Chapter 25 Chapter 9 This is not a drill (2)

We have encountered similar situations.Every time we push the boundaries of human knowledge, all jobs become more complex, requiring more ways of knowing things and solving problems.Even so, our society transitioned from an agricultural society to an industrial one 150 years ago.And for most Americans, our standard of living has not declined but has risen substantially.How did this change come about?We started by making secondary education compulsory. "Everyone should have at least a middle-level education," says Paul, an economist at Stanford University."That's what the middle school education movement of the 20th century advocated," says Romer. As economic historians have argued in various studies (cf. Harvard economist Claudia Golden and Larry Katz), the development of technology and trade has made the economic pie bigger and bigger, but a larger share has been transferred from low-skilled workers to high-skilled workers, through the implementation of mandatory high school Education, more and more Americans into a technology-intensive workforce, each getting a bigger and bigger slice of the pie.Over the course of history, this popularization of secondary education was supported by government acts and gradually developed into the modern university education system.

"This idea is too great," Romer said. "What we lack now is the great political imagination that we had when we transitioned from the 19th century to the 20th century. That kind of imagination is essential for us to enter the 21st century. The challenge of flattening the timing is very important." Romer added that what the government needs to do now is to subsidize at least the first and second years of university without guaranteeing compulsory university education.This subsidy is equal to all colleges, whether it is state or community or even technical schools.As the world becomes flatter, a college education will become increasingly critical as technology spreads and old jobs disappear and new ones pop up with a greater metabolism than they did 100+ years ago The speed of transformation is much faster.

Bringing more and more people to a college education has two effects.On the one hand, it can create more and more skilled workers and new jobs that can create higher value.On the other hand, it shrinks the pool of low-skilled workers engaged in tasks such as road maintenance, housekeeping, and Starbucks waitresses, whose wages, in turn, can remain stable as labor supply falls (when we control for immigration in the case of).It's not uncommon for plumbers to earn $75 an hour in some major urban areas, where a good housekeeper or cook is hard to find. From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, the United States provided us with a good example by training workers, restricting immigration, and controlling the supply of low-skilled workers. Today, we can also grow the middle class in the same way without It will lead to serious inequality in the distribution of income.Romer said: "Actually, from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, the national income gap was not very large. However, in the last 20 to 30 years, people's income levels have gradually become polarized. This shows that if you want to Keeping your relative position the same, you have to learn more technical knowledge to qualify for a new job. It is relatively easy to transition from an agricultural worker to a polite telephone operator who speaks correct English, but As these low-skilled jobs migrate to India, the transition from being a telephone operator to being a technician who can install and fix voicemail systems or write related software is a dramatic leap.

While emphasizing the high end of the education system, that is, university education, it is also very important to strengthen the popularization of education in technical schools and community schools.Everyone should have the opportunity to continue their education beyond high school, otherwise only the children of high earners are likely to be trained in new skills and receive a larger share of the income distribution.We must increase government subsidies for low-income people so that every child has the opportunity to be educated at community colleges and continue education for more and more low-skilled workers.

Kennedy wanted to put a man on the moon, and I want to put every American on a campus. Employers play an important role in the transition from lifetime employment to lifetime employment. For example, CapitalOne, a global credit card company, has shifted its back-office operations to Wipro and Infosys in India over the past few years. In competing in the global financial services market, it must find ways to save costs.So the company tried to show the workers the predicament the company was facing, and told people that it was impossible to be employed for life.Subsequently, the company designed a set of programs to provide all-round training for computer programmers who were most impacted by outsourcing, making them versatile and able to work in both the main system and the subsystems.

