Finally, we come to other side of Atlantic.. North America.. Surprisingly.. there are three very different major countries with different kind of economies..
Starting with Canada.. I guess "All is Well" in that part of north west.. Canada's conservative (as compared to its southern partners) economic policies coupled with sudden burst of energy related activities are giving boom time to the country.. and it is prospering like anything we are yet to see in west.. However, due to sever weather conditions, only very few brave people are willing to relocate to Canada despite several great incentives over there.. I think we all agree that Canada is not going to be Japan any time soon.. Except if Crude oil prices comes to less than $40/barrel.. Which is highly unlikely.. in case that happens, we will re-visit this country later..
Then comes the biggest fish in the West.. our dear beloved (or equally hated by many as well) United States of America.. Which has been biggest and strongest growth driver for long time in wild wild west.. Several things were on US side.. At least from beginning of twentieth Century.. Starting with great minds.. excellent democracy.. abundant resources.. very limited population.. relatively easy immigration policies.. almost none or very few direct hostile attacks... lot of hostile activities in rest of the world... US took full advantage of all these and many other opportunities.. Very well executed and results were terrific.. It resulted in great infrastructure and US become super power of twentieth century..
But at the dawn of twenty first century (or even earlier) things started declining.. and multiple factors combined to accelerate this decline.. I would say most important was or still is... outlook and thinking of mass population..
if entire population starts following up mob phycology and starts following and taking dumb decisions.. then only GOD save us.. (but only if GOD exists??). It all started with blind wars in middle east and Afghanistan... wars without well defined objectives.. On one hand funds are being cut in schools and teachers are being laid off to save couple of million dollars a year.. on the other hand couple of billion dollars are being spent every day as if it is simple change... Even after spending more than trillion of dollars on these wars.. we are still not sure if we achieved anything or simply created more hatred and fanatism against US.. at the same time sacrificing limited resources on at this crucial juncture on these wars instead of schools and infrastructure of the nation..
At the same time, I would be very cautious and will be clear.. a decade of decline is very short time on overall scheme of things.. There is still lot of good things which can still take back this country to its glory days.. more importantly.. lot of those good or great things doesn't exist in rest of the developed world and even in many of so called emerging economies.. If US can bring its act together we still can change the course and bring things back to normal..
Coming back to Comparison with Japan.. USA is almost exactly opposite of Japanese thinking and culture.. US society is based on consumption.. consumption beyond our means.. However, Japan is more purely driven by exports, savings, manufacturing, work and work and work and work.. In Software engineering terms, if US is R&D/Innovation and development then Japan is QA and Support (oops.. it didn't fit that well..). Though I feel that Japan was hurt more by Chinese manufacturing where as US was hurt more by Indian IT.. I guess, I am not making much sense.. so I will stop now on this.. but lastly, I feel if current condition of US can be compared to any one.. then it has to be UK.. UK was King of nineteenth century and it ultimately lost its prestige and wealth in Wars.. US is almost on same path.. unless we change our course fast enough and focus on our internal situation.. but challenge is that all the economies of world are so tightly integrated that if one country sinks.. it will sync rest of the world as well..
On internal issues.. Any country is on definitive course of decline and demise if their congress takes few minutes to pass budget/grants for wars/army and debates for weeks/months for grants to cash strapped schools and universities.. or sometime they never pass as well.. How bad congress can get when they can't even agree on cuts/spending of 10-15 million dollar where as result of that itself is loss of more than thirty million dollars per day.... loss of payroll and different projects.. What a bunch of morons!!! How careless they can be.. Had it been any organization, all these morons should have been fired or made to work late night till they figure solution to this petty problem.. These kind of examples show how bankrupt a country is.. and what is more to come.. enough of blah blah..
Starting with Canada.. I guess "All is Well" in that part of north west.. Canada's conservative (as compared to its southern partners) economic policies coupled with sudden burst of energy related activities are giving boom time to the country.. and it is prospering like anything we are yet to see in west.. However, due to sever weather conditions, only very few brave people are willing to relocate to Canada despite several great incentives over there.. I think we all agree that Canada is not going to be Japan any time soon.. Except if Crude oil prices comes to less than $40/barrel.. Which is highly unlikely.. in case that happens, we will re-visit this country later..
Then comes the biggest fish in the West.. our dear beloved (or equally hated by many as well) United States of America.. Which has been biggest and strongest growth driver for long time in wild wild west.. Several things were on US side.. At least from beginning of twentieth Century.. Starting with great minds.. excellent democracy.. abundant resources.. very limited population.. relatively easy immigration policies.. almost none or very few direct hostile attacks... lot of hostile activities in rest of the world... US took full advantage of all these and many other opportunities.. Very well executed and results were terrific.. It resulted in great infrastructure and US become super power of twentieth century..
But at the dawn of twenty first century (or even earlier) things started declining.. and multiple factors combined to accelerate this decline.. I would say most important was or still is... outlook and thinking of mass population..
if entire population starts following up mob phycology and starts following and taking dumb decisions.. then only GOD save us.. (but only if GOD exists??). It all started with blind wars in middle east and Afghanistan... wars without well defined objectives.. On one hand funds are being cut in schools and teachers are being laid off to save couple of million dollars a year.. on the other hand couple of billion dollars are being spent every day as if it is simple change... Even after spending more than trillion of dollars on these wars.. we are still not sure if we achieved anything or simply created more hatred and fanatism against US.. at the same time sacrificing limited resources on at this crucial juncture on these wars instead of schools and infrastructure of the nation..
At the same time, I would be very cautious and will be clear.. a decade of decline is very short time on overall scheme of things.. There is still lot of good things which can still take back this country to its glory days.. more importantly.. lot of those good or great things doesn't exist in rest of the developed world and even in many of so called emerging economies.. If US can bring its act together we still can change the course and bring things back to normal..
Coming back to Comparison with Japan.. USA is almost exactly opposite of Japanese thinking and culture.. US society is based on consumption.. consumption beyond our means.. However, Japan is more purely driven by exports, savings, manufacturing, work and work and work and work.. In Software engineering terms, if US is R&D/Innovation and development then Japan is QA and Support (oops.. it didn't fit that well..). Though I feel that Japan was hurt more by Chinese manufacturing where as US was hurt more by Indian IT.. I guess, I am not making much sense.. so I will stop now on this.. but lastly, I feel if current condition of US can be compared to any one.. then it has to be UK.. UK was King of nineteenth century and it ultimately lost its prestige and wealth in Wars.. US is almost on same path.. unless we change our course fast enough and focus on our internal situation.. but challenge is that all the economies of world are so tightly integrated that if one country sinks.. it will sync rest of the world as well..
On internal issues.. Any country is on definitive course of decline and demise if their congress takes few minutes to pass budget/grants for wars/army and debates for weeks/months for grants to cash strapped schools and universities.. or sometime they never pass as well.. How bad congress can get when they can't even agree on cuts/spending of 10-15 million dollar where as result of that itself is loss of more than thirty million dollars per day.... loss of payroll and different projects.. What a bunch of morons!!! How careless they can be.. Had it been any organization, all these morons should have been fired or made to work late night till they figure solution to this petty problem.. These kind of examples show how bankrupt a country is.. and what is more to come.. enough of blah blah..
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