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Jason B. - Zach C. - Sam B. - Cole T. 5-12-10

A New Learning Experience: The Possible Downfall of this Nation

Americans have been outsourcing jobs around the world, but particularly to Asia. Thus, the jobs that American "knowledge workers" should have are not available to our country. The workers in Asia are able to mass produce many items at a cheap rate. Having so many items mass produced very cheaply creates Abundance, a blessing and a curse. When we can’t store our many things, we just throw them away. Then, as business writer Polly LaBarre notes, "The United States spends more on trash bags than ninety other countries spend on //everything//. In other words, the receptacles of our //waste// cost more than all of the goods consumed by nearly half of the world's nations." Abundance is particularly a problem in countries with Automation. Automation happens where software is programmed onto computers; and, that new technology that is available; is able to give answers and do work for humans. Like machines, automation does jobs that humans could do but at a much faster pace and with less difficulty. Automation is dangerous because the "knowledge workers" who could be doing this labor have to find other jobs to do. All this means is that they have to think of new creative jobs that technology cannot do. __ [|A Whole New Mind], __ written by [|Daniel Pink], talks about the influences that are moving our country into the Conceptual Age. Asia, Abundance and Automation are three of the forces that have been propelling our nation forward through the information age, but could also be the eventual downfall of our country.

Asia is the main foreign country that is taking the jobs of Americans. The reason is because they are willing to do the work for much less than the average American. Since we are in such huge debt, it works out for the better of the economy because if Americans made all of our clothes that would be millions of dollars to buy the materials and pay the workers.In Daniel Pink's book, __A Whole New Mind__ he gives the readers several facts including one out of every ten computer information jobs will go overseas in the next 2 years (Pink 39). Another statistic being the average American white collar salary is about $70,000 per year and no more than 5% of Indians make more than $15,000 per year" (Pink 36-37). Asia is almost the stronghold of these three ideas. It is what supplies all of the materials in mass production, causing Abundance, and it make most of the technology to create the Automation. Asia and America are some of the most technologically advanced countries in the world and are one of the biggest reasons for this shift in ages; from the information age to the conceptual age. Our nation as well as every other country gains in population every day and has doubled since 1960. Take a look at this graph showing growth from 1800. As one can see, there has been major growth and is predicted to drop again towards the 2100's. If the world keeps up at this rate, the number of jobs will be constantly decreasing. There are already thousands of jobs machines will be able to do, with that and the growing population, it's almost like a perfect storm. All the world and especially America need to adapt to these factors. Daniel Pink discusses right brained jobs and careers. These couldn't be performed by countries overseas more efficiently which would give America the edge. If we develop these jobs, America will thrive for the time being. Other countries will always be right behind us, so we need to keep innovating and creating to maintain a full functioning economy and nation.

“For most of history, our lives were defined by scarcity. Today, the defining feature of social, economic, and cultural life in much of the world is Abundance” (Pink 32). Many Americans have a lot more than they need and this leads to several instances of debt. Most people just keep buying and buying and when the old stuff goes out of date, they buy another. They like to have all the newest trends, even though trends will not be popular for long. Some people have so much stuff and they don’t want anyone to know; we call those people [|hoarders]. “Self-storage - a business devoted to providing people a place to house their extra stuff-has become a $17 billion annual industry in the United States…” (Pink 33). Many people don’t even have enough room in their homes to store all of their junk. Clothing and food are also growing rapidly in the United States. As mentioned in A Whole New Mind, clothing these days are much greater in selection and styles and yet the prices are lower than that of Dan Pink's childhood, and it is because the supply is extremely high and so is the demand. In America, almost any product imaginable is more abundant than anywhere else in the world. Asia can create all of the products that Americans use, for an example, look at your shirt tag. Next time you walk into a major department store like Wal-mart, check to see how many items are labeled MADE IN CHINA. "The United States has more cars than licensed drivers -- which means that, on average, everybody who can drive has a car of his own." When first learning of these facts there is almost nothing other to think rather than this is such a gluttonous country that takes so many things for granted. The cheap labor in Asia and Automation has allowed Americans to accumulate and Abundance of goods – and having too much stuff is a problem for many people.

In our competitive global economy, companies are constantly striving to improve the quality and throughput of their products, while reducing costs, errors, injuries and time to market. With technology improving by ever increasing rates and the evolving dynamics of a world economy, automation can be a key factor to success in these areas. [|Automation] innovation will continue to be fueled by technology, market demand and global markets. We can expect nanotechnology, nanoscale assembly systems, wireless technology and ( automation ) ever increasing computing power to take us to new levels of complex automation that was not even dreamed about ten years ago. Or will the next level of automation be in the area of human genetic engineering. With nanotechnology there is the potential that humans will be the [|next level] of automation . However, despite the advantages of automation, not everything can be automated. There are still important factors such as taste, smell, sounds, instinct, intuition, planning that does not allow everything to be automated. Could it be that as our world becomes more automated there will be an ever increasing human need to be able to go to a farmer's market and select your fruit, sit down and have someone make you a strawberry Sunday, cut down a Christmas tree or even build your own piece of furniture. As for myself, despite all the conveniences given to us by automation, sometimes I want to wash the fuzz off of a fresh peach versus opening a can of fresh peaches.

Why are jobs being sent overseas? Why do we need to switch over to right brained thinking and careers? Why is it that on clothing tags, it never says; Made in America? That is the point to the entire chapter. To answer all of the questions peers, news, and media are asking and focusing on. These ideas of Abundance, Asia, and Automation are being passed on and learned of all over America. We are so gluttonous that we as a nation spend more than we make anualy and just as our money is disappearing so too are our jobs. There are thousands of jobs that could easily be performed in nations overseas for much cheaper. Jobs such as making clothing are ones that are done much more efficiently and cheaper which is why on just about every clothing item, it says; Made in China or Japan or Taiwan etc. And it's not just America that is in trouble, it's the entire world that needs to deal with machines doing jobs humans are performing right now. Software developer? Broker? Gone in fifteen years. Stock in ten years. Accountants? Gone in 5. New jobs that can't be performed by machines or employees overseas are needed soon. This could be the downfall of America, and other developed nations.

Bibilography

A&E. Hoarders. May 14, 2010. [] Automation.com. Future of Industrial Automation. May 14, 2010. [] David King. Threat of Human Genetic Engineering. May 14, 2010. [] Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind. New York. Penguin Group Inc. 2005.