Could this be the undoing of our future?: That technology will be our asset?

[Iamme]

Frankly, it creeps me out that once-were 3rd world-like countries are now doing all the manufacturing tasks that we so invented and performed. And now, we want to sell the world that we are the brains, and they can pay us for our brains, while they slave away and make things for us?

Can't you see that our empire will collapse in 20 years or so, with this midset?

We are getting soft and lazy and are using the high tech reasoning as an excuse.

We first started out with slaves...then illegal immigrents doing the jobs nobody wants. Now we are exporting jobs we even DO want...to people willing to work harder and longer than us.

Can't you see it coming?

Don't you think that once they learn how to manufacture everything under the sun that they will also develop their own technoloigies, rendering the so called asset that we have, as being a techy power, to that of being just that..if that?

Can't you see us being enslaved to over 2 billion of those people over there, the way America now feels enslaved by the whims and ways of Wal-Mart?

Take heed America, as the falling of the great empire is nigh.

[Iamme]

Is it Toyota that is supposed to be overtaking GM, very soon?

This will be just the beginning (of the end).

[blakehaydn]

I do agree with you in part, but I don't know if Toyota over GM is a good example. Japan was never like these 3rd world countries you speak of.

I definitely think America has made an error in devaluing simpler jobs and not wanting them (and finding no honour in them). But this is what happens in a decadent capitalist system.

[Johnny Pixels]

Frankly, it creeps me out that once-were 3rd world-like countries are now doing all the manufacturing tasks that we so invented and performed.

What would you prefer these countries to be doing? Be nice little farming nations and stay out of the way?

Can't you see that our empire will collapse in 20 years or so, with this midset?

What empire?

Don't you think that once they learn how to manufacture everything under the sun that they will also develop their own technoloigies, rendering the so called asset that we have, as being a techy power, to that of being just that..if that?


So are you afraid of progress? Are you advocating keeping poorer countries in the dark, technologically speaking, and keeping them poor? Do you want to keep luxuries away from these people? Stop them manufacturing efficient water and sewage systems? Keep them away from adequate health care?


Can't you see us being enslaved to over 2 billion of those people over there, the way America now feels enslaved by the whims and ways of Wal-Mart?


Sounds like xenophobia. Where exactly is "over there"?


Yes, I am against sweat shops and people being underpaid and overworked. But there is a difference between this and overseas investment.

[CapelDodger]

Frankly, it creeps me out that once-were 3rd world-like countries are now doing all the manufacturing tasks that we so invented and performed. And now, we want to sell the world that we are the brains, and they can pay us for our brains, while they slave away and make things for us?

Can't you see that our empire will collapse in 20 years or so, with this midset?

What do you mean "we", white man? :)

This could as easily have been said in China and India in 1700CE, when they did the high-value manufacturing and the rest of the world bought their products. The West got ahead of the East - principally by being the first to exploit New World resources, which are pretty much used up now. So what we're seeing is a return to business-as-usual.

All the efforts of China to keep the world the way it had been, the way that worked for them, the way they were entitled to have it be, failed. Any similar efforts to stop the current changes will also fail. Not that it won't be tried - conservatism is a pernicious trait of the advantaged, and one that is all to obvious to politicians and demagogues. Better to recognise reality and adjust to new circumstances. By not doing so, the Chinese suffered a century-and-a-half of disorder, disaster, decay and death.

No-one would wish that on the US.

[AnotherSillyAlias]

So are you afraid of progress? Are you advocating keeping poorer countries in the dark, technologically speaking, and keeping them poor? Do you want to keep luxuries away from these people? Stop them manufacturing efficient water and sewage systems? Keep them away from adequate health care?




Sounds like an excellent recipe for breeding yet more terrorists.

[CapelDodger]

I do agree with you in part, but I don't know if Toyota over GM is a good example. Japan was never like these 3rd world countries you speak of.
A very different trajectory from China's. Perhaps because it was smaller, more manageable, more flexible? Or perhaps because they'd never seen themselves as a world-power? When the Japanese elite was forced to recognise changed circumstances they re-designed their economy and national aims drastically, while somehow leaving their basic culture almost untouched. For all my best efforts, I still can't fathom the Japanese.

In principle the Chinese elite could have done the same, some members even tried, but conservatism prevailed. An inertia I can understand. It's the selective inertia of the Japanese that amazes me.

Which trajectory will the US follow? Or will it find a new one? The next few decades should tell. And the same for Europe.