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Andy Grove spent the last decade or so of his life crusading about this. He framed the problem as, Silicon Valley invests a great deal in creating innovation,
by SkyMarshal 10y ago
Andy Grove spent the last decade or so of his life crusading about this. He framed the problem as, Silicon Valley invests a great deal in creating innovation, but outsources the scaling of it. Even though that may be in the short term best interests of the companies doing the outsourcing, both they and the country lose out on the economic growth, jobs, and crucial institutional knowledge that scaling innovations brings. And the knowledge transfer to other countries better enables them to continue building on the original innovation, developing their own capacity for original innovation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove#Preference_for_a_.22job-centric.22_American_economy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove#Preference_for_a_...
- philipkglass 10y agoGood point. I don't think that every country in the world should be aiming to run an export-manufacturing trade surplus; that's mathematically guaranteed to end in tears. I do worry about institutional capability loss on the scale of companies, industries, and whole countries. Look how hard, over-budget, and over-schedule it has been to resume building nuclear reactors in the USA after the entire country took a decades-long break from new unit construction. There was too much knowledge lost from aging humans' heads before it could be passed on to the next generation on the job, and now it's very expensive to regenerate.
- jackcosgrove 10y agoExport mercantilism seems to result in the middle income trap. Even Japan never caught up. I would prefer not to have that kind of economy. Research and innovation yields the highest margins.