Somehow, the article below on health care jogged my memory something I read a week or two ago in the Sunday NY Times magazine that pointed out how we are in a new global environment. The evolution has gone from national globalism (eg, colonialism) to corporate globalism to now personal globalism with the advent of internet, etc.  

While it's not new news, the most powerful idea in the article was the fact that for knowledge workers, the labor pool is of course, now global.  People don't have to leave their country anymore to join an American company. I know the workforce in India - I am in a joint venture with an Indian company.  We are taking a giant step forward with some major clients in the next few weeks.  One of the guys said about this, "We want to put our best foot forward - this is where we get to prove ourselves."  There is absolutely no sense of entitlement there.  The tone is, We've got a chance to prove ourselves, and we're excited to do it.  At $8/hour.  With an advanced degree and an IQ 0f 150.  

The other point that really stuck home is about how corporations are not going offshore just because of price, it's also the quality.  Capital moves without loyalty and seeks the best environment.  

The question I ask is how will America respond to this?  While we still have enormous educational and capital infrastructures, we also have a culture that is entitled and thinks itself innately superior.  How deep is the opium-like stupor we are in?  

I just want to mention again that the response people tend to made under pressure is to regress to a more primitive developmental state.  I can't believe America re-elected George Bush.  What the hell was it thinking?  How poor was the alternative, how deep the leadership vacuum that this happened?  

My final point: conservative and liberal are both tired and off point to the modern context.  How the hell do we ever break out of this non-productive direction? You can't solve a problem until you identify it, and this way of shaping the forces at play just disguises the real challenges.  Meanwhile, we're about to get a new judiciary that will... I shudder to imagine.


-- Modified on 4/25/2005 3:40:16 PM

Um, did I miss your point?  Of course corp.s are going to make decisions that will yeild them the best product at the lowest price, when did that become a news item?

But I would disagree with you on your implication that election of a President could stem the globalization of economies.  You might try to stem the tide of it, despite the claims of Kerry that he would put an end to it (even if he could, that would only exacerbate the problem by making US goods (exports) more expensive, further harming the US worker).

I'll tell you how we break out of this non-productive direction, is eleiminate the handouts i.e. "entitlements" that you mention.  But we both know that's not going to happen any time soon.

I didn't mean to imply there was a way to stem globalization.  I think the reality is that America is going to face serious threats to its economic status regardless - we've just got increasing competition that's damn good. The question is whether this fact will be presented straight-forwardly enough for a direct response, or will the myth outweigh the reality?

I don't know if eliminating a social safety net is good or bad.  As the educational bar rises, those with well-below-average IQ's cannot succeed - do we let them starve or otherwise reduce them to 3rd world poverty levels?  There's always going to be a bottom of the barrel.  What are the implications of that?  But countries that have other norms do not have this drag on their economies. I think there has to be a mix of the stark reality that the environment is global and the least-well-equipped do compete globally, along with a growing international norm.  I guess we do it in America by a system; in India, they do it in the family - regardless, the able-bodied pay for the elderly, the sick, etc.  

The question is, what happens when this gets way down into the white collar, college-educated crowd?  What happens when this doesn't entitle Americans to what we all presume is our economic birthright?  Now we're not talking about all the standard entitlements some people like to point to, we're talking about the core.  What then?

-- Modified on 4/25/2005 5:32:13 PM

The intense global pressure that the U.S. workforce finds itself under has been called "The Big Squeeze", by Stephen Roach, Chief Economist of Morgan Stanley (see below link).

In the good old days (circa 1995), the two classic squeeze-plays on the American worker were from illegal aliens (blue collar jobs) and H1-B visa holders (legal aliens who would work cheap in the U.S., white-collar). With the advent of the Internet, of course, the competition for domestic jobs became world-wide. Initially, these were relatively low-rung jobs, such as call centers, but have graduated to the higher-level white collar professions, including law, accounting, hardware and software development etc. As pointed out by George Monbiot, on his weblog (monbiot.com): "If you live in a rich nation in the English-speaking world, and most of your work involves a computer or a telephone, don’t expect to have a job in five years’ time."

Roach has pointed out that the the US worker is undergoing an intense "global labor arbitrage", in which U.S. multinationals are simply going for the the lowest wage that gets the job done.

How will the US worker survive and/or thrive? Well, it won't be simply because of an educational system that produces the best workers in the world. Our universities are themselves undergoing a "Big Squeeze", with support from the states and the federal government being substantially cut. This is part of the reason for the huge increases in tuition seen at nominally state-supported universities.

-- Modified on 4/26/2005 5:47:06 PM

The end justify the means. That is the problem with capitalism. We are seeing this today.

If moving jobs out of the country will bring more profit, it's a go!!

"Our bottom line is more important than the American Worker, and the country we reside in! So my business is heading overseas, to avoid paying decent wages, healthcare, and deal with messy labor laws"! "The American Worker can flip burgers or toss garbage cans for a living".

Oh Wait!! Those jobs are being taken by the cheap 3rd world labor we import from mexico!!

If everyone puts profit before country, that greediness will make the whole country lose!

Whats even worse is; where are the savings from products being manufactored in cheap paying 3rd world countries? Look at Nike, we still pay far to much for a shoe that is being made out of our country.

We are becoming dependent on other countries to provide for us, that will be our downfall. We are putting our livelyhood in the hands of others, instead of controlling our own destiny!

"The question is, what happens when this gets way down into the white collar, college-educated crowd?  What happens when this doesn't entitle Americans to what we all presume is our economic birthright?"


Has this not happened??

