The New Face of the Silicon Age

Wired Magazine ^ | February 2004 | Daniel H. Pink

[Leisler]

Maybe. I doubt things, especially politically in China, are that clear. Anyways, Rush a few days ago said that 60 percent of Chinese graduate with engineering/technical degrees vs 6 percent in the US. Whether this is a function of Chinese government diktat or the peoples choice, I don't know. Certainly in the US Chinese students in the Sciences is phenomenally common. So, I guess the Chinese want it, and we as a people don't. Which I believe. Here in New England you can go to any old town and find on the old buildings names like "Mechanics Hall" and such. Before the turn of the century being an engineer or a skilled tradesman was a position of honor. I wouldn't say that is so in the present culture. I would say that the laying of hands and minds toward material problems labels one more as a boor and a economic chump. We are in the age of fame and celebrity.

The most common solution posited here is a tariff of such and such percent. I don't think it would work, since I think the innovation rate and the price decrease rate does exceed the legislative and other administrative time lags. In other words they can build and drop prices faster than we could put obstacles in their way.

[A. Pole]

I forsee a whiplash strategy, where, seeming to kowtow to US pressure, they will free float the Yuan, only to suddenly link it, several months later, to the Euro.

You might be right. Soon link to the sinking dollar will not make much sense.

[chimera]

So, I guess the Chinese want it, and we as a people don't. Which I believe.

I believe it, too. The question is, why don't we want it. There is an answer to that question. The best and brightest of our young people, by definition, aren't stupid. They see what's going on out there. They see people taking four or six or eight years of college and graduate school to get a degree in the sciences or engineering, and then being forced to train their replacements in Bangalore or Shanghai before getting the boot. Then they have to wander around and end up being forced to take a job at Mac's or WalMart that they could have gotten with an eighth grade education. So they think, why bother? Why not get an MBA and become an outsourcing specialist with a multinational firm, specializing in wiping out the livelihoods of one's fellow citizens and sharking your way up the ladder to become a VP or CEO who gets $20 million bonuses for "saving the company money". Or maybe become one of those trial lawyers, suing the pants off of other people and making yourself rich in the process. Heck, if you do that, you might become a pretty-boy Senator from some Southern state and run for President one day on a populist platform, "fighting for the little guy" (who by the way you've put out of work).

I walk into classrooms today to teach engineering and see 80-90 of the faces are those of foreign nationals, yet when I sat in those same classrooms as a student 30 years ago they were 90% American students. An international student was a rare item in those days. Not it is the American student who is the endangered species. Why? Because they see no future in it.

And so it becomes a self-perpetuating downward spiral. We sell out our domestic capabilities in technology (gotta keep that quarterly bottom line looking good for the shareholders and BoD so I can get my multimillion dollar bonus), students coming up see that and realize there's no future in it, so they drift away, leaving no one to fill the void except foreign nationals. Even if we took it into our heads to rebuild our national capabilities, we'll be at the mercy of outsiders to help us do so. And at that point we exit the stage as a world power, and maybe become a country like England, a nation of shopkeepers and tourist guides, sleepily dreaming of past glory, but an Empire no more.

[Gekko The Great]

I was thinking more along the lines of 'let 'em adapt and overcome.'

How can they do that reasonably? You expect someone in their fifties who has a grade school education to go out and get a biotechnician job at the drop of a hat? How likely a candidate for re-training is a Ph.D. physicist in their late forties with 20 years of experience? Are they going to go out and spend another four or five years in school to become a nurse, then go on the third shift at an entry level wage in their fifties? Will someone hire them to do that? Is that good for them, their family, or the country as a whole? How can an American worker with kids in school and a mortgage, facing the cost of living in this country, it's regulatory and tax burdens, going to compete with a worker in India who makes 20% of their salary, or a prison laborer in China who works basically for shelter and sustenance?

Telling people to "adapt and overcome" under these circumstances is like throwing someone in 10 feet of water with concrete blocks on their feet and telling them to adapt and overcome their situation. What, can't swim with those blocks on your feet? Well, you're just not trying hard enough, you lazy bum! What, you say you're drowning down there? Well, hell, it's your own fault if you can't adapt, screw you. What, you're asking me why I threw you in the water in the first place? Well, you dummy, don't you know it's survival of the fittest? Social Darwinism at it's finest? Throw your neighbor and fellow citizen overboard and devil take the hindmost? Welcome to globalist America...