CapitalOne has similarly trained employees across the business, making them adept at everything from auto loans to risk management.As a result, as operations moved abroad, those workers who left the company after training had an advantage in finding new jobs because they were well-versed and could be employed in multiple jobs. Workers who have also been trained and remain with the company will be more valuable to CapitalOne because they can make ten out of one. Based on their own interests, companies should try to train their employees to become "Swiss Army Knives". The government should also provide subsidies or tax incentives to companies so that they can arrange as many learning opportunities as possible for employees.From online degree studies to in-company mentoring for different roles.The cost to companies to provide these educational programs is low.With increased opportunities for lifelong learning for employees, both making the company's workforce generalist and leaving workers who leave their jobs in a layoff with more skills than when they first arrived, it's also true for companies. Their moral responsibilities to their employees.Today, if there is an implicit new social contract between employers and employees, it should be this: you work for me, and while you work, I promise to provide you with various opportunities for education and training, Make you a more competitive all-rounder.

george.Miller is a senior Democratic congressman from San Francisco's East Bay area, and he is committed to the development of local public schools.He once said to me, "Education is a process, not a place." Education can and must happen anywhere—in school, in the office, at home, online, in the classroom, or on your PDA—through traditional teachers, Self-study formats or online programs, etc., and whether you work or not, you can't relax, because somewhere, your competitors are not letting up. As we go all out to build our social organism, we also continue to import beneficial ingredients from abroad.

Make most of the Indian, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Iranian, Arab, and Israeli engineers, physicists, and scientists studying and working in the United States U.S. citizens.They come from the East, are well educated, hardworking, and would love to become American citizens if given the opportunity. These are the people our country needs and we cannot let the FBI, CIA and NSA get the next Muhammad.Atta refused, let alone the next Sergei.Breen turned it down.Sergey.Brin is one of the founders of Google and was born in Russia.As a friend of ours who works in computer design put it: "If one day a foreign-born person takes my job, I want them to be U.S. citizens so that the taxes they pay will pay for my retirement."

I hope that relevant immigration policies will be introduced so that every foreign student who has obtained a doctorate in a regular university can get a 5-year work visa.The aspects of research these Ph. D.s are engaged in are secondary, and I don't care whether he studies Greek mythology or mathematics.If we can bring all kinds of elites around the world, they will undoubtedly benefit the United States.If the flat world is a talent race, then we should bring in the most talent in the world.john.Johns Hopkins President Bill. Brody said: "My job is like running a baseball team. There is no need for an agent to sign a permanent contract with each member. We search for talent on a global scale, and we have to do our best to bring these talents together. Because some of them are going to be Barvey. Ruth, you can't let this kind of fat go to other people's fields."

Good Fat – The Buffer Mechanism While in a flat world, competition on a global scale will cause the old corporate and government safety nets to fade away, some fat needs to be preserved, and even added, while people build muscle.As anyone worried about their cholesterol levels knows, some fats are good, and everyone needs a certain amount.The same is true for the construction of the social organism of a country in a flat world.Social security is good fat, and the excessive welfare policy that makes people eat too much and do nothing is excess fat.My specific suggestion is that, in a flat world, we should introduce payroll insurance.

