Comments for Thomas Friedman Shows Us Average Is Not Over at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 11 out of 11 comments http://www.cepr.net Sun, 19 May 2013 01:03:50 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14400 and refreshing - Robert Hammond Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:27:28 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14390 I meant (and said) "foreign-trained" not "foreign-born and domestically trained." In other words, I agree with you. - Andrew Clearfield Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:59:58 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14385 Why wouldn't a prospective Delaware corporate client trust a foreign born lawyer if he were a domestic lawyer i.e. admitted to practice in Delaware. After all, California clients trust California lawyers to opine on Delaware corporate law even when they are not admitted in Delaware. - Ethan Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:16:17 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14379 I'm curious how susceptible lawyers really would be to foreign competition. Manufacturing and medicine deal with skills that don't change from country-to-country (the human body and a sewing machine are the same everywhere) but U.S. law is very different from the law anywhere else. Would American businessmen really trust a foreign-trained lawyer to navigate Delaware corporate law? - Andrew Clearfield Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:22:15 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14374 I remember watching Tom Friedman cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq on the Oprah show. Sad. His columns are drivel, of course, but I still read them from time to time to get a read on the latest views from snob hill. - Jerry Jones Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:00:49 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14372 An newspaper columnists would certainly be less dear in China or India. I suspect the "average" Indian on a Mumbai park bench could write a better column than Tom Friedman. - sherparick Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:54:45 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14367 Technology could eliminate many "highly-skilled" physician jobs. Much of the training of physicians consists of memorizing vast amount of facts about medical conditions and their remedies. Having computers provide this information on demand would be much more efficient than the current system and it would remove many sources of human error. Of course having completely computerized, universally accessible patient records would cut down greatly on the staffs in the offices of physicians and insurance companies. The hand-loom operators who became luddites were powerless to resist automation, and as a result their standard of living improved through productivity increases. Physicians do have the power to resist automation of their jobs and this is a factor in the increasing cost of health care. - skeptonomist Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:29:25 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14362 I don't read Friedman but am thinking that he may have read the piece in his own paper this week on Apple and China. It is a provocative piece and I would like to see you and Paul Krugman give us your analysis on how we can overcome the issues presented in that article. - Bart Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:31:32 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14361 Millions of very well educated english speaking people in India (to name only one poor country) could write a better colmun for a hell of a lot less money than Friedman. The internet should have led guys like him to be outsourced years ago. In his case, well below average is far from over. - Joe Emersberger Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:29:22 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14358 [quote]Workers will have to be extraordinary to get decent paying jobs.[/quote] Whose Your Nanny wants to take down the superior performers with another socialist rant against the obvious requirements of capitalism to produce the most for the least. Where exactly do winners-take-all get their learn-and-earn superior effectiveness anyway? Certainly not from the average common denominator of the dull mass mind. It starts with the competition of sibling rivalry and goes from there to produce the Mitt Romneys and Tom Friedmans of a flat-earth world who continue throughout life to face competition and rise to the top with the highest valued resources. Enough with the sibling rivalry envy for the rich Whose Your Nanny. Grow up and work for a living for what you're worth and be thankful the extraordinary do the same. Stupid liberals. - izzatzo Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:41:42 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-shows-us-average-is-not-over#comment-14357 The issue regarding productivity is that it is production per work hour. Increased productivity means more produced by the same amount of workers working the same amount of time -- or the same produced by fewer workers -- or combination of the two. As has been repeatedly shown, the gains of productivity have gone exclusively to the wealthy. Blogger rortybomb, for example, shows that the top 20% have gained more than 100% of the wealth gains in the USA, the past 30 years. http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/the-wealth-and-income-movements-of-those-at-the-bottom/ Increased productivity due to engineering and technology advances was supposed to produce more leisure time. Instead, it is the one structural thing that produces increased unemployment. Why is the natural rate of unemployment considered to be around 5% instead of 2%? The solution has to be some kind of method to return the gains of productivity to the actual workers, as opposed to the wealthy overclass sitting heavily on top of us. Perhaps a 20-hour workweek, at $20/hour (perhaps earned-income tax credit), with overtime at $60/hour. - John Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:20:52 +0100