As a consequence, partnerships, strategic alliances, consortia, and various forms of specialization abound. These technological advances are costly often involving expensive capitalization in new infrastructure which in turn necessitates cooperation to share risks. These heavy investments also necessitate participating in global markets in order to recover costs. In this global competition, the United States does offer some advantages over industrial locations in other countries. They include its universities, entrepreneurial climate, biotechnology, software, aerospace, chemicals and other key industries.
Firms located in the United States are in close proximity to the best markets in the world.
However, the nation's tax, regulatory and educational infrastructure were designed for the mass production age and is now anachronistic. Antitrust regulations, for example, were generated in the United States in the early 1900's when mass production started to dominate the industrial scene. Although there has been some relaxation in the past 15 years, today some antitrust regulations still inhibit the kind of U.S. industrial collaborations needed to compete with foreign organizations in commercializing new products. We recommend leveling the playing field in the global marketplace by removing regulatory burdens that impose excessive costs or ineffective restrictions on U.S. companies over and above their global competitors, especially those that offer marginal improvements in safety, health and environmental quality. Some of the competitor nations have lower tax rates, less regulatory restrictions, and better educated students and graduates.