Lowry, an economist at the University of California at Cruise.Kretzer's research shows that in the manufacturing industry during the 1980s and 1990s, two-thirds of workers who lost their jobs to foreign competition earned less than they had in their new jobs. 1 in 4 workers earn 30% less in their new job. Losing a job for any reason is a major blow to the worker and his family, especially for older workers who Poor technical acceptance or inability to engage in higher-skilled jobs due to low education. The salary insurance system was first established in 1986 by Robert of Harvard University.Robert of the Lawrence and Brookings Institutions. E. Litan proposed in a book called "Saving Free Trade".After the idea was put forward, it did not attract much attention, and it was not pursued until 2001 after the discussion between Kletzer and Litan.At that time, the committees of the two major political parties in the United States were quarreling over the issue of reducing the trade deficit. Except for the salary insurance system, the two sides did not reach any agreement on the causes of the trade deficit and how to solve the deficit. This has actually achieved the political status of the system. "In trade there are naturally winners and losers, and what we're thinking about is creating a mechanism where the winners can compensate the losers, especially those who find themselves in new jobs with significantly lower wages than before," Lawrence said. Workers are subsidized." He also revealed the formation process of this idea, that is, everyone has "comprehensive qualities and special skills", and the rewards for the two are different.You'll find this out when you switch jobs. You may have gone to college and qualified as a CPA, or you may have gone to high school and have the ability to run machine tools, and your salary will reflect those skills.But if one day, the work on lathes is transferred to China, the work on accounting is transferred to India, and you have to find a new job.Since your abilities in using a lathe and doing accounting are useless for the new position, your boss can only pay you according to your overall quality (education level).Paycheck Protection partially compensates for the difference between your old and new wages for a specific period during which you can learn new special skills. Unemployment insurance can ease the pain of losing a job, but it can do little to address the top concerns of workers about falling wages for new jobs and the inability to pay for health insurance.Workers must meet three criteria in order to receive wage compensation.First, the cause of the enterprise must be the transfer of original jobs abroad, the downsizing of the industry, or the closure of factories.Second, at least two years of working in the original job.Third, workers are not compensated until they find a new job. This is done because it gives workers an incentive to speed up the process of finding a job instead of sitting on benefits.It can also increase the opportunities for workers to receive on-the-job training.Receiving training while working is always the best way for workers to learn new skills. It is not like the reemployment training organized by the government, because no matter how you look for a job, even after completing the training, you still cannot get rid of the trouble of career. Eligible workers will receive a two-year subsidy that compensates for half of the original wage reduction (more than $10,000 per year).Kletzer and Litan also recommend that the government pay for half of unemployed workers' health insurance for six months.The payroll insurance system is much better than the traditional state-provided unemployment insurance, which provides only 50 percent of original wages for half a year and does not respond to declining wages in workers' new jobs. Kletzer and Litan added that while unemployed workers have the right to continue to purchase health insurance from their former employers, they often struggle to use this right without subsidies.Although unemployed workers can receive an additional one-year unemployment insurance after participating in reemployment training, it is not guaranteed to get a job.Moreover, the so-called re-employment training is aimless, not as useful as training while working. For these reasons, the payroll insurance program acts as a buffer for unemployed workers in a flat world.And, the program is financially affordable.Litan estimates that, with an unemployment rate of 5 percent, the payroll insurance program