7 ms·

I mean, America being the world police is a meme, but also has some truth to it...

consumer451 6y ago
> but also has some truth to it... That is one heck of an understatement.[0] The global economic benefit of the stability brought by the US military being top-dog is vast, and appears to benefit many countries including China. There are plenty of valid criticisms of Pax Americana, but the global economic benefit, not so much imho. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Americana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Americana
- tolbish 6y ago
  The existence of the US hegemony is no secret. The only debate surrounds its longevity. The accepted tipping point is when its massive salaries start to even out with the rest of the world, with COVID-19 acting as a catalyst.
  - xxpor 6y ago
    Why would US salaries start to even out with the rest of the world? On a per capita basis, our GDP is still massively higher than every other large country.
    - webmaven 6y ago
      > Why would US salaries start to even out with the rest of the world? On a per capita basis, our GDP is still massively higher than every other large country. The hypothesis is that if most high compensation workers are remote, it opens up those labor markets to more competition from lower cost regions. IOW, as Covid-19 forces organizations to become remote-first, they perforce also become more outsourcing-friendly, or at least outsourcing-capable.
      - kube-system 6y ago
        I don't believe it. People predicted the same thing would happen due to technology enabling outsourcing in the 90s. The only success was at the lower-end of the information economy. Also, while COVID is going to accelerate the shift to remote work in the US, the vast majority will be <100% truly async remote. It's the 1-20% of edge case requirements that are really hard to mitigate. The ability to answer a phone call at 2pm Eastern Time and hop on a plane to Chicago is way different for someone from Manila than it is for someone from Cleveland, even if they only do it occasionally.
        webmaven 6y ago
        > People predicted the same thing would happen due to technology enabling outsourcing in the 90s. The only success was at the lower-end of the information economy. I agree, for a variety of reasons, but there is a joker in the deck: will the distribution of required skill change over time? IOW, should we expect demand to grow faster at the low end of the information economy, in the middle, or at the top? I don't think it is too reasonable to expect the distribution to remain fixed over time. Right now, we've been seeing a lot of growth in demand at the top end, but that was true for the 'service economy' at the start too. The irony of the scenario where increasing automation depresses the wages of the lowest skill jobs because they can most easily be filled with fungible human labor while expanding the demand for workers to fill them due to Jevon's Paradox should not be lost on us. It is entirely possible that entry-level software work will become as much of a dead-end job as being a customer service representative.

> but also has some truth to it... That is one heck of an understatement.[0] The global economic benefit of the stability brought by the US military being top-dog is vast, and appears to benefit many countries including China. There are plenty of valid criticisms of Pax Americana, but the global economic benefit, not so much imho. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Americana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Americana

tolbish 6y ago
The existence of the US hegemony is no secret. The only debate surrounds its longevity. The accepted tipping point is when its massive salaries start to even out with the rest of the world, with COVID-19 acting as a catalyst.
- xxpor 6y ago
  Why would US salaries start to even out with the rest of the world? On a per capita basis, our GDP is still massively higher than every other large country.
  - webmaven 6y ago
    > Why would US salaries start to even out with the rest of the world? On a per capita basis, our GDP is still massively higher than every other large country. The hypothesis is that if most high compensation workers are remote, it opens up those labor markets to more competition from lower cost regions. IOW, as Covid-19 forces organizations to become remote-first, they perforce also become more outsourcing-friendly, or at least outsourcing-capable.
    - kube-system 6y ago
      I don't believe it. People predicted the same thing would happen due to technology enabling outsourcing in the 90s. The only success was at the lower-end of the information economy. Also, while COVID is going to accelerate the shift to remote work in the US, the vast majority will be <100% truly async remote. It's the 1-20% of edge case requirements that are really hard to mitigate. The ability to answer a phone call at 2pm Eastern Time and hop on a plane to Chicago is way different for someone from Manila than it is for someone from Cleveland, even if they only do it occasionally.
      - webmaven 6y ago
        > People predicted the same thing would happen due to technology enabling outsourcing in the 90s. The only success was at the lower-end of the information economy. I agree, for a variety of reasons, but there is a joker in the deck: will the distribution of required skill change over time? IOW, should we expect demand to grow faster at the low end of the information economy, in the middle, or at the top? I don't think it is too reasonable to expect the distribution to remain fixed over time. Right now, we've been seeing a lot of growth in demand at the top end, but that was true for the 'service economy' at the start too. The irony of the scenario where increasing automation depresses the wages of the lowest skill jobs because they can most easily be filled with fungible human labor while expanding the demand for workers to fill them due to Jevon's Paradox should not be lost on us. It is entirely possible that entry-level software work will become as much of a dead-end job as being a customer service representative.