From: kolstad@cae.wisc.edu (Joel Kolstad)
Subject: Re: DOES AMERICA SAY YES TO JAPAN? - Off track!!
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
Date: 18 Dec 92 20:57:39 CST

The Japan discussion is rather interesting...

It sounds to me like Japan has some rasty nasty trade barriers set up, but
I'm not really sure that I'd like the U.S.'s government to erect our own
trade barriers to try to cause Japan to drop some of there own.  Here's
why:

1) I believe that Japan exports less than 20% of its GNP to other
countries.  Granted, a good chunk of this is going to the U.S., but even if
the U.S. government decreed that absolutely no Japanese goods could be
imported into the U.S., I don't think Japan would be effected that
drastically.

2) (And this is the one I care more about) There is simply no American
competition in some products that I really like; for instance, some
Japanese made products that I could NOT buy "Made in the U.S.A." even if I
wanted to: My Casio DBX-1000 touchscreen databank watch, my Technics
XLP-700 portable CD player, my Panasonic KXT-4000 cordless phone, my Sony
SRF-M43 walkman.  I would be really upset if I could no longer buy these
goods.  Don't tell me that they can't me made in the U.S., either -- I'm an
electrical engineer, and given about a million bucks venture capital I'm
entirely confident that I could design and market devices to compete with
any of those mentioned above.  Yes, they would use Japanese parts and
probably non-U.S. labor; but the profits would stay in the U.S.  (It
doesn't bother me at all if China, Korea, etc. want to provide the world
with dirt cheap blue collar labor -- I'm all for more white collar jobs in
the U.S.)  Hewlett Packard has taken this approach to business (engineer
in the U.S. using whatever parts will work, assemble somewhere else because
it's cheaper) and is doing quite well.

I really think that people should buy whatever they want from whomever can
provide it at the best price, keeping in mind that product quality
contributes a lot to the overall price of a product.  As long as you have
skills that are in demand somewhere in the world, you'll be able to get a
job.  I have no great affinity to the U.S. in particular -- it's a great
country, but I don't think I'd mind if I had to move to Europe.  (Japan I'd
have to consider a little longer -- there'd be a lot of culture shock.  But
I don't think Japan is about to take over the world economically, so I
don't have to be willing to move to _everywhere_ on the planet.)

The arguments about Japanese companies undercutting U.S. companies to put
them out of business is interesting, but I don't think that the government
needs to intervene.  The mass media these days will be happy to point out
this kind of market abuse by any company, and there's a strong correlation
between the mass media reports and what people think (which is unfortunate,
but I suppose it's better than having totally braindead people).  There
have also been many cases of U.S. firms successfully fighting off this sort
of foreign competition (i.e., Kodak vs. Fuji); a well run company shouldn't 
have that many problems doing so.

Someone's going to hit me for saying this, but it'd do a lot of people some 
good to go read some of Ayn Rand's books, and possibly Ray Kroc's 
autobiography as well.

						---Joel Kolstad