and health insurance subsidy would cost the government $8 billion a year, a negligible cost given their enormous positive impact.Of course, the traditional unemployment insurance will not be abolished, and it will be suitable for salary insurance in parallel. Workers can choose between the two, but the implementation of the latter can reduce the government's expenditure on unemployment insurance by prompting workers to find jobs faster. Some people may ask, why do we need to show mercy?Why not remove all the flab, friction and obstacles? I can tell you frankly that failing to take proper care of the weak is not only cruel but also stupid.This approach will cause endless political troubles. The flattening of the world will cause great riots among vulnerable groups, and political instability may even lead to a long-term economic recession. A transition like a flat world will be stressful for a lot of people.As Joshua, Head of Technology at eTrade. S. Levine told me: "Sometimes you know how to get through tough times, and you need a buffer that no one else will give you. Those airline workers, after 9/11, are going through that. . After four months of negotiations between management and airline unions, management said they would close the route if the unions did not agree to a $2 billion cut in wages and benefits.After this contest, the union had to accept the terms.I couldn't stop laughing when I heard this story, because I knew that in a few months, the management would definitely come back and ask for renegotiations...on and on. No one is forcing me to cut my salary every year.We just know that every year people want to earn more and spend less. If you're a taxpayer, the government wants your taxes to go up every year, and if you're a thrifty person, you want your savings to go up every year. No one wants that trend to reverse or stop. "If the society cannot coordinate these relations well, then the corresponding political forces will intervene, and protectionist forces will rise in the process of world flattening, and these forces will use rough methods to protect the weak and stop them in the name of preventing the decline in living standards. The result of a flattening world. Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo was sensitive to the issue of how to deal with market losers when he pushed Mexico into NAFTA. He told me Said: "As for the flattening process, you can't really stop it, but you can stop it temporarily, maybe you can't stop all aspects of it, but you can slow it down.Whether it takes 25 or 50 years to complete the process, the results will make a big difference.During this period, 2 or 3 generations who could have benefited from trade and globalization ended up empty-handed. " Always remember the politics behind these issues, Zedillo said. "In the past 50 years, there have been many right political decisions that have put the world on the right track, but there have been some political decisions that have taken the world off the right track." As the saying goes: If you vote Republican, say nice things about the Democrats when you vote — take care of the losers and laggards.A true flatist should be compassionate. A new topic in social activism is the relationship between multinational corporations and their moral conscience.Some people might laugh at me for thinking or expecting companies to have a conscience.However, some corporations do have consciences, and some corporations are cultivating their own consciences, for one simple reason: In a flat world, the balance of power between multinational corporations and the citizens of the countries in which they operate is increasing across global supply chains. The more inclined it is to the multinational companies established by these Americans.As a result, these companies have more power than any other institution on the planet, not just to create value, but to communicate it.Activists in social activities and environmental protection can achieve a win-win situation by cooperating with multinational corporations, the companies will get more profits, and people's living environment will be more harmonious.Compassionate flatists would very much like to foster this kind of cooperation. I will give a few examples.Why is biodiversity being destroyed?The main reason is agricultural production. In fact, the workers engaged in agricultural production did not intend to destroy the ecological environment, they just carried out normal work. So where people farm and fish is important for protecting