Posted on 10/13/2005 2:18:30 AM PDT by Arjun
I see a lot of academicians on this board as well as business executives. Academicians do not live in the real world. While I agree that their concerns should be considered, I am not about to become alarmed when when our economy and university system remain the envy of the world.
When groups like this call for immediate and substantial government response to their stated problems I am the first one to say hold on thar.
India, someday, could become a legitimate competitor. Should that day arrive however, they will also have become a huge customer for our goods and services. I still have my doubts about China.
I don't underestimate the changes taking place in the world but I do welcome them. Competition makes our country better. Competing is what we do best. Unfortunately, these threads remind me of the alarmism about Japan in the 80's when so many business leaders and academic experts were telling us we needed to adopt Japanese style models if we were to remain competitive. Fortunately, the government didn't listen - save for a few boondoggles like Semantech - and we are richer and more powerful now than ever.
The only positive roll government can play is to get the heck out of the way. It is hard to believe that people still think government is the solution to anything.70 or 80 years of failures in almost every area does not indicate success is a part of government programs.
You still voting for government involvement? You are stuck on stupid.
You'd have to grasp what is required to support something like the pharmaceutical industry to truly understand. My guess is you do not.
As for luck, I'd rather compete with people who rely on luck than those who prepare to exploit opportunities.
Give them few more years and you will see.
Ah, yes. The mantra of the doom and gloomer. I'd wager that you've been predicting this for some time and now you're regularly being forced to tell us to wait a little bit longer. Just like the race to the bottom assertion, your predictions never seem to arrive.
Oh, how I miss Ronald Reagan.
Just repeating what a MS VP stated... not my words.
LLS
I am no MS fan ok. I have used their crap since Dos 2.0. I spend a huge amount of time keeping friends and family computers working, mostly due to OS problems.
When I posted what I did, I was only quoting what a VP of MS said in a post on Audio Video Sciences Forum.
LLS
That would be the correct assumption. FTA's reduce the government's ability to intervene in the market (i.e. protectionism/cronyism). Freer trade results in more trade.
Government doesn't guide business, it meddles in business. Reducing government regulation and taxation on business can be called reforms and incentives but, what it really does, is reduce government control over the economy. There's a good reason why countries that have a higher degree of economic freedom also enjoy more political freedom and achieve a higher per capita income.
Our response to 9/11 proved we still have the fight in us.
A major thing happening now is that computers and robotics are entering the battlefield in a big way. Using technology we were able to conquer Iraq with only 150,000 troops. Gulf War I needed 500,000.
If we took on China, we wouldn't be sending a WWII sized army over. We would fight increasingly with robots, amplifying our effective troop strength by 10. Finding suicidal robots willing to fight to their death for America will not be a problem. Hopefully we'll have both Germany and Japan's engineering talent to augment ours this time.
Fair enough... I didn't meant to jump down your throat.
my bad.
Sorry. US business knows what they can do to the public and it's bad business for them to fall back on "Chinese Methods". The regulations that industries are under due to the greens, politicians trying to gouge, have been so far over the line in the last ten years, most companies have found it a sound business practice to use risk avoidance.
The countries where factories are opening, but have less regulation, an interesting thing is happening. The poeple living in those countries are complaining to their governments about pollution, safety issues and things like that. The governments are responding by creating regulation where none existed before. These countries never had environmental regulation before because they never had to deal with industrial pollution before. When industry starts causing local issues, the governments respond. The company I work for has a policy of uniform health and safety standards for all international locations that equal or are better than the U.S. requirements. And it makes better logistics to have the same policies everywhere.
The scenario you describe is certainly possible, and indeed I have spent some time thinking about autonomous ground combat machines. Effective ones are possible but are well beyond the current state of the art.
It is best to remember that American military developments are fully understood in technical detail by the Chinese. The more an American technical superiority exists the harder the Chinese will work to reduce it. The efficient Chinese intelligence apparatus did not come to an end with the Clinton presidency.
There are ways to cope with this situation. I can safely say that the Strategic Defense Initiative left many lessons of use today. Unfortunately, it seems that the Chinese have learned these lessons better than we have.
The US Navy, I can safely say, is in the midst of a building program that will allow the Navy to dominate a Taiwan Straits war. The Chinese would find a close blockade of their coastline very inconvenient especially if the Russians were working with us. The Japanese are rearming, and with nuclear weapons, making Chinese strategic calculation more uncertain. Complicated US Navy submarine operations are going on this very minute.
I hear only a very little about Air Force preparations. The F-22 is designed to deal with the Chinese Air Forces. I gather that the design is quite old fashioned, unfortunately. Follow up models with better computer systems, programing, countermeasures and signal warfare systems generally are required. More worrisome to me is that very important space systems depended on the Shuttle performing as promised. There is a serious problem here.
Bill Gates has that effect on all of us! :-)
LLS
So how is that different than trusting them to put together Free Trade deals? You obviously trust them to do that.
So lets raise taxes on us business and individuals to subsidize those needing a high quality job. That's worked so well in Europe.
Gubment... "We need more money to do the job (we fouled up the first time) to do the job next time.
Well, all I have to say is welcome to the shoes of our forefathers. The politicians won't heed the words of the people and are undermining the country with their actions.
The WTO treaty is both illegal and unconstitutional, yet both parties passed it. Nafta is undermining us boldly and effectively - and everyone sees it but the politicians answer our concerns with Cafta.. more of the same. They don't give a hoot what you say. This isn't your country. Or is it. We are supposed to be the master and the Government is supposed to be the servant. Yet the servant does what it wants and ignores the master.. seeking it's own ends. King George is reborn.. ang he is the US political establishment. Where's Washington when you need him...
Umm, not to be too obvious; but, the forefathers said otherwise and proved it. The federal government used to be funded by tariffs - the same tariffs which kept our enemies from undermining the US economy. It is a good design, serving both the economics of the fed and our defense at the same time. When they get out of the way on that point, they abrogate one of their primary constitutional duties to this country and it's people. "Get out of the way" indeed.
There's a difference in the A-bomb project and a 'broad federal effort' to create jobs. The A-bomb was a specific project with a specific goal. The government's efforts at improving education have been proven failures for the last 60 years or so. Why should I think they will change now?
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