World events
Was recently talking to a friend of mine about the state of the US economy. She's been out of a job for almost 2 years now and was desperately hoping that the economy would pick up and she could get a job, perhaps retrain and become more competitive...needless to say, the news just came out. US is not doing so well on the jobs front and the economy is flat. and No, for you birthers, Obama didnt create this problem!!!
I wasnt surprised to hear that news. I am no economist, but I am a world watcher...having travelled through several countries now and seen what is happening internationally, I have come to the conclusion, that America ignores the rest of the world at its peril. While we are embroiled in home grown "racial" politics and narrowly focusing on only what happens within our borders - "the Mexicans are coming"..and other BS of that ilk, the world is going ahead without us.
We cannot continue to live on the echoes of old glory in the new world order and expect to continue to reign as a world leader. The million dollar question for me however, is do we have the will to make the tough changes we will need to make to remain competitive in a world that is more sophisticated than the one we grew to prominence in?
The era following the Great Depression was a world unique to that time and very different architecturally from what America faces today. The world was largely illiterate, America was the young buck, facing aging economies and was poised to take advantage of their sluggishness. It was the young player on the field, facing aging has-beens, able to duck and dive and outmanouevre "diva nations" who wanted the game to remain static and kept living on the echos of the "good old days"...
I never thought to see a time when America would become the "diva nation", trying to reminisce about the "good ol days" and hoping that the young bucks -- China, Australia, India and yes, even the emerging economies, would stop being upstarts and listen to the "elders". However, that day has come. We have dominated the world for the better part of 200 years, have been the originators of any idea worth having, the creators of a world and wealth hitherto unimagined and have been the genesis of equality, freedom unimaginable before we laid claim to its promise.
The question now is...can we maintain our edge, can we innovate, reinvent ourselves (much like the never-aging Madonna does, in an effort to capitalize on our advantages and remain ahead of the curve...remain the opinion-leaders, the craze-creators.
I believe we can!!! We remain one of the least dogmatic people on the planet. We are uniquely open to new ideas, have no fear about throwing out the old and reinventing ourselves and if we are to continue to capitalize on generations of competitive edge and know-how, we are going to have to do one thing well...REFUSE TO AGE!!
What do I mean by that. Like products, countries have a lifecycle...Innovators, Growth, Maturity and inevitably, Decline. To come out of the Great depression, America was the Innovator. While Europe remained mired in the Post-war reconstruction and national psyches were obliterated, America was the "great white hope"...creating industry, developing new ideas in business, economics, war, health and social science. The third world remained mired in its superstitions and petty wars, Europe had a long hard road to recovery and modernization (which took its toll) and we were unhampered by any "burden of history", relationship or superstition...and we FLEW!!! Inevitably however, as the child becomes the young man and the young adult becomes the middle-aged man set in his ways, we slowly aged...
Having led the pack for so long, we began to slow down, stopped looking at our competitors, stopped taking a long view and stopped racing for our lives...we were the best, there was no one behind us...who could touch us, we began to rest on our laurels..
We began to believe in our own "Godness"...believed in our "immortality and untouchability"...and slowly, the tide began to turn...Today, the former "third world"...is the new "emerging economy"...no longer to be dismissed or ignored. Infact between China and India alone, rests the kernel of what could be the demise of the 1st world...2.3 BILLION educated, consuming, highly intelligent population...Between the 2 countries, they account almost 1/2 the world's population and if they become juggernauts - UNOPPOSED, the whole world WILL BOW to this juggernaut for the next 3-4 centuries...
Contrary to popular views...and I'm going to go out on a limb and predict this. These 2 countries have no need for anyone else to consume from them. Develop those 2 economies and they will be too busy consuming their own products to need to develop any outside markets AND, they will own pretty much Africa, most of Asia and Southern America. These poor relation countries will go where they get the cheapest goods...and both China and India understand the value of "building relationships"!!! They in themselves, constitute MAJOR MARKETS, without ever needing to leave their own markets...thanks to the sheer volume of population contained therein. Add to this, the fact that they ARE protectionist and anyone ignores the real threat of a world monopoly held by these 2 countries.
