Quote :

"^ except when he prophesized 9/11 in "The Lexus and the Olive Tree""

So? What foreign policy pundit at the time wasn't harping on the threats of fundamentalist islam?

7/20/2005 4:36:47 PM

point taken

7/20/2005 5:27:06 PM

Fortune recently published a relevant article:

Quote :

" CAN AMERICANS COMPETE? Is America the World's 97-lb. Weakling? In the relentless, global, tech-driven, cost-cutting struggle for business, America isn’t ready—here’s what to do about it. By Geoffrey Colvin"

Excerpts:

Quote :

" Low-cost countries—not just China and India but also Mexico, Malaysia, Brazil, and others—are turning out large numbers of well-educated young people fully qualified to work in an information-based economy. China will produce about 3.3 million college graduates this year, India 3.1 million (all of them English-speaking), the U.S. just 1.3 million. In engineering, China’s graduates will number over 600,000, India’s 350,000, America’s only about 70,000."

Quote :

" Why? Most U.S. workers whose jobs are sent overseas will try to find new ones, perhaps in other industries or occupations. So the offshoring of any jobs will produce job seekers who will tend to push wages down even in industries in which outsourcing isn’t happening. Far more significantly, the mere threat of moving jobs offshore is enough to hold wages down—those growing armies of skilled workers around the world are increasing the labor supply in many occupations, and the immutable law of markets is that when supply goes up, prices come down. It has happened in all kinds of other markets—food, clothing, microchips, appliances. Why not in labor? Some economists believe they see it happening already. They note that something extremely odd occurred in the U.S. economy last year: Average compensation, including pay and benefits, fell. That is a rare event; the last time it happened was 14 years ago. More important, it usually happens in or around recessions or when productivity is going nowhere. But last year wasn’t like that. Productivity rose. The economy grew. The unemployment rate was low and falling. Every indicator pointed to strong wage increases, but just the opposite happened. Now some of the nation’s most eminent economists, including professor Richard B. Freeman of Harvard and Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley, believe the supply of overseas workers in newly globalizing labor markets is holding U.S. pay down and will do so for years. "

Quote :

"Incredible as it seems, America’s infotech infrastructure is no longer world-class. We rank only 12th globally in the number of broadband connections per 100 inhabitants. Look closer and the situation is even worse. South Korea is not only more wired (No. 1 globally) but its connections are far faster than ours and are available not just through wires but also through virtually every cellphone. And speaking of our cellphone infrastructure—please don’t. Anyone who travels globally knows it’s awful by world standards."

7/20/2005 10:23:24 PM

Quote :

"They note that something extremely odd occurred in the U.S. economy last year: Average compensation, including pay and benefits, fell."

LIAR !!!!


http://www.bls.gov/

7/21/2005 10:09:38 AM

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2005/tc20050729_7174_tc024.htm?c=bwtechaug2&n=link1&t=email

8/2/2005 6:03:51 AM

Zhisheng,

Could you please post the rest of the article, if you have it? I'd like to read it, since I hope this isn't what passes for intelligent commentary in a magazine like Fortune.

But, what I don't understand is why you're worrying about the Chinese et. al. churning out engineers. Maybe you can explain it to me.

8/2/2005 1:53:40 PM

I'm not so much worried as I am hopeful that competition will breed excellence all around.

8/2/2005 2:56:34 PM

and this is why i would vote for packguy381...

8/2/2005 7:21:29 PM