Third World Rising

[Ray D. O'Mann]

I was born in the era of the wheat penny. During that time, after World War II, the industrial-military complex (IMC), chose to rebuild Japan, Germany, Italy and the remainder of the world's war-torn countries. What the IMC learned was these people were willing to work for almost nothing. So, American jobs were shipped overseas where there were no trade unions, no employee protection acts or benefits, and few workers rights. Even so, quality slowly rose to the point where the phrase, "Made in Japan", went from being laughable to "WOW". Pacific Rim manufacturing has now met and even exceeded American standards. With GATT, NAFTA, and the WTA, the third world is rising. Bosnia, Somalia, Peru and a host of other nations, including, soon, Afganistan, will benefit from the attention of U.S. companies.
Motorola recently sold its semiconductor division to ON Semiconductor. Intel and AMD lead the market in microprocessors. Add to that the dismal performance of Motorola's Iridium system, and one begins to see a desperate, shrinking Motorola. Since its inception, Motorola's primary focus has been communications; a sad irony to a company that has forgotten how to communicate. Motorola has become a broken toy. Do we continue to play with it, or buy something else that is "Made in the Third World"? I am an American. That is my answer.

(Just ranting. Had to throw my highly-devalued, plated-zinc-slug-instead-of-solid-copper, two Lincoln Memorial pennies into the hat.)~~Ray