Gradient drives everything in the universe-- especialy economies.

If our economies are dragging -- if opportunities are lagging -- the underlying culprit is gradient, guaranteed.

America put the last star on the flag over 50 years ago. Think about that. This ain't the 'New' World.

There are plenty of frontiers today, but they are increasingly only found in narrow intellectual fields with increasingly specialized education as the cost of entry. There were always intellectual frontiers(where gradient is greatest) but 50 years ago, the world was closer to a time when there were other than intellectual frontiers as well. There was a range of opportunities not all piled up into the intellectual arena. This new fact of existence happened very rapidly, and the world is not adapting to it quickly enough.

That isn't a nefarious plot, it is a simple statement of reality.

There are ways to re-invigorate gradient and restore broad opportunities, but we are not yet(or ever)thinking in these terms. That leaves happenstance gradient drivers (like weather, natural disasters, war, and plague) to drive economies.

The technological eddies of opportunity still vibrant are mostly remnants of the last innovative agenda of reinvigorated gradient(JFK's Moon Mission), but that was 50 years ago, and we backed off the throttle. But, the push for microelectronics spawned the micro electronic revolution, and we are still living off of that gradient...but frittering away energy in cul de sacs like 'social networks' and Twitter and Living Social electronic coupons... in making bitmaps dance to sell boner medicine to aging Boomers. What are we doing today that actually inspires anybody? Ask that question in 2012...and ask it in 1962.