Once China can develop its own cars, technologies, manufacturing, why does it need to go outside to do so..building up capacity to feed the voracious appetite of its emerging middle/upper classes will take decades to fill...so in the lead up to being able to feed that appetite, it forges relationships with countries who already know how to deliver. Except, it insists on tech transfer...so that once it learns how to deliver in house...who needs partnerships?!!!
India has taken a slightly different tack but one that bears watching nonetheless...they farm out "intelligentsia"...time was when if you wanted a tchnology guru, u went westwards...today, u go to India where it's available for rent cheaply...Well, while we are farming out intelligence to create our own nations of "video gamers and reality show hucksters", where is the homegrown talent being developed to take us into the future....a future in which we will have to duke it out for space not with the "empty gladiators ring" our forefathers faced, but an active thriving world, full of people who can compete against us in EVERY WAY!!! Are we preparing for this new reality?!!!
Watching the news and popular press, it is clearly evident that no one has their eye on the ball. The game has changed...and whether we win some games in the future depends on changing the strategy to match the new world realities.
It is time to develop home grown talent, to stop this nonsense of raising "idiot" TV generation children who grow up ONLY seeking their 15minutes of fame...with goals like to win the "texting championships", win online role-playing games or create the next zillion$$$ app so they can continue to sit on their "proverbials", to develop some discipline and focus as a culture and to prepare to compete fiercely in the world to come in ways our forebears did not have to. The days of living high are gone, there is no world market to sell to...the world is selling to US!!!, and that is not going to change any time soon. In fact, as high as US wages are, jobs WILL continue to leave the country...and as we farm out more and more to overseas markets, what exactly will we be creating AND selling at home??!!! How are we going to create the competitive edge. In business parlance, it is time to sell off the poor performing assets and become lean, mean. So in short, NO PEOPLE, the ECONOMY is NOT going to improve...WE NEED TO CHANGE THE GAME. WE are NOT COMPETITIVE, havent been putting in the long range plans that will allow us to BEAT our competitors. The ONLY PLAN right now worth making is a long range one that requires a significant amount of investment in AMERICA and it's people...no more bandaid solutions...We are going to PERISH if we dont change!!!
Is anybody out there listening!???
I wasnt surprised to hear that news. I am no economist, but I am a world watcher...having travelled through several countries now and seen what is happening internationally, I have come to the conclusion, that America ignores the rest of the world at its peril. While we are embroiled in home grown "racial" politics and narrowly focusing on only what happens within our borders - "the Mexicans are coming"..and other BS of that ilk, the world is going ahead without us.
We cannot continue to live on the echoes of old glory in the new world order and expect to continue to reign as a world leader. The million dollar question for me however, is do we have the will to make the tough changes we will need to make to remain competitive in a world that is more sophisticated than the one we grew to prominence in?
The era following the Great Depression was a world unique to that time and very different architecturally from what America faces today. The world was largely illiterate, America was the young buck, facing aging economies and was poised to take advantage of their sluggishness. It was the young player on the field, facing aging has-beens, able to duck and dive and outmanouevre "diva nations" who wanted the game to remain static and kept living on the echos of the "good old days"...
I never thought to see a time when America would become the "diva nation", trying to reminisce about the "good ol days" and hoping that the young bucks -- China, Australia, India and yes, even the emerging economies, would stop being upstarts and listen to the "elders". However, that day has come. We have dominated the world for the better part of 200 years, have been the originators of any idea worth having, the creators of a world and wealth hitherto unimagined and have been the genesis of equality, freedom unimaginable before we laid claim to its promise.
The question now is...can we maintain our edge, can we innovate, reinvent ourselves (much like the never-aging Madonna does, in an effort to capitalize on our advantages and remain ahead of the curve...remain the opinion-leaders, the craze-creators.
I believe we can!!! We remain one of the least dogmatic people on the planet. We are uniquely open to new ideas, have no fear about throwing out the old and reinventing ourselves and if we are to continue to capitalize on generations of competitive edge and know-how, we are going to have to do one thing well...REFUSE TO AGE!!
