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China Drawing High-Tech From U.S.

March 30, 2010



Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

After reading this article below on how high-tech workers and the companies who employ them are moving to China and not building facilities in the U.S, My boss Henry Cialone said that it reminded him of crime in New York City.

Back in the 1980s Saturday Night Live used to start out “Live, from the most dangerous city in America, it’s Saturday Night”.  Mayor Dinkins objected but it was the truth.  When Rudy Giuliani cleaned up the city he decided that part of the problem was that the police tended to turn a blind eye to “small” crimes and only focused on the big stuff.  They realized that it’s a continuum and by focusing on the little things like graffiti and broken windows in abandoned buildings, eventually turned the city around.

This country’s been all too relaxed about jobs going offshore.  “It’s just assembly” (graffiti), “it’s just the textile industry” (broken window), “it’s ok if our cars and computers all come from overseas, we still have the high value jobs” (mugging).  Now we’re losing the high value jobs (murder one).