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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jttmab who wrote (122187)	12/27/2003 12:10:27 AM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Oh well. Information overload. Let's break it down. We'll start with this. You lost me there. When the Europeans discovered the Americas and stole the gold and silver from the indigenous people, that was globalization. Is there a statute of limitations on international crimes? Shouldn't there be? Or shall every square foot taken from someone else at gunpoint be forever after a just cause for war? You tell us you're American. Your forebears benefited from that theft. Are you buying land and giving it to native Americans in restitution? Are the Asians good? D**n right. That's why we've imported so many into Silicon Valley.Including Indians, Lizzie Tudor's pet peeve. I DO notice that NONE of the countries we were previously discussing outrank the US. Remember "Europe"?

To: jttmab who wrote (122187)	12/30/2003 2:32:26 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Patents per capita is not a valid metric. For one thing, it is easier to get patents in some countries than in others. More importantly, some inventions are breakthroughs, others refinements, still others have no real consequence to society. The Japanese are brilliant at refining existing technology, honing it to perfection. But their ability to creatively transform a field through a different way of looking at a problem has long been a subject of criticism. I am not sure I totally buy the argument that a lack of diversity and extreme cultural hegemony and obedience within Japan deters "outside the box" thinking while the more freewheeling American culture encourages such thinking. But I do think there is something to that argument, even if it gets overstated, and looking at absolute numbers of patents doesn't tell the whole story. Where was the light bulb invented? Who brought principles of mass production to automobiles? Americans. Who makes cars the most efficiently now? The Japanese. Which inventions were more valuable to society and created more value for shareholders?