The_Gap_Between_America_and_Other_Countries

The Gap Between America And Other Countries United States has had its days, and the worst part is that nobody knows it. There will surely be some slippage of America’s position over the next few decades. America being only 5% of the world’s population has put out 20 and 30 percent of the worlds output for 125 years. However this is changing, there is a growing gap between America and the other countries. Without real efforts to keep it bridged, this closeness could destroy America’s competitive edge and its political future. As other countries become more active, America’s enormous space for action will inevitably diminish. “Oh, my god, there are so many of them… How in the world can it possibly be good for American’s that these Indians can do the same jobs as they can for a fraction of the wages' “[The Last Super Power] “I just wanted to know why the Indians I met were taking our work…” [The World is Flat] Globalization is striking back. Just as the world is opening up, America is closing down. China and India are becoming bigger players in their neighborhoods and beyond. Russia is becoming more forceful even a tad aggressive. Europe acts with immense strength and purpose on matters of trades and economics. Mexico and Brazil are being more vocal about their Latin American issues; South Africa has positioned itself as leader of the African continent. America remains the most competitive economy in the world. The United States’ unipolarity is what provoked the rest of the world to react. The European Union now represents the largest trade bloc on the globe, creating bipolarity. China and other emerging giants gain size, the bipolar realm of trade might become tripolar, and then multipolar. However, this is yet to happen since Europe can’t act militarily, and China and India are still developing. The international system is more accurately described as unimultipolarity, meaning many powers and one super power. This messy reality makes it easier to describe what it’s not than what it is and what it is moving away from than were it is going. [The Last Super Power] The irony is that the rise of the rest is consequences of American ideas and actions. For sixty years, American politicians and diplomats have traveled around the world pushing countries to open their markets, free up their politics, and embrace trade and technology. America has urged peoples in distant lands to take up the challenge of competing in the global economy. The United Stated counseled them to be unafraid and to learn the secrets of America’s success. And it worked. Countries like India are now able to compete for global knowledge work as never before. Some had actually taken American names and others were doing great accents at call centers and American business techniques at software labs. “The playing field is being leveled.” America better be ready for this. As the world rises in purely economic terms America will experience a relative decline. America will be challenged but the challenge will be good, since America is always at its best when being challenged. Americans are becoming acutely conscious of the changing world. American business is increasingly aware of the shifts taking place around the world and is responding to them rapidly. In ’03 25,000 tax returns were done in India in ’04 it was 100,00 and in ’05 its 400,000. [The World Is Flat] Tax returns are not the only job being taken from Americans. Universities are also noticing how much students are leaving America to travel abroad. [The Last Super Power] Insularity has been a blessing to America; it has not been sullied by the machinations and weariness of the Old World. At the same time this isolation has left America quite unaware of the world beyond its borders. Americans rarely benchmark to global standards because they are sure that their way must be the best and most advanced. America wants the world to accept American companies with open arms, but when the companies of other countries come to the United States, that’s a different matter. However America has enormous strengths and that the new world will not throw up a new super power. In other words if America is smart and acts fast the other countries will continue to look at America as a super power and will accept for the U.S. to help navigate and even help them direct. [The Last Super Power] America will face the most intense economic competition is has ever faced. It will confront a global order quite different from the one it is used to operating in. For roughly two decades since 1989, the power of the U.S. has defined the international order. American ideas about politics, economics and foreign policy have been the staring points for global action. For now the United States remains the most powerful player but every year the balance shifts. As long as the United States can adapt to new challenges the decline will not be consequential. [The Last Super Power] This flattening process is happening at warped speed and directly or indirectly touching a lot more people on the planet at once. Individuals from every corner of the flat world are being empowered. You are going to see every color of the human rainbow take part. Globalization has gone to a whole new level. None of this will be easy. But this is our task. It is inevitable and unavoidable. [The World Is Flat] Generations from now, when historians right about these times, they might note that, in the early decades of the 21st century The United States succeeded, it globalized the world, but along the way it forgot to globalize itself. [The Last Super Power]