat to human existence, which one-day could drastically affect the human society in addition to the possibilities of replacing humans by such technology.
In contrast to such belief, it can be argued that the misconceptions were brought by the lack of understanding of the science itself. Naturally, humans would resist unfamiliar circumstances particularly on subjects that they do not have apparent understanding thereof. However, the misconceptions and fears beforehand is a result of the lack of educated knowledge about science, thus creating resistance to the advancement of the biomedical science. In the case of artificial intelligence taking over the human world is a miscalculated judgment on the basis of the observed changes in the way the humans utilize technology for productivity. In the United States, several technologies were integrated into several industries to increase productivity efficiency. However, it does not translate to the possibilities of job elimination, instead of holding on to the jobs that were replaced by technology, the America society should look into the possibilities creating new opportunities in the knowledge sector to contribute to the development of new opportunities leveraged from emerging technologies.

Finding the most relevant contribution to progress

The main challenges for developed countries are extremely different from that of non-developed. It is apparent that with a rapidly expanding global economy countries absolutely must try to find authentic value in the ability to contribute. Arguments encompassing the issues of economic stagnancy can be attributed to the lack of initiative to enhance the knowledge workers’ capacity. Contributing to the progress of the nation involves capacity enhancement of the productive sectors of the society particularly the knowledge workers. Establishing the value of the contribution to progress encompasses need to alleviate the barriers to change and innovation, which most of the time is the lack of initiative for progress. As such, giving value to the contributions of the knowledge workers particularly in the biomedical engineering sector must include proper allocation of resources for research and development.
Having enough resources to support future developments in the field of biomedical technology can be considered as leverage for future gains. For example, if the current healthcare system does cover the cost of transplants or if the cost is too expensive for 100% coverage, the continuous development in the biomedical sector would be able to alleviate the cost of similar medical procedures. This is because the capacity of the biomedical engineers to create cost-effective methods of cultivating tissues and the ability to produce quantities that is enough to meet the demand translates to the lowering of the cost of transplant operations, which at the same time will enable health insurance companies to integrate the procedure for 100% coverage across all healthcare plans.

A different way of thinking

In terms of contemplating on such complex question about the world and its direction what was found valuable is how thinking differently about a problem leads to a leap forward or and evolution in society. Thinking differently is a matter of perspective, looking plain and straight at a situation will only reveal the surface of the matter. However, the possibilities are often realized when one aspect of the subject showed potential for change. For example, the discussion about building a knowledge-based economy by leveraging on scientific and technological achievements encompasses a broad spectrum of scientific probabilities. On the other hand, biomedical engineering is a component of the scientific field, which was often overlooked for its potential to contribute to economy. When talking about thinking out of the box, it means that taking aggressive action towards its continuous development can draw the potential for knowledge-based economy. Knowledge, technology and Science have always been one of, if not the most powerful tool for progress and change. It has lead to an increase in quality of life, and provided powerful advantages to those that wield it.
Others may argue that altering the natural conditions of nature, the animals, most particularly humans encompasses issues of ethical proportion. For one conservative individual attach religious significance to the human body as it is sacred and should not be subjected to alterations for the sake of science. However, it can be argued that altering the genomes, cell structure, DNA, and all the molecular levels of biomedical engineering was performed in order to find the key to humans’ survival. The key to life and the way to prolong the survival of the human species are encoded on the smallest component of the human body. The scientific discoveries in the field of biomedical engineering was aimed to create a more sustainable environment for the human race and be able to fight the elements that constitutes mortality.

Conclusion

The United States is considered a global model of economy and technological advancement. In order for the country to secure its economic future, Americans need to take drastic actions towards supporting the scientific and technological achievement most particularly in the biomedical engineering. This is because biomedical engineering is a leverage that the American society can use to facilitate social and economic progress.

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