species and their habitats.The International Environmental Protection Organization is one of the largest non-governmental organizations in the field of environmental protection in the world, and its main task is to protect biodiversity.The organization has also always tried to work with large corporations wherever possible, as they play a major role in global activities and their actions can have a huge impact on the environment.In 2002, McDonald's cooperated with international environmental protection organizations to use McDonald's global orders for raw materials (including beef, fish, chicken, pork, bread, lettuce, tomatoes and potatoes) Promote environmental protection. "We and McDonald's have examined a series of environmental issues and believe that by doing so, food suppliers can reduce their impact on the environment at little or almost zero cost." Glenn, senior vice president of the International Environmental Protection Organization.Precotte explained. McDonald's then met with its key suppliers and worked with them and international environmental groups to draft a policy on raw material supply that McDonald's calls "socially responsible food supply.""Companies in agriculture and fisheries are driven by market interests," Precotte said. "The challenge for environmentalists is how to approach conservation with hundreds of thousands of decisions and decision makers." Environmental goals", "So we seek to cooperate with multinational companies and let them vote their monetary votes for raw material suppliers whose products meet environmental standards. This is beneficial to multinational companies and protects biodiversity. You can work with more companies this way. . Humans don’t have a global government to deal with protecting biodiversity, so you have to work with influential institutions, and McDonald’s is one of them.” Due to the cooperation of McDonald's, international environmental protection organizations have seen the efforts made by its suppliers in terms of environmental protection: water body protection, energy conservation, sewage treatment and fishery production management levels have all improved.However, it is still too early to draw conclusions. Only a few years later, after analyzing the relevant data, people can conclude whether the above-mentioned practices have really had a beneficial impact on the environment.In theory, it is very meaningful to spread values ​​on a global scale through cooperation with multinational companies, but in terms of actual operation, time is the only means to test the effect. Of course, this form of cooperation cannot and should not replace the government's management of related issues, and the government cannot evade its due responsibilities because of the existence of this kind of cooperation, but this kind of cooperation enables the government's policies to be implemented. For those who focus solely on enforcing regulation with laws, they often overlook the fact that tough policies against the wishes of agricultural producers are often not effectively enforced or never enforced because of overt and implicit resistance. What benefits did McDonald's get from this cooperation?This is its perfect opportunity to enhance its image by playing the good citizen of the world, a business opportunity through and through.Sometimes, the best way to change the world is to lure the "protagonists" on the world stage with fame and fortune, without telling them the truth, so that they can realize our dreams while gaining benefits.Although the great truth is high-sounding, it is not attractive. I am afraid that those businessmen will be indifferent when you wait until the flowers are gone.International environmental protection organizations have also carried out similar cooperation with Starbucks to set environmental protection standards for farmers who supply coffee to them, and have regulated the behavior of paper product suppliers by cooperating with office supplies management departments of various institutions. "This collaboration removes animosity among various interest groups," Precotte said.Under normal circumstances, environmentalists and farmers are at odds, and each side wants the government to formulate policies and regulations that are beneficial to them.Government policy, on the other hand, generally favors economic development as a priority. “Right now, we as an NGO have a certain amount of influence, and we want to use that influence to do something good for the environment. But we realize that this can only be achieved