[rescue] Do you remember when? Security software.....

Tue Aug 12 23:24:15 CDT 2003

On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 09:13:20PM -0700, Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez wrote:
> > The thing is, the world cannot keep producing overseas and selling in
> > the US.
> 
> "The world"? Do you mean "American Companies," US companies decided to
> move production overseas, I do not believe it is "the world" to blame but
> American companies.
> 
> The US can not expect to survive as a services based economy, it is
> common sense... if production can be made cheaper elsewhere, it also
> follows that services too can be offered cheaper else where. This was a
> dangerous trend, and as long as MBAs in this country only care about short
> term profits and behavior we will be screwed. Then again I have the
> extreme view that MBAs are some sort of evil spawn....

Francisco, 

You should make an appeal to history here.  Look at what happened to
the British Empire when they focused on the equivalent for their time
"services" instead of producing things.

>  It can't happen indefinitely.  The world has been subsidized
> > on the US economy for decades, even when we had a strong economy.
> 
> 2 things to clarify here. I believe you got your sentence wrog: The world
> has been subsidizing the US economy for years, not the other way around.

No, the USA deals freely and fairly with others even when the favor is
not returned.  China has PNTR with the USA; but the tariff on US-made
goods headed for China is 50% .

Also, Sony and Canon both profited from work done by US companies that
were not compensated for it: Sony - got their start by using
transistors in a small radio after a US company named Regency did the
work and produced the first transistor radio.  

Canon was not able to penetrate the copier market until an judge ruled
that due to anti-trust regulations Xerox had to license their patents
to any and all comers for a modest fee.  

Can you think of something equivalent where the advantage accrued to
US GDP from something a Japanese company was forced to license?

> The US GDP is aroun $11 Trillion, its debt is $6 Trillion. That looks
> pretty subsidiced to me.

Dunno what you mean by this.  50% debt ratio is OK as long as you can
meet the payments, if that is what you are saying.  More important
question is, is US GDP growing each year?  If so, that is good; it is
sort of like buying a house for $100,000 and then having the value go
up to $125,000 - the payments are OK to make.

But if US GDP goes down.... !!!!

> I am waiting to see CEO jobs being outsourced just for poetic justice.
> Sorry John you will have to clear your executive chair... Rajeev will be
> taking over your duties, he is telecommuting from Bombay and he only asks
> for 1000 ruies per month an a big bossomed blonde American secretary. I
> just made sense John, hope you understand... nothing personal it is just
> the bottom line.

Heh, will never happen, but funny to think about... the hot new job?
Being a Pam Anderson type who doesn't mind answering the phones all
day.  I'd like to see the DeVry Institute ad for that! "Starting at
$75,000 per year!"

> Not to go off on a rant, but it has been mindblowing to me the amount of
> denial from some Americans (media, politicians) about the actual shape of
> the economy. I can usually gauge the state of the economy by traffic on the
> 880 and 101 in SV, and it doesn't make me feel better when I arrive 1/2 hr

But how is traffic in Austin, TX?  Bend, Oregon?  etc.  I dunno, am
just asking.

--Patrick