>This issue came up at nearly every stop on the tour, we Americans asking about what costs mean for ROI and the Germans telling us to look beyond ROI to the lon

>This issue came up at nearly every stop on the tour, we Americans asking about what costs mean for ROI and the Germans telling us to look beyond ROI to the longer-term benefits, for the company and society. Ultimately, of course, they’re right. But it’s hard to imagine many American firms, generally focused on short-term financial gain, building the kind of in-house training centers we saw at every German plant. And this is why it will never happen until there is a massive cultural shift. Americans and American firms have accepted and even embraced the tragedy of the commons in a wide variety of areas. Where most people realize a race to the bottom is something to be avoided, in America, it's something to be won.