by fostering relationships between environmentalists and farmers. cooperation between them,” Precotte explained. By the same logic, as a sympathetic flatist, I'd love to see a label on every appliance stating whether it meets the joint production standards of HP, Dell, and IBM. In October 2004, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and IBM jointly formulated socially responsible global production standards with their major computer parts suppliers and printer parts suppliers, in order to reduce their negative impact on all aspects of society during the production process of their products.This new set of electronic industry production standards includes: prohibition of bribery, prohibition of child labor, prohibition of brand theft and fraud, prohibition of infringement of intellectual property rights; regulations on the management of industrial waste water, raw materials harmful to the human body, and pollutants; work-related injury reporting system.Some of the major electronics manufacturers such as Celestica (Canada), Flextronics (Singapore), Jabil (US), Sanmina-SCI (US) and Solectron in partnership with Hewlett-Packard, Dell and IBM participated in the development of the standard . Hewlett-Packard requires all parts suppliers to implement this set of standards, although the specific time limit for compliance can be flexibly adjusted according to different situations. "We are prepared to terminate our partnership with companies that consistently fail to meet the standards," said HP spokeswoman Monica.By October 2004, HP had assessed more than 150 of its 250 suppliers, including parts suppliers from China, India, Mexico, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe.HP has also established a steering committee with Dell and IBM to monitor the implementation of the standards and punish violators.Although there are specific requirements for the production of each part, these multinational companies still have to pay attention to the implementation of these standards.But in any case, while creating product value, using one's own influence to create social value may become a trend in the future. "When we started relying on other overseas suppliers for the bulk of our products, we realized we had a responsibility to manage their manufacturing practices," said Debra Hewlett-Packard, senior vice president of global partnerships.Dunn said.First of all, this is the need of many HP customers. "Customers are mindful, and European customers have been leading the way in this regard. And, as trust in multinational corporations has diminished, human rights groups and various NGOs are gradually increasing their global reach. They say:" You have enough influence, you are a global enterprise, and your actions will set an example for those emerging markets in the fields of environmental protection and human rights. '" They're right, and if need be, they can use the Internet to amplify public opinion and put pressure on multinationals to cooperate. "When you have the monetary votes that HP and McDonald's have, and people want to do business with you, then you have the power to set the standards for them because you can leverage them with monetary leverage," Dunn said. , so you are responsible for exercising this right.” There is another significance for multinational companies to set standards for emerging markets: in emerging markets, local governments also want to make more efforts in environmental protection, because in the long run, These efforts are very important, but due to the pressure of employment and the serious shortage of financial budget, the government often has no time to take care of these areas.Dunn said that in China, managers and producers there have no incentive to set strict standards for themselves, which requires external forces such as alliances of multinational corporations to exert pressure on them to urge them to focus on product value and social value at the same time. .In my book Lexus and the Olive Tree, I call this value creation model the "collaborative revolution" or breakthrough revolution. "We've often said before that we hope that one day, producers will be able to comply with the laws that the government has set," Dunn said. But right now, the imbalance of power makes that idea impractical. "If the local government does not interfere, Wal-Mart and HP can do whatever they want. As far as HP's strength is concerned, it is immoral to use economic levers on its negotiating table to pry the dignity of local laws. . However, we