Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!uvaarpa!hudson!vivaldi!pmy
From: pmy@vivaldi.acc.virginia.edu (Pete Yadlowsky)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: GATT declares U.S. - Japan chip pact illegal
Message-ID: <318@hudson.acc.virginia.edu>
Date: 4 Apr 88 21:18:57 GMT
References: <2441@unicus.UUCP> <1259@hubcap.UUCP> <1641@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <1813@ihlpm.ATT.COM> <3297@fluke.COM>
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Reply-To: pmy@vivaldi.acc.Virginia.EDU (Pete Yadlowsky)
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Organization: University of Virginia, Charlottesville
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In article <3297@fluke.COM> strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) writes:
>
>The US is the most powerful country in the world
>We have twice the people as the Japanese
>We have twice the money of the Japanese
>We have 10 times the land, and gobs of natural resources; The Japanese have
>none.
>	Are you trying to tell me we can't compete with those people because
>our economic system is inadequate to the task? 
>	Are you trying to tell me the Japanese are inherently capable of more
>than Americans; perhaps have some secret weapon?

I remember reading something that summarized the situation rather neatly:

(paraphrasing)
   when the competition gets heavy:
Japanese corporations run to their engineers.
American corporations run to their lawyers.

Also, due to their population density and lack of natural resources, the
Japanese have learned well the value of efficiency. To a fat, wasteful
society such as ours, this would indeed seem to be a "secret" weapon.


Peter M. Yadlowsky
Academic Computing Center
University of Virginia
pmy@vivaldi.acc.virginia.EDU