Global EDUCATION!

[Petri]

Welfare is more and more dependent on science. Especially knowledge in physics, chemistry and biology are very important to many western countries. For the economy.

I want to know where do we find the best educated people in the world? I know there are some highly tech-advanced countries in Europe as well as Japan and the US etc..
BUT WICH PART OF THE WORLD WILL TAKE THE "LEAD" IN KNOWLEDGE IN THE NEAR FUTURE???

Will it be europe? Many european countries have already a high educational standard.

What about Russia, China and the US? The educational standard is not as high in these places. (But atleast US can "buy" educated people from elsewhere.)

The europeans are worried about the fact that many educated people goes to the US. (Mainly because of lower taxes.) The leaders of EU has stated that they will try to change this.

How do you think THIS will affect global economy in the future???

[Octavio]

Petri,

I think the educated global middle class is not to be regionally located, except in very broad terms. Of course the United States has some attractive amenities to offer, for those who can adjust to the the arid cultural conditions. But I would say that population-wise, the preponderance of this class is not located in the USA.

India, for instance, has an enormous number of low-paid PhDs and other talented professionals who are having a considerable influence in science and engineering. China has a huge corps of brilliant performers in all fields. In fact, India and China alone contain social strata which probably form much of the main weight in a world distribution of "the educated." If we add to these bodies similarly able groups in other parts of Asia, Europe, and North America, then we see a distribution girdling the northern hemisphere more or less.

As far as "taking the lead" goes, well I have expressed some ideas elsewhere on russia.com about networks of global elites, not strictly nationally based, which are in fact taking over global management by default, as the old forms of politics and folk-culture increasingly demonstrate inability to deal with a technology and engineering-driven environment.

What the world is up against is the ponderous heavy baggage of left-over feuds, corrupt bureaucracies, neglected philosophical review of belief systems, momentum of blind behavioral patterns, and sheer physical facts of such as population pressure and ecological damage. All these issues cannot be approached by mob action or undisciplined rhetorical noise. So, in the end it becomes necessary for those with real ability to toughen up, and develop means for leverage and persuasion. This must be a cosmopolitan effort by those who fundamentally hold allegiance to rotting remnants of old imperial ambitions, or to simplistic "theories of everything" in contempt.

PS, I am just an electrical engineer. My contribution only can count in coordination with a thousand other disciplines, and with a minimization of noise from what Matthew Arnold called "ignorant armies clashing by night."

Octavio

[Petri]

Thanks for the reply! You had some interesting points there.

>>"So, in the end it becomes necessary for those with real ability to toughen up, and develop means for leverage and persuasion"<<

The ones with real abilities are mostly the ones who are best paid, and they are in the industry, am I right?

I have noted (here in Finland) that many industries (mainly chemichal and paper) are putting LOTS of money into ecological research. For various reasons..

[Octavio]

Hi Petri.

Yes, people who can accomplish things are sought after, but often they soon blaze new paths and move faster than organizations rooted in a marketplace niche. So such people tend to be mobile.

RE forests in Scandinavia: In Sweden almost all the native forests have been wiped out, and in their places are tree farms composed of foreign species (for efficient harvest). Is this also happening in Finland?

Octavio

[Petri]

Mm, yes, driven by creativity rather than "repetition of learned processes".

>>"... Is this also happening in Finland?"<<

Definetely. The tree industries in N. europe and espesially finland are quite large. Ecology->Effectivity