can pass downstream enterprises, employees and consumers This approach has broad prospects for global dissemination of production standards containing new values. Dunn also said that in China, local companies compete fiercely with each other for orders from Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Wal-Mart.Although the winning enterprises must produce according to the strict standards of multinational companies, a large number of stable product demands can ensure their survival in the fierce competition.As a result, HP used the economic leverage in its hands to raise the production standards of Chinese manufacturers, and Chinese manufacturers were willing to do so because they knew that once they met HP's requirements, they would also be able to get orders from Dell or Sony. . Advocates of compassionate flatism want to let consumers know that their purchasing decisions and purchasing power carry political weight.As a consumer, every time you make a decision, you are actually supporting a set of values.You are voting on whether to remove barriers and frictions or protect them.Progressives should educate consumers about these meanings so that more people can cast the right vote and support global cooperation. Parenting No discussion of compassionate flatism is complete without a discussion of improving parenting. Helping people adjust to a flat world is not just the responsibility of governments and corporations, but also of parents. They need to know what kind of world their children are growing up in and what they should do to make their children live better in the future.In short, we're asking a new generation of parents to stop spoiling their kids: It's not like it used to be, you can't let your kids play like crazy, you should turn off the TV, put the MP3 player aside, and let the kids learn. The idea that power is taken for granted, the idea that we once had an absolute edge in global business, geopolitics, and Olympic basketball and that it’s bound to last forever, the idea that coddling is better than spanking, that kids should be Protected in a honeypot, any difficulties, disappointments and tensions that cause harm to them are cancer cells that are spreading in American society.If we don't reverse these perceptions, our children will be hit hard by society in a flat world.Politicians are required to make policy, but parents should also take responsibility. Shortly after the first draft of this book came out, my wife (a schoolteacher) handed me a letter to the New York Times (September 1, 2005) addressed to my colleague Bob.A response to a column Herbert wrote on American education.This letter expresses exactly how I feel: "To the Editor: Bob Herbert writes, 'I think we are witnessing an educational crisis'... As a veteran middle school English teacher, I agree with this But the crisis we're witnessing in schools has its roots in American families that have grown alienated from books and print as children indulge in television, computers and entertaining video games and see the adults around them doing the same Do. For many students, sensory stimulation replaces reading. One cannot have solid writing skills without being a competent reader; a lack of these skills causes them to flunk out on standardized tests. Education begins at home: where reading is valuable and necessary; where parents encourage their children to work hard; where parents are personally involved in school and have high expectations for their children's success. Without these foundations, and the ongoing support of families, the teacher's role is limited to the school. Zhu.install.Price, Freehold, NJ. "What should you do to prepare your child to compete with the global elite?" Nobel Prize-winning Caltech President David Baltimore knows that well. He told me he was shocked to find that almost all Caltech students come from public elementary and middle schools, not private schools, because in private schools, people are taught that because you are here, you are better than others. "I've noticed these kids who come to Caltech. Their families encourage them to work hard and tell them that knowledge is the key to great things," Baltimore said. It is often seen as a failure. And the real cultivation of children allows them to realize their potential. I think our country needs a revolution in the cultivation and education of children.” It can be clearly seen that immigrants to the United States Parents are doing better: "One-third of the students in our school are of Asian descent or recent