Tom Friedman brings up one point which none of the anti-outsourcing people talk about
The second group of boomers barreling down the highway are the young people in India, China and Eastern Europe, who in this increasingly flat world will be able to compete with your kids and mine more directly than ever for high-value-added jobs. Attention Wal-Mart shoppers: The Chinese and the Indians are not racing us to the bottom. They are racing us to the top. Young Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs are not content just to build our designs. They aspire to design the next wave of innovations and dominate those markets. Good jobs are being outsourced to them not simply because they’ll work for less, but because they are better educated in the math and science skills required for 21st-century work.
When was the last time you met a 12-year-old who told you he or she wanted to grow up to be an engineer? When Bill Gates goes to China, students hang from the rafters and scalp tickets to hear him speak. In China, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America, Britney Spears is Britney Spears. We need a Bill Cosby-like president to tell all parents the truth: throw out your kid’s idiotic video game, shut off the TV and get Johnny and Suzy to work, because there is a storm coming their way. [number is reducing. The bright minds + VC money created employment for many, but may not be in the future.
Yes education is important, but massive reforms are needed in education in China and more so in India. There is no doubt that innovation is happening. But would India be able to re-create a silicon valley. Will we able to build a company like Apple that dares to “think different”. For stuff like this you don’t need code monkeys, you need people who are end-users. It’s got not much to do with computer science or math. The most important skill is to figure out where you can improve people’s life.
JK,
This is strictly OT, but can you please tell me where I can buy The Saga of Dharmapuri
by O.V. Vijayan? I searched for it in Amazon and found it, but the cost+shipping is prohibitive. Any idea where I can order it online apart from Fabmall and firstandsecond?
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Thanks.
Sandeep, I looked in Rediff, they seem to have only OV Vijayan’s Legend of Khasak. I remember seeing a Penguin Book which has four novels of Vijayan, including the Saga of Dharmapuri. You might be better off asking a brick and mortar store in India about it.
JK says:”The bright minds + VC money created employment for many, but may not be in the future.”
Add cheap oil in the 90s to that equation.