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This reminds me of a Neal Stephenson quote from Snow Crash which seems relevant: "When it gets down to it — talking trade balances here — once we've brain-drai
by afroviking 8y ago
This reminds me of a Neal Stephenson quote from Snow Crash which seems relevant:
"When it gets down to it — talking trade balances here — once we've brain-drained all our technology into other countries, once things have evened out, they're making cars in Bolivia and microwave ovens in Tadzhikistan and selling them here — once our edge in natural resources has been made irrelevant by giant Hong Kong ships and dirigibles that can ship North Dakota all the way to New Zealand for a nickel — once the Invisible Hand has taken away all those historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity — y'know what? There's only four things we do better than anyone else:
music
movies
microcode (software)
high-speed pizza delivery”
- woolvalley 8y agoThe funny thing about that list is all of those industries (except pizza) are centered in california.
- brownbat 8y agoI know Stephenson was mostly joking, but a part of me felt sad visiting Seoul and seeing just how phenomenally better at food delivery they are than America, and I assume anywhere in the world. They'll strap an inexpensive meal to the back of a motorcycle and deliver it wherever you are standing. Sometimes they'll return in an hour to pick up the real plates and silverware they left with you. With the way they have industrialized pop music, and given the movie industry there, it is almost like Korea read Snow Crash and took it as a challenge.
- woolvalley 8y agoI think that is an economic calculation that is enabled by being a dense metropolis, which in america is effectively illegal outside of manhattan.
- tivert 8y ago> They'll strap an inexpensive meal to the back of a motorcycle and deliver it wherever you are standing. Sometimes they'll return in an hour to pick up the real plates and silverware they left with you. How much is that motorcycle deliveryman making?