US dreads being number two

Of late, American establishment spends sleepless nights thinking about events unfolding around her challenging the scared myth of America being number one. Ukraine war had the butterfly effect by heralding multi polar world with the dreaded fact that USA has to give way to China her number one slot. But America is not going to give up that easily. Here are pointers where her resolve is being tested:

At present the main strength of US being counted as number one is her potency in technology advance and its implementation in production process where most, if not all new gadgets came out of US factories located within USA. Steadily this advantage is being eroded as US shifted production base to East Asia. Taiwan, South Korea and to great extent to the newly opened China.

Even though most patents regarding these products are still held by US, China is slowly overtaking US as regards to registration of new patents and also the development of alternate internet gateway patented by China that would replace android and google in the coming years.

Connected to thereto, but having its own status is the long-held policy of protecting sensitive production process within shores and passing it to trusted allies and partners who are beholden to US and restricting transfer of these processes to countries that do not toe the line such as Russia as well as where the host is a peer competitor such as China.  

Surprisingly, this policy gave a much needed flip for both Russia and China to build research & design institutions along with factories to bring out better ones than America has so far showcased. Russia in the case of military hardware & software and China in modern gadgets and equipment in wide areas including white goods, electronics in consumer segments, information and communication in techno and improved methods in farming & agriculture.

Once upon the time, Asians visited America in droves to see her buildings, airports, railways and the wide roads. This is because America had a solid production base to add continuously to her infra-structure. When the business strategy of lead sector changed from production to services, all things went awry: American consumers preferred cheap China goodies as a result domestic production dropped drastically due to high cost factor. The society was transformed to consumerism and the idea to live from one pay cheque to the other is order of the day.

Both Russia and China seized upon this fact. Russia started to build roads and bridges to connect with her wider space stretching from Eastern Europe to Kamchakta peninsula. China, had much enlightened thought though. She not only built fast train and macadamised roads but perched on the pivot of poverty alleviation programme that ended by uplifting more than 200 million people from poverty line.

The sum result is summarized here: While Americans are consuming by way of increasing their debt, Russians and Chinese are spending from their surplus income after saving substantial part for future.

Here lies the dread: Before long America would be number two!

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist