Interesting Items From Charlie Rose Show

[Equineer]

On Charlie Rose (ETV), respected Internet discussion panelists noted that:

- Mandarin is on its way to becoming the primary language on the Internet (within 10 years),

- Broadband penetration in the U.S. is lagging behind European and Asian nations (i.e., Japan and South Korea), and

- The U.S. lags behind foreign governments in promoting cross-disciplinary science programs that will be the springboards for the most important innovations in the 21st century.

The third observation suggests that U.S. companies will begin looking outside America for the best R&D with respect to quality (as well as cost).

[howardjim]

It is a pleasure to read unexpected thoughts that give pause.

The rancor and mudslinging that has become prevelant in these forums serves only to underscore your welcome.

[Wiley]

Along the same line of thought came from Frontline last night "Is Walmart Good For America?"
A highlight (or lowlight for American Industry) was a trip to Shenzhen, South China showing a manufacturing juggernaut of a city, not just cheap item production but many high tech items in someways thanks to the bipartizan normalization of trade aggreement with China in 2000 and the push of Walmart low 'opening price point strategy' on producers.
Apparently 80% of all goods sold at Walmart are made in China, a far cry from their late 80's marketing mantra of 'Buy American'.
China has 1.3 billion people, more Phd's and more natural resources than the U.S., low labor costs and government/industry subsidies to help control markets with their products. It sounds like a good idea to learn Mandarin.
A well presented show about a complicated economic issue check out at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/

[Equineer]

Wal-Mart (and subsidiaries)...

"They are rolling back prices, rolling back competition, and rolling jobs overseas."

Besides primarily selling products (80%) from China, Wiley's link discusses other aspects of Wal-Mart's plans for the future.

Wal-Mart is about to demand that its 1,000 top suppliers concurrently implement RFID chips without any meaningful cost increases... and China is prepared to voluntarily make both RFID chips and bar-codes a dual standard for Chinese manufacturers.

Eventually, the RFID chip will enable Wal-Mart to eliminate a truly substantial number of checkout jobs and realize other benefits that will give it an edge over less sophisticated competitors.

The same is sure to become true for all other major retailers.

RFID (radio frequency identification) technology should eventually enable high-speed self-checkout systems to eliminate millions of U.S. jobs.