immigrants to the United States," says Baltimore.The majority of engineering students who attend Caltech are foreign-born, and a significant proportion of students in other departments come from abroad as well. "Among the postdoctoral candidates in biology, Chinese students have an absolute advantage," Baltimore said. No wonder, at all major scientific conferences today, most research reports on the most cutting-edge fields of biological science will have at least one Chinese author.Incidentally, nearly 90 percent of the children who attend MIT come from two-parent families, where both parents can help guide the child through detours. In July 2004, comedian Bill.Cosby also attended Jesse.Jackson's Rainbow Coalition and Civic Education Foundation's annual meeting blamed African-American parents for not teaching their children proper grammar and black children for being unmotivated.Cosby once claimed: "Everyone knows the importance of speaking English. You can't be a doctor with bad English." Cosby told those black people who didn't cherish the opportunity: "You should stop beating your women , because you can't even find a job, because you don't want to get an education, because you're only enjoying the minimum wage guarantee that the government subsidizes you. When you were in high school, you should think about your future, because then you There is still a chance." When Cosby's remarks were criticized a lot, Priest Jackson defended him: "Bill is saying that you should know where you are lacking, and then improve yourself in a targeted manner so that you can participate in that. in a fair game. Drunkards don't understand this, and neither do ignorant people. "Yes, the United States should gradually enable all citizens to participate in equal competition, but not by suppressing the advanced, not by self-defeating, but by motivating the backward. Cosby's words are for blacks, whites, poor and rich.都是发人深省的。教育，不管是来自父母的，还是来自学校的，都不应该仅仅是课本知识，还应该包括人格培养。因为父母、学校和文化确实能够塑造人。在我的生命里，除了家庭，对我影响最大的人是我在高中时的新闻学老师哈蒂。M.斯坦伯格。她把新闻学的基本原理传授给学生，但绝不是简单地告诉你如何写一篇内容提要或抄写一段引语，而是教会你如何用专业的方式来思考，这才是最重要的。 她教我课程并担任校报顾问是在20世纪60年代，那时她已经将近60岁了。她的形象并不“酷”，但是我们在教室里围绕着她，就好像是在麦芽店里围着“狼人杰克”。我们也说不出是为什么，但就是愿意听她高谈阔论地演说，愿意接受她的训练，愿意听她的教诲。她给人的感觉是那么清澈，充满原则。我笔直地坐着，头脑里想的全是她。我们的孩子将逐渐地与中国的、印度的和其他的亚洲孩子们开始近距离地竞争。对于像哈蒂那样塑造孩子人格的方法，亚洲孩子们的父母比美国父母们理解的更为透彻。我并不是建议开展军事化教育，但是我建议应该用更多方法把我们的年轻一代拉出安乐窝，去做他们应该做的事，现在的短痛可以换来长久的收获。 不幸的是，美国缺乏一个有远见的领导人，愿意号召我们的国家做一些艰苦的工作——放弃某些东西，而不仅仅是攫取；为了未来的国家利益牺牲一些，而不仅仅是为了今天活着。但是或许我们有这样的领导人是因为我们自己不争气。 Paul. A.萨缪尔森是来自于麻省理工学院的诺贝尔经济学奖获得者。他的教科书在近50年里影响了一代代经济学专业的学生，他少有地接受了德国明镜周刊题为《全球化：新世界》（2005年12月）的采访。当被问及如何看待美国经济的未来时，萨缪尔森回答说：“我们处在领先的位置，但是其他人和我们的差距渐渐缩小。美国作为领先国家的地位变得越来越脆弱，因为我们已成为一个低储蓄的社会。我们是一个只关注自我和眼前的社会，不考虑他人和明天。我认为问题出自选民而非领导人……过去的聪明孩子都在玩有挑战性的拼字游戏，今天的孩子在看电视，有太多分心的事，这也是为什么我们只关注自我和眼前的另一个原因。” 如果这是一次演习，我认为我们的领导人和父母没有尽其所能地为我们的年轻人应对未来的世界做好准备。“我们就像是一个盛满了3/4 液体的玻璃烧杯，里面的液体就是我们的财富，”史蒂夫。乔布斯，苹果电脑的创始人，美国最伟大的革新者之一说道，“在旁边就是这个更大的烧杯，但是它盛的更少。我们今天正在做的就是用一根管子把这两个烧杯连接起来，之前我们从未这样做过。”因此，他说，除非我们能够继续保持非凡的创新性，否则我们的生活水平几乎注定要下降。 但是，乔布斯补充说：“我担心我们认识到这一点太迟了。因为学校系统不会在短期内得到改变，我们可能是在为过去20年的漠视付出代价。”乔布斯注意到他的公司最近决定在中国建一家主要工厂，令他惊讶的是中国政府在做出为工厂选址、提供资金资助建厂、帮助组织劳动力等决策时的迅速。“奇迹，就是那样，15年前或是10年前在德克萨斯或美国其它地方会发生这种事情。现在它发生在中国。所以液体已经开始从一个杯子流向另一个杯子。当他们开始设计产品时，液体将会流出的更多。我是一个对美国未来保持乐观的人，但当我们看到罗马城已燃烧时，再做一个乐观主义者就很难了。” steve.乔布斯的呼吁是一个结束本章的合适地方，这一章是从肯尼迪总统动员全国，迎接把一个人送上月球的挑战开始的。因为在某种意义上来说，他们都在付出同样的努力——号召美国人去做他们能做得最好的事情，那就是创造未来。 2005年10月24日，《时代》杂志发表了有关苹果电脑最新发明的封面故事。 封面是乔布斯手持最新款的苹果掌上电脑，这款电脑能播放视频和音乐。大字标题是这样写的：“总是知道下一个是什么的人。”这正是美国在一个平坦的世界里保持繁荣的唯一途径——如果我们能持续地发明下一个新的东西。我的朋友杰里。劳是一位印度企业家，他又一次说，对印度和中国来说，未来是非常清晰的。 他们准确地知道他们未来将要干什么。“我们在未来将要做美国今天正在做的事情，而美国的工作是去创造未来。”美国的工作不是去和印度、中国争夺旧的中产阶级工作，而是创造新的中产阶级工作岗位乃至更多。“这是很难的，”杰里补充说，“因为你不知道未来是什么样子的，”也因为你必须迅速树立坚定的信念，认为自己总是能够创造出下一个新的东西。 然而这是我们的任务，也是我们最好的希望。肯尼迪总统理解了这一点。steve.乔布斯、马克。安德瑞森、雪莱。install.杰克森、迈克尔。戴尔、科瑞格。 巴瑞特和比尔。盖茨都理解了这一点。我们保持我们生活水准上升的唯一途径是建立这样一个社会，这个社会能培养出大批持续创造未来的人。但随着知识的高速发展，创造未来成了一件越来越难的任务——一件需要合适的教育、恰当的基础设施、适当的雄心、正确的领导和正确的抚养的任务。这需要使我们整个国家全神贯注地迎接这种挑战。 时不我待，如果我们不去创造，其他人会去创造。因为正如杰里。劳告诉我们的，印度和中国在明天将会做美国今天做的事，但是借助于平坦世界的这个平台，当后天来临时，印度、中国和其他国家也将会去创造未来。正如我试图强调的，把我们带入这个平坦世界的全球化3.0 版并不仅仅是全球化2.0 版的加强版。 它是一种完全不同的模式。它远不是发达国家进入更多市场或获得更多廉价劳动力这么简单。它是一种程度上的巨大差异低成本相互联系的程度，个人能力的程度，合作的全球化网络的程度都今非昔比。它改变了我们的竞争能力以及竞争方式的所有内容。2005年11月刊登于《商业管理期刊》上的一篇题为《我们正在享受全球化的好处吗？》的文章很好地概括了这种差异，它注意到了平坦的世界赋予了站在高处的人把低成本劳动和高技术结合起来的能力。我们以前从未见过这种结合，这件事情本身已经对发达国家构成了挑战。然而印度和中国还在为低成本劳动和高技术增加更多新的东西：无拘无束的想象力，也就是高度的革新和创造能力。他们首先将会用廉价劳动力、高技术以及重新构想未来的高度创造力去解决自身的问题。接着他们将会关注我们的问题。我们必须有更多能做同样事情的人。所以，最后一次，我还要提醒大家：这不是演习。 The World Is Flat Developing Countries and the Flat World 发展中国家与平坦的世界