keninabu!

Europe

Is Europe turning into a giant Disneyworld for culture vultures? Sometimes it almost seems as though all the entrepreneurship and energy has really gone to India and China. Both countries have the hunger which, I believe, the Europeans either do not have across the board or do not believe to be necessary for sustaining their edge.

Therein lies the danger, I believe, of them becoming obsolete: there have been commentators who believe that the Europeans have historically been able to make use of existing challenges and twist them to their benefit, as they did with the rise of the Japanese.

But I think they might not be able to really do that in this case, simply because both India and China are exceptions: not every country has more than a billion people, with labour ridiculously cheap and with capital not too far off. Both are end-markets, not just producers, of tremendous size, with huge economies of scale. And full of qualified and educated people filled with hunger, literally and metaphorically speaking.

We are on the edge, and riding a huge wave of change that has just started up. Enjoy the ride, everyone.

posted by keninabu @ 10:50 PM