[Re: [Stimulering i.p.v. bezuiniging]]

Fri Apr 23 19:04:17 CEST 2004

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Toch grappig dat Friedman, waar ik het overigens lang niet altijd mee
eens ben, de ontwikkeling wat betreft integratie Azie/Europa juist als
een bedreiging ziet voor de VS. Dat lijkt me wel erg pessimistisch (of
optimistisch, voor Europeanen). Wel gelijk heeft hij dat India en China
niet slechts als lage lonen fabricage landen moeten worden gezien. Die
fout maken vooral de Democrats in de VS. Ook Siemens, waar ik zelf
binnen een R&D afdeling werkzaam ben, heeft recent een grote
onderzoeksafdeling in Bangalore (India) opgezet en ook China wordt niet
vergeten, maar daarover kan ik niet uit de school klappen. 

Groeten,
Mark Giebels

<-----Original Message-----> 
From: Martin Lentink
Sent: 4/23/2004 5:10:04 AM
To: mark at giebels.org;D66 at NIC.SURFNET.NL;bbakker at usa.net
Subject: Re: [Re: [Stimulering i.p.v. bezuiniging]]

Mark Giebels wrote: 
> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl 
> 
> Bert, 
> 
> De aanwezigheid van hoog opgeleide mensen is volgens mij belangrijker 
> voor een kenniseconomie dan de loonkosten. En die twee zijn in een 
> globaliserende economie als het goed is tegenstrijdig. Ook zijn 
> buitenlanders eerder geneigd zich in Nederland voor een tijdje te 
> vestigen als de lonen hoog zijn. Je levert immers niet graag de helft 
> van je salaris in als je een tijdje in NEderland wil gaan werken. 

> Amerika doet het wat dat betreft veel beter dan NEderland, of 
> eigenlijk 
> Europa. De universiteiten zitten vol met Aziatische studenten en 
> professoren. Het percentage ethnische aziaten onder de Amerikanen is 
> sterk groeiende. En de mogelijkheden voor tijdelijke immigratie zijn 
> veel groter. 

Lees in dit kader ook eens de column van Tom Friedman in de NYT van 
gisteren: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/opinion/22FRIE.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2f
Editorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fThomas%20L%20Friedma
n 

Omdat bovenstaande link waarschijnlijk afgebroken zal worden bijgaand de
tekst: 
__________________________________________________________ 
Losing Our Edge? 
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN 

was just out in Silicon Valley, checking in with high-tech entrepreneurs
about the state of their business. I wouldn't say they were universally 
gloomy, but I did detect something I hadn't detected before: a real
undertow 
of concern that America is losing its competitive edge vis-à-vis China, 
India, Japan and other Asian tigers, and that the Bush team is deaf,
dumb 
and blind to this situation. 

Several executives explained to me that they were opening new plants in 
Asia - not because of cheaper labor. Labor is a small component now in
an 
automated high-tech manufacturing plant. It is because governments in
these 
countries are so eager for employment and the transfer of technology to 
their young populations that they are offering huge tax holidays for
U.S. 
manufacturers who will set up shop. Because most of these countries also
offer some form of national health insurance, U.S. companies shed that
huge 
open liability as well. 

Other executives complained bitterly that the Department of Homeland 
Security is making it so hard for legitimate foreigners to get visas to 
study or work in America that many have given up the age-old dream of
coming 
here. Instead, they are studying in England and other Western European 
nations, and even China. This is leading to a twofold disaster. 

First, one of America's greatest assets - its ability to skim the cream
off 
the first-round intellectual draft choices from around the world and
bring 
them to our shores to innovate - will be diminished, and that in turn
will 
shrink our talent pool. And second, we could lose a whole generation of 
foreigners who would normally come here to study, and then would take 
American ideas and American relationships back home. In a decade we will
feel that loss in America's standing around the world. 

Still others pointed out that the percentage of Americans graduating
with 
bachelor's degrees in science and engineering is less than half of the 
comparable percentage in China and Japan, and that U.S. government 
investments are flagging in basic research in physics, chemistry and 
engineering. Anyone who thinks that all the Indian and Chinese techies
are 
doing is answering call-center phones or solving tech problems for Dell 
customers is sadly mistaken. U.S. firms are moving serious research and 
development to India and China. 

The bottom line: we are actually in the middle of two struggles right
now. 
One is against the Islamist terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere, and the
other 
is a competitiveness-and-innovation struggle against India, China, Japan
and 
their neighbors. And while we are all fixated on the former (I've been
no 
exception), we are completely ignoring the latter. We have got to get
our 
focus back in balance, not to mention our budget. We can't wage war on 
income taxes and terrorism and a war for innovation at the same time. 

Craig Barrett, the C.E.O. of Intel, noted that Intel sponsors an 
international science competition every year. This year it attracted
some 
50,000 American high school kids. "I was in China 10 days ago," Mr.
Barrett 
said, "and I asked them how many kids in China participated in the local
science fairs that feed into the national fair [and ultimately the Intel
finals]. They told me six million kids." 

For now, the U.S. still excels at teaching science and engineering at
the 
graduate level, and also in university research. But as the Chinese get
more 
feeder stock coming up through their high schools and colleges, "they
will 
get to the same level as us after a decade," Mr. Barrett said. "We are
not 
graduating the volume, we do not have a lock on the infrastructure, we
do 
not have a lock on the new ideas, and we are either flat-lining, or in
real 
dollars cutting back, our investments in physical science." 

And what is the Bush strategy? Let's go to Mars. Hello? Right now we
should 
have a Manhattan Project to develop a hydrogen-based energy economy -
it's 
within reach and would serve our economy, our environment and our
foreign 
policy by diminishing our dependence on foreign oil. Instead, the Bush
team 
says let's go to Mars. Where is Congress? Out to lunch - or, worse,
obsessed 
with trying to keep Susie Smith's job at the local pillow factory that
is 
moving to the Caribbean - without thinking about a national
competitiveness 
strategy. And where is Wall Street? So many of the plutocrats there know
that the Bush fiscal policy is a long-term disaster. They know it - but
they 
won't say a word because they are too greedy or too gutless. 

The only crisis the U.S. thinks it's in today is the war on terrorism,
Mr. 
Barrett said. "It's not." 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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------------------------------------- 

...... 

Martin Lentink 

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