> and grow to be some of the biggest companies in the world. Japan does have some of the biggest companies in the world and it's not a free market here, not by

> and grow to be some of the biggest companies in the world. Japan does have some of the biggest companies in the world and it's not a free market here, not by a long way, competitiveness isn't something particularly needed internally (monopolies and cabals abound) and possibly not externally either, if conditions are right. > The other aspect is that the lower the value of an employees time the more the business will be happy to have them undertake repetative tasks as the cost of them doing it is lower than the cost of the work to automate. The stereotype/joke about fax machines being prevalent isn't based on a myth. Don't assume things work the way they would in the West.