For Americans to continue to enjoy the quality of life they have experienced in most recent decades, they will require access to quality jobs. Because technology in a sense has made the world "smaller," Americans no longer simply compete for quality jobs with their neighbors across town, they must now compete with their neighbors across the planet. Many of these new neighbors are highly motivated, increasingly well educated, and often willing to work for a fraction of the wages to which Americans have become accustomed. The only answer to this dilemma is to excel at innovation which depends on an educated workforce, new knowledge, and an innovation-friendly ecosphere. On all three counts America has been living off past investments. The trends of recent decades, if sustained, will lead to a jobless America. It is not too late to avoid perilous repercussions but it soon will be. Ironically, what needs to be done is relatively clear...the only question is whether Americans, and especially our leaders, have the will to do it.
A native of Colorado, Norman Augustine attended Princeton University where he graduated with a BSE in Aeronautical Engineering, magna cum laude, and an MSE. Among several career accomplishments, Augustine is a former Acting Secretary of the Army, president of Lockheed Martin, and Chairman and Principal Officer of the American Red Cross. Augustine has been a member of the Advisory Boards under the Departments of Homeland Security, Energy, Defense, Commerce, Transportation, and Health and Human Services, as well as NASA, Congress, and the White House. He served for 16 years on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
Augustine has been presented the National Medal of Technology by the President of the United States and received the Joint Chiefs of Staff Distinguished Public Service Award. He has five times received the Department of Defense's highest civilian decoration, the Distinguished Service Medal. He is co-author of The Defense Revolution and Shakespeare In Charge and author of Augustine's Laws and Augustine's Travels. He holds 30 honorary degrees and was selected by Who's Who in America and the Library of Congress as one of "Fifty Great Americans" on the occasion of Who's Who fiftieth anniversary.
Augustine has traveled in 112 countries and stood on both the North and South Poles of the earth. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Explorers Club.
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