Broadband Performance: We’re Number 9

Some 8.5 million locations in the US that lack access to broadband connections. Looking at their balance sheets, broadband companies like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and Charter Communications are reluctant to provide access to rural communities, with small populations, and the need for large investments to provide service to them. The lack of such service became particularly evident during the COVID pandemic.

In June 2023, the White House announced that $42 billion would be divided up among the states and US territories, making high-speed Internet access available universally by 2030. The funds—the largest ever spent on the Internet in the US—came out of the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, deemed the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program. Nineteen states received allocations of over $1 billion, with these states receiving the most funds: Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

Along with the issue of access is that of broadband speed. In the most recent analysis, the United States ranked 9th in Megabits/second speed. Romania, Switzerland, Denmark, Thailand, and Chile led the list of having the fastest broad band speed.

Sources: Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw, “US to Spend $42 Billion to Make Internet Access Universal by 2030,” Reuters, June 26, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-detail-plans-42-billion-investment-us-internet-access-2023-06-26/. “Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $40 Billion to Connect Everyone in America to Affordable, Reliable, High-Speed Internet,” White House, June 26, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/26/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-over-40-billion-to-connect-everyone-in-america-to-affordable-reliable-high-speed-internet/. Internet Speeds by Country, 2023,” World Population Review, n.d., https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/internet-speeds-by-country.

Semiconductor Manufacturing: We’re Number 5

In 1990, some 37 percent of advanced semiconductor chips were manufactured in the United States; by 2020, the percentage had fallen dramatically to just 12 percent. Not only had production fallen, but the US lacked the capability to produce the most advanced chips in volume. Foreign competitors, particularly China, have invested heavily in this vital industry, fueled by government subsidies.

ASML in the Netherlands is the only manufacturer in the world making microchips that are essential to produce semiconductors. These microchips contain billions of transistors, making the chips faster, more powerful, and more energy efficient. ASML (for Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) employs EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography to create the tiny circuitry found in computer chips, and its most recent tool, a High NA EUV, the size of a double-decker bus and costing $350 million, will help develop a new generation of even smaller and faster chips. The giant chip makers, TSMC in Taiwan, Samsung in South Korea, and Intel in the United States, rely on the ASML technology and products. Everything from smart technology found in automobiles and mobile phones, to augmented reality, and artificial intelligence rely on EUV technology. In 2024, an Intel facility near Hillsboro, Oregon, using High NA EUV technology, was under production and a major TSMC plant in Arizona was near completion.

One estimate finds that within the next decade, there will be a 53 percent increase in the demand for such semiconductor chips. For many policymakers in the US, these daunting facts showed how imperative it was to enact legislation boosting the US semiconductor industry.

In July 2022, through a rare bipartisan vote, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, designed to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research and development, and tax credits for chip manufacturing. To protect domestic competitiveness in this field, the CHIPS Act provided safeguards to ensure that those companies receiving federal funds could not build advanced semiconductor production facilities in countries that present national security concerns. As the Biden White House noted, “America invented the semiconductor, but today produces about 10 percent of the world’s supply—and none of the most advanced chips. Instead, we rely on East Asia for 75 percent of global production. The CHIPS and Science Act will unlock hundreds of billions more in private sector semiconductor investment across the country, including production essential to national defense and critical sectors.”

As Reuters noted, “The CHIPS Act will have a broad impact, bolstering US leadership in wireless technology, and CHIPS funding will benefit not only US chip manufacturers, but also U.S. universities, K-12 STEM educational programs, and regional hubs among other advancements in innovation.”

Sources: “The ‘NA’ in the name refers to numerical aperture – a measure of the ability of an optical system to collect and focus light. And it’s called High NA EUV because we’ve increased the NA from 0.33 in our NXE systems to 0.55 in EXE systems. The higher NA is what gives the systems their better resolution.” In Christine Middleton, “Five Things You Should Know About High NA EUV Lithography,” ASML, January 24, 2024, https://www.asml.com/en/news/stories/2024/5-things-high-na-euv; “EUV Lithography Systems,” ASML, n.d., https://www.asml.com/en/products/euv-lithography-systems. “Semiconductor Manufacturing by Country,” World Population Review, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/semiconductor-manufacturing-by-country. “CHIPS and Science Act Will Lower Costs, Create Jobs, Strengthen Supply Chains, and Counter China,” The White House, August 9, 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/09/fact-sheet-chips-and-science-act-will-lower-costs-create-jobs-strengthen-supply-chains-and-counter-china/. CHIPS is an acronym for “Creating Healthy Incentives to Produce Semiconductors.” Michelle Schulz, “Passage of the CHIPS and Science Act: What does This Mean for US Export Controls? Reuters, September 7, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/passage-chips-science-act-what-does-this-mean-us-export-controls-2022-09-07/.

