America's Got Crisis!

America appears to be facing a crisis of talent, and I feel we must act now and we must act decisively, or China and a horde of other countries are going to leave us in the dust.

Now, I'm not talking about our expertise in math and science. We've been trailing China and a bunch of other countries in those areas for years. Frankly, I've pretty much given up on America ever improving in those subjects. According to a recent survey, U.S. students slipped to 31st place in mathematics out of 65 countries. Even the Slovak Republic kicked our butt. Don't know where the Slovak Republic is? Not surprising, since we also suck at geography.

I know that this ugly truth can be rather disheartening, but let's be honest. Do we really care that Liechtenstein trounced us in Math, Reading and Science? Of course not. I'll even take the high-road and applaud Liechtenstein for its accomplishment. I'm not surprised. After all, there is probably nothing better to do than study math, science and reading in Liechtenstein. They don't have the wide variety of options that we have here in the U.S. to while away our time. In America, we work smarter, not harder, so we have more time for goofing off.

Why should our children slave away doing math problems as long as they have Siri who can just tell them the square root of 499 whenever they need it? If we really want to prepare our children for the real world we should be outfitting all of them with smart phones, which by the way also scored higher than U.S. students in math and science.

No, the crisis of talent we appear to be facing is in the arts -- things like music, dance, and how to make music with your hand shoved in your armpit while dancing. I'm talking ENTERTAINMENT, folks and based on a figurative canary in a coalmine, America's firm grasp on this industry is starting to slip.

The harbinger of this ominous future is that the stalwart TV show American Idol will not air as much each week this coming fall.

Read between the lines. If we had excessive amounts of talent, American Idol would be adding air times, not cutting them. But obviously we don't. Our talent pool is starting to run dry.

I feel this is a sign that our country is using up all its flair for entertaining without any thought to what talent shows future generations of Americans might watch on TV. We are showcasing so many of our AMAZING amateur entertainers on Idol, The Voice, America's Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance and a dozen other shows that showcase our skills it has become apparent to me that our country can't keep up this frenetic pace.

We need to start conserving America's collective entertainment assets or we're going to run out, and then, Heaven forbid, we will have to look overseas for talent to fill these shows.

And if that happens, then where will this country be? Relying on our smart phones to answer all of our questions and forced to watch some kid recite multiplication tables on Liechtenstein's Got Talent.