What do I mean by that. Like products, countries have a lifecycle...Innovators, Growth, Maturity and inevitably, Decline. To come out of the Great depression, America was the Innovator. While Europe remained mired in the Post-war reconstruction and national psyches were obliterated, America was the "great white hope"...creating industry, developing new ideas in business, economics, war, health and social science. The third world remained mired in its superstitions and petty wars, Europe had a long hard road to recovery and modernization (which took its toll) and we were unhampered by any "burden of history", relationship or superstition...and we FLEW!!! Inevitably however, as the child becomes the young man and the young adult becomes the middle-aged man set in his ways, we slowly aged...
Having led the pack for so long, we began to slow down, stopped looking at our competitors, stopped taking a long view and stopped racing for our lives...we were the best, there was no one behind us...who could touch us, we began to rest on our laurels..
We began to believe in our own "Godness"...believed in our "immortality and untouchability"...and slowly, the tide began to turn...Today, the former "third world"...is the new "emerging economy"...no longer to be dismissed or ignored. Infact between China and India alone, rests the kernel of what could be the demise of the 1st world...2.3 BILLION educated, consuming, highly intelligent population...Between the 2 countries, they account almost 1/2 the world's population and if they become juggernauts - UNOPPOSED, the whole world WILL BOW to this juggernaut for the next 3-4 centuries...
Contrary to popular views...and I'm going to go out on a limb and predict this. These 2 countries have no need for anyone else to consume from them. Develop those 2 economies and they will be too busy consuming their own products to need to develop any outside markets AND, they will own pretty much Africa, most of Asia and Southern America. These poor relation countries will go where they get the cheapest goods...and both China and India understand the value of "building relationships"!!! They in themselves, constitute MAJOR MARKETS, without ever needing to leave their own markets...thanks to the sheer volume of population contained therein. Add to this, the fact that they ARE protectionist and anyone ignores the real threat of a world monopoly held by these 2 countries.
Once China can develop its own cars, technologies, manufacturing, why does it need to go outside to do so..building up capacity to feed the voracious appetite of its emerging middle/upper classes will take decades to fill...so in the lead up to being able to feed that appetite, it forges relationships with countries who already know how to deliver. Except, it insists on tech transfer...so that once it learns how to deliver in house...who needs partnerships?!!!
India has taken a slightly different tack but one that bears watching nonetheless...they farm out "intelligentsia"...time was when if you wanted a tchnology guru, u went westwards...today, u go to India where it's available for rent cheaply...Well, while we are farming out intelligence to create our own nations of "video gamers and reality show hucksters", where is the homegrown talent being developed to take us into the future....a future in which we will have to duke it out for space not with the "empty gladiators ring" our forefathers faced, but an active thriving world, full of people who can compete against us in EVERY WAY!!! Are we preparing for this new reality?!!!
Watching the news and popular press, it is clearly evident that no one has their eye on the ball. The game has changed...and whether we win some games in the future depends on changing the strategy to match the new world realities.
It is time to develop home grown talent, to stop this nonsense of raising "idiot" TV generation children who grow up ONLY seeking their 15minutes of fame...with goals like to win the "texting championships", win online role-playing games or create the next zillion$$$ app so they can continue to sit on their "proverbials", to develop some discipline and focus as a culture and to prepare to compete fiercely in the world to come in ways our forebears did not have to. The days of living high are gone, there is no world market to sell to...the world is selling to US!!!, and that is not going to change any time soon. In fact, as high as US wages are, jobs WILL continue to leave the country...and as we farm out more and more to overseas markets, what exactly will we be creating AND selling at home??!!! How are we going to create the competitive edge. In business parlance, it is time to sell off the poor performing assets and become lean, mean. So in short, NO PEOPLE, the ECONOMY is NOT going to improve...WE NEED TO CHANGE THE GAME. WE are NOT COMPETITIVE, havent been putting in the long range plans that will allow us to BEAT our competitors. The ONLY PLAN right now worth making is a long range one that requires a significant amount of investment in AMERICA and it's people...no more bandaid solutions...We are going to PERISH if we dont change!!!
Is anybody out there listening!???
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