Yes, the de-Christianization of America will save it from a decline.
Jai Maharaj
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
In article <GjHte.49463$oK.25694@okepread02>,
"harmony" <aka@hotmail.com> posted:
america can't and won't decline. more and more americans are turning pagans.
paganism promotes free thinking and enterprise.
<ltlee1@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1119267423.612588.203650@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
Dr. Jai Maharaj wrote:
If the US considers Bharat and other Asian countries
a "threat" then can carpet bombers be far away?
Yes. The question is: Can America decline peacefully?
- <ltlee1@hotmail.com>
In article <1119230584.674487467bd152db18ea3b615a18af1c@teranews>,
"Valmiki" <valmiki@great.guruji> posted:
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/05_25/b3938029_mz005.htm?chan=gb&sub=books&
JUNE 20, 2005
BOOKS
Why Asia Will Eat Our Lunch
THREE BILLION NEW CAPITALISTS
The Great Shift of Wealth
and Power to the East
By Clyde Prestowitz
Basic Books; 321pp; $26.95
Editor's Review
The Good A clear, unbiased, and scary look at the threat that China
and
India pose to the U.S. economy.
The Bad It may be a tad pessimistic, given the author's tendency to
assume
current trends will continue.
The Bottom Line A persuasive argument that Washington's disdain for
industrial policy is shortsighted.
Clyde Prestowitz says he had a revelation in 2003 when his oldest son,
a
software developer living on Lake Tahoe in California, asked him to
co-invest in a snow-removal company. Why, wondered Prestowitz, would
his
high-tech offspring go into a business "as mundane as snow removal?"
Explained the son: "Dad, they can't move the snow to India."
It's an example of the angst spreading among America's technology
professionals as they watch India snare big chunks of the U.S.
services
sector while China runs off with America's manufacturing patrimony.
His
son's fears, Prestowitz asserts in Three Billion New Capitalists: The
Great
Shift of Wealth and Power to the East, are all too rational.
Actually, Prestowitz didn't need the heads-up from his son. He has
been
mulling over America's competitiveness problems for 30 years, most
recently
as head of his own think tank -- the Economic Strategy Institute in
Washington. Before that he was an international executive for U.S.
multinationals, a trade negotiator in the Reagan Administration, and
author
of a ground-breaking, although ultimately alarmist, 1988 book about
U.S.-Japan relations, Trading Places. Prestowitz writes with clarity,
historical perspective, and an uncommon ability to extricate himself
from
the intellectual straitjackets that hobble so many Washington economic
policymakers. Free trader or protectionist? Democrat or Republican?
Keynesian or supply-sider? He doesn't fit in any of those boxes.
Governments have long been creating comparative advantages for their
own
economies, Prestowitz notes, but U.S. policymakers have apparently
forgotten
this. Despite today's fashionable disdain for industrial policy,
Washington
was once an active participant in boosting the gross domestic product.
The
federal government created Radio Corporation of America and
established U.S.
dominance in radio technology, launched Boeing (BA ) and nurtured it
with
government contracts, and created AT&T (T ) and its genius pool at
Bell
Laboratories (B ), cradle of microelectronics. Then there's the
Internet.
"The apparently effortless technological supremacy Americans assume as
a
birthright...had nothing to do with market forces and everything to do
with
targeted policy decisions," Prestowitz notes.
Prestowitz also challenges one of the most popular and soothing myths
in
Washington -- that U.S. workers can compete with any in the world if
given
"a level playing field." The truth: Western workers won't be able to
compete
without accepting wage cuts, since, in the area of labor costs, China
enjoys
a "fifteen to thirtyfold advantage" over the developed world.
China and India, which together accounted for 75% of the world's GDP
before
the discovery of America, are on a steep trajectory to regain their
prominence. "The potential size of their markets, their endless supply
of
low-cost labor, the unique combination of many highly skilled but
low-paid
professionals, and the investment incentives offered by their
governments
will constitute an irresistible package" that will soak up global
investment.
Another central theme of the book is the value of "linkage" among
technologies. Development of the VCR by Japanese companies led that
country
into the semiconductor business, Prestowitz says. Japan continues to
understand the importance of linkage, while U.S. leaders seem not to:
Contrast Sony Corp.'s (SNE ) dogged efforts to link its PCs with TVs,
camcorders, and other technologies to create a multimedia terminal
with
IBM's (IBM ) sale to China's Lenovo Group Ltd. (LNVGY ) of its laptop
business. Which is the better strategy?
India, meanwhile, is moving rapidly up the value chain with its
emphasis on
software and computer services, along with processing of tax returns,
medical X-rays, and the like. Want a new kidney or a hip? Visit one of
India's high-tech "medical tourism" hospitals and get the procedure
for less
than half the cost in the U.S. or Canada, even figuring in the
airfare.
Surprisingly, there are already more info tech engineers in Bangalore
(150,000) than in Silicon Valley (130,000).
There is reason for hope, Prestowitz allows. America's technology is
often
the best, as are its universities. The U.S. leads in biotech, and it
retains
an entrepreneurial culture. That said, Prestowitz still could be too
pessimistic. As with Trading Places, he tends to project current
trends far
into the unknowable future.
But the U.S. government is dangerously shortsighted. The country's
savings
rate, secondary-education system, energy and water conservation,
critical
infrastructure, research investment, and worker training lag behind
those in
too many other nations.
You won't want to pick up Prestowitz' book if you seek reassurance
that
America is going to stay No. 1 -- because, dammit, we just are, Bud!
In
fact, as he points out, even as U.S. scores in math sink, American
high
school students continue to think that they are ranked first.
Depressing,
but if all else fails, remember: There's always snow removal.
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I am not connected to the book in any way!
Valmiki
.
