Aye, Invent, they say. I have two major problems with this article. First, there are a lot of smart people out there in the U.S. that are choosing not to live in the 30,000 foot, 3 hour teleconference, Microsoft Powerpoint world, because it yields no possible value other than a salary and 2 weeks of vacation. And, by the way, just because you graduate from an American High School doesn’t mean you can read and write. I believe America actually does have smarts but Craig Barret and Friedman would have no idea where to find those people, they operate in a different world than the rest of us. It’s much cheaper to look for basic competence in India, than smart people in the US.

Second, why would anyone “invent” anything in the US when they couldn’t possibly profit from the invention unless it was somehow valuable to Google or Microsoft? Inventing made sense when you could bring an idea straight to market with hard work and talent. That, I would argue is simply no longer possible. The best inventions today, Twitter for example, bleed money until and if, the are acquired. Just how does Twitter keep it’s servers running? No, if you’re a smart American, it’s best to keep your ideas to yourself so that they don’t generate any more wealth for the corporate oligarchy. Fix that one Friedman!