Jobs Through Innovation

Innovation has been the engine that has helped power America’s economy for over two centuries. It can generate higher-paying jobs for Floridians now, and it is the secret to America’s success in the centuries ahead.

Innovation is an expensive business, and transformational innovation requires an enormous amount of funding. For example, space exploration used to be a solely government-funded enterprise, but commercial launch teams have been pushing the envelope of space from Florida’s shores for years, as well as in Texas, California, Virginia, and Nevada. Billionaires such as Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos, as well as aerospace leader, Boeing Corporation, have drastically changed the space industry and pushed innovation forward, but at a high risk and a substantial financial cost. 

The expensive nature of innovation means that it can no longer be funded solely by governments or industry. It will require more significant investment, and for this reason, I am advocating for the legislative creation of a concept I refer to as the American Transformational Innovation Trust, or AT IT. This trust would utilize the stock market, philanthropic investments, and government support and clearance to collaboratively fast-track some of this nation's and even the world's greatest innovation needs. I believe Florida would be a prime beneficiary of this legislation, generating even higher-paying jobs for our citizens.

Innovations might include the following categories, and others:

1.    Space exploration and habitation

2.    Artificial intelligence

3.    5G Networks

4.    Solar, wind & battery energy

5.    Mission Critical Data Centers & Cyber Security

6.    High-speed rail & driverless transportation

7.    Robotics & automation

8.    Manufacturing

9.    Virtual reality

10.  Propulsion systems

11.  Flight dynamics and design

12.  Construction materials and design

13.  Serverless computing

14.  Wearable tech

15.  Agriculture & sustained food supplies

16.  Water systems

17.  Sanitation and waste systems

18.  Climate management

19.  Entertainment

20.  Consumer & crowdsourcing

I have excluded healthcare innovations from this list because those are covered in my proposal for improving American innovation policy, called Medical Innovation Zones (MIZ).