simplerandomwalk

Another source of American competitiveness are the many competing centres of excellence throughout the country. In the East Coast, you go to Boston, New York, Washington; in the West Coast, you go to Berkeley, San Francisco; in Middle America, you go to Chicago and Texas. You will find diversity and each centre challenging the other centres, not willing to toe the line. When the Texans found that they were oil-rich, James Baker, a former Secretary of State and a Texan, tried to create in Houston a centre that would rival Boston or New York. Jon Huntsman, the former US ambassador to Singapore and China, and a personal friend of mine, is another example of this. His family had prostate cancer problems. So when he inherited his father’s fortune, he brought the best scientists doing research on prostate cancer to his home state of Utah to study this problem. Every centre believes it is as good as any other, and all it needs are money and talent, which can be sourced. Nobody feels compelled to obey Washington or New York. If you have money, you start another centre. Because of this, there is a certain diversity in society, a competitive spirit that throws up new ideas and new products that survive the test of time. China, of course, takes a completely different approach. The Chinese believe that when the centre is strong, China prospers. There is a certain de rigueur attitude, a demand that everybody conforms to a single centre. Everyone is expected to march to the same drummer. Even Britain and France cannot match the Americans on this. In France, everyone who is bright ends up in the grandes écoles. In Britain, it is Oxbridge. These countries are relatively small, compact and therefore more uniform. From the late 1970s to the 1980s, America lost its industrial lead to reviving economic powers Japan and Germany. They got overtaken in electronics, steel, petrochemicals and the auto industry. These were important manufacturing sectors that employed many workers, including blue-collar ones who were represented by trade unions. In some European countries, trade unions resisted labour reforms by threatening industrial action that would inflict severe short-term losses. But in America, the opposite happened. Corporations could make hard but necessary changes. They downsized, retrenched workers, and improved productivity through the use of technology, including IT. The American economy came roaring back. New businesses were formed to help companies optimise their IT systems, including Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle. After a period of painful adjustments, companies were able to create new and better-paying jobs. They were not interested in hanging on to old-type jobs which can be done by China, India and Eastern Europe. They saw their future in a world where wealth was generated not by making widgets or cars, but by brain power, imagination, artistry, knowledge and intellectual property. America was back in the game. It regained its status as the world’s fastest-growing developed economy. I came to appreciate fully the dynamism of the entrepreneurial American. You continue to see it today. Americans run a leaner, more competitive system. They file more patents. They are always striving to make something new or do something better. - Lee Kuan Yew