The East can learn from the West's mistakes and, by avoiding
them, achieve a competitive edge.
Technology is a social phenomenon with social implications. It fosters
entrepreneurship and social mobility. By allowing the countries in
transition to skip massive investments in outdated technologies - the
cellular phone, the Internet, cable TV, and the satellite become
shortcuts to prosperity.
Poverty is another invaluable advantage.
With the exception of Slovenia, Estonia, Croatia and the Czech Republic
- the population of the countries in transition is poor, sometimes
inordinately so. Looming and actual penury is a major driver of
entrepreneurship, initiative and innovation. Wealth formation and
profit seeking are motivated by indigence, both absolute and relative.
The poor seek to better their position in the world by becoming
middle-class. They invest in education, in small businesses, in
consumer products, in future generations.
The Germans - sated and affluent - are unlikely to experience a second
economic miracle. The Serbs, Albanians, Ukrainians, Poles, or Romanians
won't survive without one. The West is just discovering this truth and
is opening its gates - albeit xenophobically and intermittently - to
poorer foreigners.
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