[GOP_1900AD]

Both.

[GOP_1900AD]

Welcome to soon-to-be conquered America. And the globalists are either knowing 5th columnists, already licking the boots of the anti Western conquerors (deep investigation by FBI, US Atty's, DHS, CI and CIA needed post haste!) or are simply hyper anarchist, nihilist, globalist ideologues, who continue to play their tunes as Rome burns. The only difference is willful versus negligent treason.

[GOP_1900AD]

"CI" should be "DI".... sorry, typing too fast....

[the invisib1e hand]

you're right. better get 'em on welfare.

on the other hand, you, despite appointing yourself as the voice for the techno-downtrodden, radically underestimate the potential of a person properly motivated.

[GOP_1900AD]

Eroded export controls, lack of national affilitation of corporate execs, "progressive" income taxes (Vs. a tariff based system), treason by corporate execs and their employees, and negligence on the part of dot.gov are the issues. I agree, forget about welfare. It's high time that we curtail "social" entitlement programs and use some of what is saved to save our nation from conquest. And while we are at it, let's exit all entangling mulitlateral agreements such as the UN, WTO, NAFTA or anything else which might supercede national sovereignty. There should be only specific bilateral trade agreements, and these should be given intense scrutiny Vs. geopolitical implications before being considered for approval. Please join me in putting national interest back into our decision making processes.

[GOP_1900AD]

"afilitation" s/b "affiliation". Typing too fast again...

[Leisler]

Totally 100% bump.

[optik_b]

"Very well said. Our per captia gross incomes are much larger today than they were 40 years ago, but our quality of life being as good is very debateable.
One only has to look around at the prison populations, gangs, vagrants, broken homes, single parents, increase in rapes, homosexuality, divorces and chlde molestations to see it.

Not only are our jobs leaving us, so is our traditional values of God, Home, and Family. "

You need to stop watching so much TV.

[optik_b]

"Since Corporate America no longer sees any need to hire Americans to work in their jobs, I would suggest that American citizens should no longer serve in our armed forces to defend the interests of Corporate America.

Let them hire ChiComs and Ghurkas to fight for them in Iraq and Afghanistan. "

This is what the Romans did. I could see the possibility of taking it a step further and having private military companies that employ low cost foreign troops. It would reduce Americans fear of casualties, lower the cost of war, improve the bottom line, and most importantly make it possible for corporations to defend their interests in some of these 3rd world countries that politicians are unwilling to pacify.

The danger is then you could have the military at control of the highest bidder, even a lot of Multinational Corporations could in essence take over some of the smaller countries. Also there is the possibilty of a real corporate war ensuing.

[Paul Ross]

And at that point we exit the stage as a world power, and maybe become a country like England, a nation of shopkeepers and tourist guides, sleepily dreaming of past glory, but an Empire no more.

Agreed, but I would amend that to say that we will be a "POWER" no more. The U.S. was not founded to be an empire, nor did its people ask for it. The Pax Americana is not truly an 'empire' in the classic sense.

[chimera]

I understand. I guess I was referring more to the English experience. I have no desires for this country to become an imperialist power. We must always retain our tradition of popular rule through the constitutional republic form of government. Hopefully, by remaining a world power, we can sow the seeds for that on the ground that would be fertile.

[Gekko The Great]

...radically underestimate the potential of a person properly motivated.

Motivated?! Sure, like the person you threw into 10 feet of water with the concrete blocks around his feet is going to be motivated enough to grow gills and start breathing water? Let me see how your motivation saves you when I throw you out of an airplane flying along at 5,000 feet with no parachute. I don't care how motivated you are to grow wings, you ain't gonna do it. You're gonna go SPLAT on the ground and there'll be nothing left of you but a bloody grease spot.

If I've radically underestimated the power of motivation, you've absurdly overestimated it.

[the invisib1e hand]

are you Jesse Jackson?

rhetorical question: no reply necessary.