I remember the many commercials telling us how computers are the future, get trained or be left behind. Many wasted time and money training,
only to see the computer programming jobs, and others, either be shipped out of the country, or lost from
importing foreign workers via h-1 visa's. What a drag!

Manufacturing Jobs are being shipped out of the country. Construction jobs in california are given to foreign born labor over the American Born Worker, all in the name of the bottom line.

I feel we are heading for disaster. To many people, not enough high wage paying jobs, greed everywhere, no vision of the future, with one exception; the ultra wealthy who will continue to manipulate in the name of the bottom line.

The White collar middle class pay for everything, from healthcare for illegals, war for israel, to the salaries of our crooked leaders. When the jobs these White collar Americans need to support our countries spending habits disappear, our country will implode. It will be a very nasty experience for all.

" we also have a culture that is entitled and thinks itself innately superior."  


maybe in the 1950's we felt that way. Today, no way jose!  We are a consumer nation, dumber then dirt, buried in credit card debt, our people have low moral, their only thought of the future is where to go dancing on the weekend! We worship false idols, live in the now, seeking immediate gratification, with no thoughts of delaying for greater future returns.

seems pretty simple to me.  Hey, I am a white collar job that I rely on computer & telephone & if my job is 'outsouced' to India, well, that will be tough but I will have to find a job elsewhere.  It's as simple as that.  Survival.  It's simple after all even though we are at the top of the food chain, we are animals & the rules of the jungle should (but really don't) apply.

Also, don't pretend for a moment that every other industrial nation isn't doing the same exact thing.  Our economy will survive & flourish.  We shouldn't put up road blocks to the evolution of our economy - if we did we all would still be living on farms.

We will adapt.

We will adapt if left to free market forces. If, on the other hand we look to Government to intervene on our behalf then I fear we shall start a long downward spiral that will allow some other country to supplant us as the world leading economy.

the politics really is off point.

it's the little fake dog they run down the rail at the track to get the greyhounds to run....

it's Moe's left hand, while he's slapping Curly with his right...

i would love to spend a few hours with you over an ice tea.

bk

ps, i think "the economist" is running something similar, front page, this month...

-- Modified on 4/26/2005 11:36:37 AM

I like it.

The politics point refers to my growing concern that our political leaders do not point us toward the future.  Any CEO worth his or her salt identifies key strategic challenges short and long term and put them squarely on the table.

The national dialogue of the Bush years is not forward looking. Likewise, I didn't hear much out of Kerry that was much better.  One of the key jobs of a president is to frame the national conversation, and I give Bush a K- (several letters below an F) on where he has the discussion focused.  

One of my strongest laments over our political landscape is just how much bullshit is taken seriously, as if the American public can't handle hard truths.  One of the most important tones to set right now is that powerful countries are emerging as much more sophisticated players, and that this is a good thing, but that Americans have to grasp that they are competing with them.  And then lay out a compelling vision of what this means, where our national will needs to focus.

It doesn't matter how well it was thought out, and how well it worked in its heyday.  

I tend to believe that the mortality of nation-states are inherent in the concept.  They exist according to geography, but their existence is merely in the human mind.  I think the main problemn is that the government will hemorrhage money.  

At some point, the government and the economy intersect, and there lies the hemorrhage.  You want to procure for your military?  You're charged $600 to get a soldier a pair of boots.  You want to subsidize college education?  The tuition goes up by 10 percent each year.  Even if you nationalize the universities, you still have to buy the 3 million dollar lab equipment, or the $3,000 school book.  You'll be overcharged.  Somewhere, the govenment has to deal with the real economy.  

Since taxes have to be raised to cover these costs, then the population has to be taxed so that they are impoverished.  It also causes a drop in the population.  The country is less able to defend it's territory.  Meanwhile, the only way to gain any wealth is to be in government.  So the rich are in government, and the government is the rich, with the power to tax at will.

But once this becomes too onerous for people, other younger, more efficient administrations take over.  Hence, when Western Rome fell, Gaul ended up administered from Paris finally.

I don't know that there is a way to avoid any of this.

And he can no longer file for Chapter 7 should things get a bit worse for your neighbor. With the new bankruptcy bill in place, most likely he'll have to file Chapter 13, which only provides for a lengthening of payment schedules to creditors.

What's next from our 'compassionate conservatives': serfdom?

I'm off to CR to have sex with dark skinned women and find SDstud so I can buy the house next to him and put up my GBW stickers....

and maybe surf...

BK

Have these things figured out by the time I get back, will ya?

-- Modified on 4/27/2005 4:14:56 PM

You're off boinking someone and surfing and me, hell, I'm left to clean up the mess.

You never take me anywhere anymore.

A great read is "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. He's the guy who wrote Guns, Germs and Steel. This new book takes a look at how various societies (Norse, Icelandic, Mandarins and others) who seemed to have it all, collapsed in a very short period of time. Sorry, morality or economic systems have nothing to do with it--it involves choices that the society made (or did NOT make) around things such as resource allocation, how war-like they were, what were the elements of their trading relationships with neighboring societies, etc. There are about 6 dimensions. For example--Easter Islanders loved to chop down trees tro make the beautiful carved statues you see..unfortunately, they failed to realize the trees were a vital element in soil conservation and in agriculture. When the last of the trees was cut down,t he food eventually disappeared. Hmmmm....

Anyway, it's not a casual beach read but well-worth it. His comment on the U.S--we have to make these kinds fo choices NOW...not 20 or 30 years from now..

Of course, taws6 has a simple solution for your friend and his family: adapt or die. Perversely amusing that the same crowd that doesn't believe in biological evolution avidly subscribe to 'social Darwinism'.