Friday, June 09, 2006

Saw an anonymous quote I wanted to share (and remember myself): Integrity commits itself to character over personal gain, people over things, service over power, discipline over impulse, commitment over convenience, and the long view over the immediate.

Also read Newsweek's latest Thing You Should Fear cover story - the decreasing gap between American science/engineering and the rest of the world. That's going to happen - not because America's getting any worse (we still file by far the highest number of technology patents and have the largest pool of high-level analytical jobs), but because it's easier for other countries to learn what we discovered and catch up. Kinda like it's easier to drive from St. Louis to Washington state than it was for Clark & Lewis to find it.

I don't see it as a bad thing for other countries to have a higher growth rate. It's going to impact us, but that might not be a bad thing. I think the last 50 years spoiled us, where our technological skills combined with the rest of the developed world recovering from World War II or gaining first-nation status resulted in a standard of living insanely above the world average. That kind of difference is unhealthy as it inspires at least some of those left behind to anger (the foot soldiers of al Qaeda). We were so far out ahead that everyone catching up could actually reduce our standard of living, although I have no doubt we'll stay at the top and above the fastest risers like India and China. This will (hopefully) lead to a multipolar world where more people enjoy better living, although this catch-up period could be painful. Of course, painful means American families lowering themselves to only, say, 10-15 times the professional income of other countries. Definitely could give meaning to the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times."
posted by Unknown 11:32 PM | 1 comments