MUST READ Friedman

[greenman3610]

Given the current crisis in the US Auto industry,
this assessment of where US technology is
going is must reading:



China's Little Green Book

http://www.pekingduck.org/archives/003101.php

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: November 2, 2005
BEIJING

There are only about 60 gold-standard green buildings in the world - that is, buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council as having been made with the materials and systems that best reduce waste, emissions and energy use. One of those buildings is in Beijing - China's Ministry of Science and Technology, at 55 Yuyuantan Nanlu Street.

I toured it the other day with Robert Watson from the Natural Resources Defense Council, who advised China in designing the building. What struck me most was how much stuff in China's greenest building was labeled "Made in China."
----
As green technologies get adopted here and gain scale - Mr. Perkowski cited a Chinese auto company now rushing to develop a green diesel engine for passenger cars - the Chinese will set the standards for the world.

"So they will become technology exporters rather than importers,"


http://www.pekingduck.org/archives/003101.php

[Dhalgren]

1. Everyone had better start learning Chinese. With their numbers

and their sensible approach to things...I just hope they let us work for them in some capacity other than stoop-labor...

[rodeodance]

2. and we fiddle away!

[still_one]

3. I just got back from China

I go there periodically. The pollution is worse than I have ever seen it. There are now less bikes and more cars. Just going from point A to point B is a hassle in the large cities.

Buildings are gong up everywhere. In most cities their hospitals and medical facilities lack basic cleanliness.

Only drink boiled or bottled water.

Go out to the countryside, and sanitation is terrible

They still have major inter structure problems, but pollution has to be their biggest problem, and that has been going on for more than a decade

They have made tremendous technological advances, but at what cost to the people?

HIV is a major problem there, and there is no synchronized method for dealing with it.

tommy FRIEDMAN goes to China for a few weeks, and suddenly he is the authority. He goes to Saudi Arabia, talks to a few people, comes back an expert in the region, and advocates that going into Iraq is the right thing to do, remember?

friedman has no credibility. China is a HUGE country with many diverse cultures, and MANY intra structure problems.

God help everyone if avian flu actually has a viral shift into a more lethal strain. China would be hit extremely hard. They have learned from the SARS outbreak, and are working with the WHO, but the environment is still conducive to something that would spread like wildfire

[Viking12]

5. Are you suggesting Friedman sees what he wants & not what's there?

You couldn't be! Not little Tommy Friedman....:sarcasm:

[still_one]

10. LOL

[ixion]

4. the primary road block in the Chinese export model:

It does not take the notion of Quality into account.

Sure, they're exporting everything, but have you ever tried to actually fix something (like a scooter, for example) that was made in China? It's darn near impossible, because the quality of the steel they use is so poor that you can't disassemble the thing w/o ruining it's integrity.

To date, I don't believe this flaw in their model has been repaired.

Just my two cents.


Oh yeah, and FRIEDman is an idiot. ;-)

[bananas]

8. This is how Japan took over electronics manufacturing

they started out by mass producing "cheap Japanese radios".

[ixion]

9. I would argue that this is how they broke into the world market,

just as China did.


The difference is that Japan's products are now designed using quality components (at least on some of the lines).

For example, Japanese car design and construction is now superior to the US, although it wasn't always that way.

I see your point, but unless China starts producing at least some quality products, I don't think we'll see the market dominance of Japan duplicated.

[Doctor_J]

6. We're too busy planning *'s next invasion

to worry about things like this!

[Jim__]

7. If China's going green, that's good news for everybody!

Sure, it means they'll pass us in the new energy technologies; but the whole world is going to pass us in that area because we are being governed by a horse's ass who can't see the obvious.