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Introduction: America at Work: No More Business as Usual
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19636 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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10 / 1991 |
961 Words |
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History is replete with evidence that nations constantly change. While the laws of nature remain the same and season follows season, the status of nations, as well as industry, is always one of advancement or decline. One of America's great strengths has been its ability to adapt to changing conditions. Today that ability is being challenged as never before in the global marketplace.
Despite outward signs of prosperity, there is a growing, sense that something is amiss. In the early 1970s, Ford and General Motors were world leaders in the automotive industry. Now they are struggling to keep up with Toyota, Nissan, and Honda. Texas Instruments and Motorola used to be leaders of the semiconductor industry. Today NEC is number one, Toshiba and Fujitsu are number two, Hitachi is number three, Motorola is fourth, and TI is fifth. The aerospace industry has been the bellwether of American ingenuity, but it, too, is being threatened. At the same time, the banking center of the world has shifted from New York to Tokyo. Bank of America, Chase, and Citicorp used to be among the top ten banks of the world; today they aren't even among the top twenty. From shoes and textiles to machine tools and heavy equipment, the list of industries that have been lost or weakened by foreign competition reads like a chamber of commerce directory.
The once weak and unsophisticated economies of Southeast Asia are now posting growth rates among the highest in the world, exporting billions of dollars worth of high quality consumer goods to the United States. By the end of the century, Eastern Europe and China will enter the already fierce competition for world business, making it even harder for U.S. businesses to hold on to existing markets and establish new ones.
Over the last decade we have done little to assure Americas long-term economic well-being by creating an economy that:
-has massive deficits in the federal budget:
-is biased in favor of consumption;
-discriminates against saving and investment;
-is heavily regulated, which pushes costs up;
-impedes risk and innovation;
-is burdened with astronomical international debt.
On top of all this, our educational system is failing to adequately train
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