Dean's Speech at Nationals

[phrontist]

Originally Posted by byrne159

As much as I love FIRST, I found that Dean Kamen's speech during the closing ceremonies at nationals was less than good. My complaints are not so surface-level as length or monotony, but rather the content of his words. I found it extremely insensitive because it seemed to me that he displayed a lack of respect for all people who are not engineers in his message about humanitarianism and technology. He trivialized the loss of approximately 1.9 million jobs due to "outsourcing" (since I don't want anyone to think I'm making this up, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...ing-usat_x.htm) and he took a nationalistic stance on technology in the United States, which didn't strike me as very gracious or professional towards our international teams. So, I was wondering what anyone else got out of the speech, assuming that you didn't sleep through it.

I disagree, I think he was spot on about outsourcing. He backed it up with historical facts, so I really don't see what there is to complain about. Do you have a rebuttal?

Nationlism has a negative connotation. Nationalism is not a vice per se, Nationalism without justification is. The fact stands that America has lead the world technologically for the majority of its history. This may change soon.

While it may not be politically correct to say so, the American people do not have a magical right to anything. This goes for oil, jobs, etc. When people forget this, we get in long/wasteful wars.

If I lose my job because someone is willing to do it for less, how can I possibly blame this on the person who now has my job? I didn't produce at a price that was economically feasible. These are simply the harsh facts of free-market economies. I personally think the invisible hand does the job quite well, but if you think we should regulate it, by all means mail your congress-person.

I'd be happy to hear why Mr.Kamen was wrong, if you're willing to explain it to me.

Oh, and no hard feelings mate, it's only politics! Not something important like Operating Sytems or Text editors!