Michael Lemonick's Are We Losing Our Edge Essay

Michael Lemonick's Are We Losing Our Edge - Essay Example Thus, through such competition, any country that has even a little bit of ambition and grit is being able to establish itself within the rest of the world as a global superpower in terms of its trade and economy. As per the words of Shirley Ann Jackson, America is thus facing what is called, a ‘Quiet Crisis.’ (Lemonick, Michael D.) Various kinds of aspects have together helped to stem the kind of growth that American was having in the last few decades, and compared to the current levels of growth, how the same has slowed down due to processes within the government framework and structure. For example, the author writes that during the period of George W Bush, a large amount of hostility was shown towards various topics under science, which were not given ample grants or potential for research and testing. This has further led to the growth of the meltdown that the country is facing on a global scale today. (Msurjapu) The inadequacies of growth going in America have been further highlighted by the kind of slow down that has been brought about in the corporate sector as well. These industries are not being given enough government support unlike other companies around the world in other countries are receiving; furthermore, they are cutting back on their investments and production for fear of going into losses and not being able to cover their initial and variable costs. According to personal opinion, the reign under Barack Obama has done far better in trying to perfect this global meltdown that America has been going through since the time of Bush. During his time, not much emphasis was given to various sectors that were at that time waiting to explode into fully potential fields of growth and development. Since areas like nanotechnology, supercomputing and alternative energy were not given as much importance in America at the time, other countries like India and Japan were trying their best to exploit these areas and emerge as victorious superpowers in the same. The final result was that these other countries had been successful in their operations and left America a step behind in terms of such development in the fields of science and technology. By the time it was time for Bush to step down and Obama to take control and fix these factors, other countries around the world had established their own levels of competition in the global market with respect to these full of potential growth aspects of life. That is why, America has been said to be losing out on its edge; the same edge that it held over the global market earlier, due to such intolerance towards research in newer fields. This has been taken up by other nations around the world now, leading to American being put into the competition at the same level, and not a cut above the rest; a position that the country used to maintain in the past. Lemonick has made use of a number of rhetorical strategies to write his article. These are strategies used in order to make the wri ting more powerful and persuasive for the reader, and help him understand a person’s point of view better. However, each piece and kind of writing requires a different kind of strategy to be used, and not all of them can be used within the same article. Lemonick has made excellent use of exemplification within his article. This includes providing facts and