From: irie@husc11.harvard.edu (Robert E. Irie)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: DOES AMERICA SAY YES TO JAPAN? - Off track!!
Date: 21 Dec 92 09:22:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc11.IRIE.92Dec21012249
Organization: Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services, Cambridge, MA
In-reply-to: jimmy@denwa.info.com's message of 20 Dec 92 22:22:23 GMT

In article <1992Dec20.222223.632@denwa.info.com> jimmy@denwa.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) writes:

   In article <BzGuDI.9x@tss.com> burke@tss.com (Jim Burke) writes:


   that the AT&T breakup has caused things to move along faster.  Consider
   that AT&T originally planned to convert all their trunking to digital
   by the year 2000.  Competition forced them to do it ten years early.

   There is a lot of competition in the telecom arena and it has
   definitely brought on a lot of new products and services.

What I want to know is what happened to the Bell research efforts?
The way I understand it, BellCore is being funded by the separate baby
Bells (read: not very well) and is drastically reducing long term
basic research.  The trouble with having a lot of small companies in
heated competition is that none of them would care about long term
research-- they would spend all their money on short term gains, which
eventually leads the company downhill.

I dont think basic science and engineering research can be driven by
free market competition and short sighted profit margins. I think that
what Japan IS doing right (among all the "bad" things we have been
hearing enough of) is that its companies ARE interested in long term
research, and the government supports the companies in it. 

Another example concerns company practices. Since US companies are
worried about short term profits, instead of cutting back on executive
salaries, they fire their engineers and blue-collar laborers. Japanese
companies, on the other hand, do the reverse. They cut back on the
salaries or fire the executives but do whatever they can to keep their
laborers.  Why? Their philosophy is that the engineers and laborers
are the companies' futures. Without them, even during a time of
prosperity the company will not be able to grow. For those angered or
whatever by Japanese companies making factories in the US, they should
realize the number of jobs they create for AMERICANS. ONLY top
executives and managers are Japanese. There is a story about how Sony,
instead of shutting down its CA factory during an especially rough
period, kept all of its (AMERICAN) workers employed while TRAINING
them for other tasks. When business became better, these workers went
back to their original jobs, with new skills. These workers were so
happy with Sony management that they declined a union's offer to
represent them, and they made Tshirts, from their own money, that had
"We dont need unions" imprinted on them. This story is repeated in
other companies, including Honda.

As for educational differences between the two countries, I ask you to
consider this: in the streets and subways of NY and Boston (those are
the two cities in which I have lived for extended periods of times) I
see juveniles/teenagers cursing, drinking and generally harassing
people.  Most of them, if they go to school at all, cut classes
frequently. In NY, I know of several highschools where it is unusual
to have a day without gunshots or stabbings. I wont even mention the
drug problem concerning kids in all major cities. From visiting Japan
and listenign to Japanese news, I have not encountered an equivalent
situation. (I will be interested if people living there now could
respond) To me, no matter how "bad" the Japanese educational system
is, (ie- doesnt make Japanese people as literate as they claim,
stifles creativity, etc etc) its ability to produce useful citizens
 who work and contribute to society insead of ruin it, makes it
"better" than the US system.


--
File: AW esome .sig            REVIEW/SEE/ADMIRE              Escape: Reality
=====|====|====|====|====|====|====|====|====|====|====|====|====|====|====|=
Robert E. Irie                                         irie@husc.harvard.edu
Senior ES Major, Harvard College                       irie@husc.bitnet
Harvard Robotics Laboratory                            irie@hrl.harvard.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type mail or use rn commands          Line     Column    8M, 20Mhz CPU Wanted
Newsgroups: sci.electronics