Global Innovation: We’re Number 3

The Global Innovation Index, co-founded in 2007 by Soumitra Dutta, dean of the Säid Business School at Oxford University, uses eighty indicators to track global innovation in over 130 economies. Dutta noted that “We are witnessing exponential progress in digital technologies and many fields of deep science. This is providing a boost to innovation across sectors and holds the hope of providing solutions to some of our world’s complex problems in climate, food, health and related challenges.” For the thirteenth year in a row, Switzerland was ranked as the most innovative of all the 130-plus economies surveyed; Sweden was ranked 2nd. The United States was ranked number 2 in 2022 but slipped to number 3 in 2023.

Sources: Global Innovation Index 2023: Switzerland, Sweden and the US Lead the Global Innovation Ranking,” Säid School of Business, Oxford University, September 27, 2023, https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/news/global-innovation-index-2023-switzerland-sweden-and-us-lead-global-innovation-ranking; Global Innovation Index Database, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 2023, https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo-pub-2000-2023-section1-en-gii-2023-at-a-glance-global-innovation-index-2023.pdf.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the largest technology trade association in North America, since 2018 has published a worldwide ranking of innovation. In its 2023 report, focused on 17 categories, encompassing 40 separate indicators. In these evaluations, the United States exhibited a decided leadership role. Looking at several categories, the US ranked number one in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, drones and advanced air mobility, and telehealth and telemedicine.

Source: “2023 CTA International Innovation Scorecard,” Consumer Technology Association, January 2023, https://cdn.cta.tech/cta/media/media/advocacy/scorecard/2023-cta-international-innovation-scorecard.pdf. Also earning plaudits from the CTA were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the European Union

Spending on Research and Development: We’re Number 4

President Dwight Eisenhower was a firm believer in Research and Development (R&D) investments and knew that private industry could not bear the burden of such expenditures by itself. R&D basically covers three types of activity: basic research, applied research, and experimental development. Simply put, R&D has been described as the “generation of new knowledge.” It was up to the federal government and Republican Eisenhower to push for more federal expenditures. As journalist David Leonhardt observed, the “Eisenhower investment boom has no peer in US history, at least outside a major war.” He was able to be both a “fiscal conservative and a president who nearly tripled R&D spending” between the early 1950s and the early 1960s.

In 1964, the US government provided about two-thirds of all domestic R&D funds; by the 2020s, that federal contribution had slipped dramatically, with just 21 percent of R&D funds. Nearly all the remaining R&D funds were provided by private business. In 2021, federal R&D funds account for less than 1 percent of GDP.

As a percentage of GDP, the United States ranks fourth in the world, after Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan in investing money in Research & Development.

Note: The OECD defines gross domestic spending on R&D as “the total expenditure (current and capital) on R&D carried out by all resident companies, research institutes, university and government laboratories, etc., in a country. . .This indicator is measured in USD constant prices using 2015 base year and Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) and as percentage of GDP.”

Sources: “Gross Domestic Spending on R&D,” OECD, https://data.oecd.org/rd/gross-domestic-spending-on-r-d.htm (accessed October 30, 2023). Stephen James, “What is R&D? Its Role in Business and How It Relates to R&D Tax Credits,” ForrestBrown, October 13, 2009, https://forrestbrown.co.uk/news/what-is-r-and-d/; David Leonhardt, “Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America,” New York Times, October 17, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/magazine/us-public-investment.html (accessed October 30, 2023). See, also, John Walsh, “The Eisenhower Era: Transition Years for Science,” Science 164 (3875) (April 4, 1969): 50-53, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1726957; Gary Anderson and Francisco Moris, “Federally-Funded R&D Declines as a Share of GDP and Total R&D,” National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, NSF 23-339, National Science Foundation, June 13, 2023, https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23339#:~:text=The%20ratio%20of%20U.S.%20research,funding%20sources%20for%20domestic%20R%26D.

Percentage of Electricity from Nuclear Power: We’re Number 6

The first US commercial nuclear power plant went online in 1957 and most of the subsequent plants were built in the 1970s through the 1990s. At its peak in 2012, there were 104 nuclear reactors in the United States; many of them were built decades earlier and were approaching the end of their useful life. Since 2012, about twenty reactors have been decommissioned and only two new reactors, Vogtle Unit 3 and Unit 4 in Georgia, have gone online. In 2021, there were a total of 93 nuclear power plants, generating nearly 20 percent of America’s electricity.

In 2011, following the nuclear power disaster in Fukushima, Japan, the German government determined that it would close its nuclear facilities. Eight of seventeen units were closed in 2011, and in 2021, six units were still operating. Then by 2023, all such units were shut down, despite protests that the Russian invasion of Ukraine might put Germany’s energy supplies at further risk.

