Saturday, April 21, 2012

Thoughts on the future and what's coming up

Education seems to be the key in a struggling world economy. We live in times when an intangible piece of software is worth more than rice, apples or water. Simply looking at the amount of patents registered in 2011 we can see that South Korea is surging in that area, and Brasil, the Latin American economic leader is far behind S. Korea, the apparent technological leader in Asia, specially after Japan's devastating earthquake, and China's communist and artificial policies.


Regardless of these issues, we can say that we are living in a better world. if you think we are not, then ask yourself this question: Would you rather live in this time and age or would you have preferred being born 100 or 200 years ago. I personally love living in this time and age. We have made great technological advancements in the medical field, we can travel to different countries and to other planets!, we have the internet, etc., etc.


And so... what now? as a young adult, the current economic view seems a bit scary here in the U.S. Our leadership doesn't seem to know what to do, we are wasting a lot of money of things we shouldn't be, education is pretty bad, and we seem to be lagging behind Asia in education, technology, and behind Brasil in terms of alternative energy. 


The U.S. perhaps, still has the opportunity of seizing the current opportunities in the Latin America area, but instead, I see a scary inertia... and the presidential candidates seem to be both very weak to lead the strongest nation of the world to success... I'd even dare to lean in favor of Mitt Romney, even though i'm not a fan, but I think Mr. Obama is the worst of the two...


And BRICKS? yes, Brazil was one of the last major economies to succumb to the global recession, and one of the first to emerge. The Brazilian economy dipped into a short recession in late 2008 to early 2009, since then growth has stabilized. Why? The country’s finance minister credits Brazil’s fiscal and monetary policies, as well as macroeconomic fundamentals, something the U.S. should learn about...
Wait, wasn't it BRIC? well, Korea and Singapore are surging in Asia helped by a great education, efficient policies and governments and because of the leaders ideology, like Lee Myung Bak said "Never waste a good crisis" and they haven't, they are showing they can lead the Asian front and Singapore's 'Majulah Singapora' is indeed being followed, they have been declared as the most business friendly country, and though their economy contracted in 2011, they seem to be stabilizing very quickly and they will most likely keep moving forward as their motto indicates.


The worst enemy of progress is inertia. What is a young adult to do in the U.S. ? a country where employment is hard to achieve, and once achieved, is anything but rewarding economically. Start-ups are surging in cities like Los Angeles, and investors are creating incubating circles that invest in promising new companies, but is this the way to go? Perhaps... only time will tell. But whatever we decide to do, we need to learn another language, and stay in motion... whatever we decide, we must keep moving, just like Bruce Lee said: 'There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.'