May 8, 2012

The Excess and The Lack of Law




"as teachers we should strive to be the ordinary heros the moral exemplars to the people we mentor"


"Tunnelling is the awarding of contracts to firms owned by family members. Chaebol heads typically own only a small portion of their firms, but are able to maintain control through complex cross-holdings; tunnelling offers a means of exploiting that control to get richer, quicker. In 2007, for instance, the Fair Trade Commission, an official watchdog, fined Hyundai Motor for, among other things, giving 1.3 trillion won ($1.4 billion) of business to Glovis, a firm owned by the son of Hyundai’s chairman—without any tendering."  The conglomerate forces of South Korea have a similar impact on governance as the Chinese conglomerates, also running in the same (non democratic) fashion, but as all governments are business run, including the United States, we should give fair notice to the rising economies of the day and how nothings changed.  

Another similarity between China and South Korea has to do with the leader being a business man himself (Lee Myung Bak) ordering all conglomerates to do something whether it is hire more women or more youth without a degree.  Glutted with Grads 

Once you go up, you must come down.  South Korea is an amazing feat.  Very interesting among economists and IR scholars alike.  Due to its rise a mix of people have been thrown together.  Those who knew life without technology or even electricity are suddenly thrown into the mix with the iPhone.  Generation gap is much bigger, culture, etiquette, and tradition seemed to be melting in the face of technological development for the sake of making a buck.  Well not just any buck, a lot of bucks.  But can South Korea handle the natural flow of an economy's downturn?  When such a spike of success leads to great wealth and overspending, just like the US is there regulation and watchdogs or moderate the natural downward flow? Can Koreans of this generation live without all the accessories if need be.  Asia is pretty good at doing what is needed or the whole, however basic community values, as I have said, have been lost.  Such as humility and selflessness.  I think nowadays that is only found in the country side where less than 1/3 of the country's population lives.  

We are trying so hard to protect ourselves, in the US, that we lose site of what really founded the innovative country we are so proud of.  That the freedom to create something out of nothing.  Nowadays with the numerous regulations everyone needs just to get an entry level job people are being squeezed into this Korean-like education system of higher is better.  Whats wrong with vocational school?  Does nobody want to fix cars anymore?  If no one fixes, improves, sells the cars, where is our automobile industry headed?

"His ideas are of particular importance in the context of this country’s ongoing shortage of students entering the critical STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and math. And the irony was certainly not lost on Jobs—a remarkably astute observer of social norms, cultural dynamics, and the behavior of young people—that a country with a ravenous appetite for technology must figure out some way to increase the production of it."

If you want to get back in the game allow Americans to innovate education themselves.  If making it a business is what it takes, we have the legislation to protect workers when people get too greedy.... now just implement it and let those innovators go!


Overall a balance between the rule of law and the slack there of is needed to improve our education system in the US and drive innovators to compete on a level playing field with the Asian conglomerates.  Asia also needs a balance to protect their citizen's investments and avoid fraud and overworked citizens.