One of the major, unresolved issues for commercial nuclear power plants is the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (1982) had authorized the Department of energy to determine a geologic repository for a permanent disposal; after much political wrangling, the remote and geologically inert site of Yucca Mountain in Nevada was chosen as the permanent disposal site for the entire commercial nuclear industry. This did not sit well with Nevadans, many of whom called the legislation the “Screw Nevada” bill. About $7 billion had been collected from energy companies for nuclear waste depository fund, and most of that had been spent preparing the Yucca Mountain site. But when President Obama took office in 2009, powerful Senate majority leader Harry Reid from Nevada convinced the administration to abandon the Yucca Mountain plan. Congress has not come up with a plan for a permanent storage site since. Meanwhile, some 72,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, and growing every day, was stored at 80 sites scattered about in thirty-four states.

The United States is not alone in failing to solve the spent fuel problem. “No country, including the United States, has a permanent geologic repository for disposal” of spent nuclear fuel, according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service analysis.

The United States generates 771 TWh of electricity through its 93 nuclear power plants; this accounts for 19.6 percent of all electricity generated throughout the country. China is second with 383 TWh from 55 nuclear power plants, accounting for 5.0 percent of its electricity. France is third with 363 TWh from 56 nuclear plants; but France comes in first place for the percentage of its country’s electricity (69.0) coming from nuclear energy.

Sources: Lance N. Larson, “Nuclear Waste Storage Sites in the United States,” Congressional Research Service, US Congress, April 13, 2020, https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/IF11201.pdf.

World Nuclear Association, https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/nuclear-power-in-the-world-today.aspx

Energy from Solar Power, New Capacity: We’re Number 2

According to the US Energy Information Agency, just over half of the new US energy capacity generated in 2023 will come from solar power. This will be the most solar capacity added in a single year in the US and the first time that more than half of the US capacity additions are coming from solar. Through the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the EPA launched a $7 billion grant competition for solar energy, targeted for millions of low-income households, a program championed by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.

In 2022, the United States had 204 total Terra-Watt hours (TWh) of solar production; in 2005, that figure was just 0.55 Terra-Watts. (A Terra-Watt hour is enough electricity to fully power 70,000 homes for a year). China is the leader in solar production, with 420 TWh; in 2005 it had just 0.08 TWh. India is the third top generator with 95 TWh, followed by Germany (59), Australia (33.5) and Spain 32.8)

Sources: Wind, Solar, and Batteries Increasingly Account for More New US Power Capacity Additions,” Today in Energy, USEIA, March 6, 2023, https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=55719#:~:text=As%20of%20January%202023%2C%2073.5,in%202023%20is%20solar%20power. “EPA Launches $7 Billion Competition to Bring Low-Cost Solar Energy to More Hard-Working American Families, The White House, June 28, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/cleanenergy/clean-energy-updates/2023/06/28/epa-launches-7-billion-competition-to-bring-low-cost-solar-energy-to-more-hard-working-american-families/; Our World in Data, https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/solar-energy-consumption?tab=chart&country=IND~CHN~AUS~USA~ZAF~ESP~OWID_WRL~DEU~GBR~BRA~FRA~CAN

Average Individual Wealth: We’re Number 2

The United States is indeed a very wealthy country and, among OECD countries, ranks second in average individual wealth just behind Switzerland. In 2021, Switzerland had an average individual wealth of $696,604; the United States had $579,051. Australia ($550,110) was third, New Zealand ($472,153) was fourth, and Denmark ($426,494) was fifth.

Source: James Davies, Rodrigo Lluberas, and Anthony Shorrocks, “Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook, 2022, Credit Suisse, https://www.credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/global-wealth-report.html

Spending on Public Primary and Secondary Education: We’re Number 4 and We’re Number 5

The United States spends a considerable amount of money on public primary and secondary education, both in terms of per student expenditures and percentage of GDP. In terms of public spending on education, per student in both primary and secondary schools, the United States ranks 4th among selected OECD countries. The most recent data available is from 2019 and shows that the US spends $13,780 per pupil in Primary grades and $15,538 in Secondary, Post-Secondary Non-Tertiary grades and programs, for a total of $29,318. Norway, South Korea, and Austria spend more per pupil.

On a per capita basis, the United States ranks 5th, spending 8.3 percent of its GDP on primary and secondary education. Chile, Israel, South Korea, and the United Kingdom invest a higher percentage of their GDP on education than the United States.

Source: Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/238733/expenditure-on-education-by-country/; “How Do Governments Allocate Public Spending on Education?” OECD, July 12, 2022, https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/en/data-insights/how-do-governments-allocate-public-spending-on-education

Average Individual Wealth: We’re Number 2

The United States is indeed a very wealthy country and, among OECD countries, ranks second in average individual wealth just behind Switzerland. In 2021, Switzerland had an average individual wealth of $696,604; the United States had $579,051. Australia ($550,110) was third, New Zealand ($472,153) was fourth, and Denmark ($426,494) was fifth.

Source: James Davies, Rodrigo Lluberas, and Anthony Shorrocks, “Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook, 2022, Credit Suisse, https://www.credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/global-wealth-report.html