In an effort to broaden my writing skills, I’ve looked into typical college application essay questions. This is from a top 50 MBA program. The topics are much more general than normal Weakonomics topics, but no less important. If you don’t like the essays, I won’t continue with the series. Just let me know in the comments or send me an email. Also, let me know your thoughts on the essay questions. What is YOUR generation’s greatest challenge? PS, like all my posts, there has been little editing done.
Thomas Friedman wrote in The World is Flat, “Lucky for us, we were the only economy standing after World War II, and we had no serious competition for 40 years”. That luck ran out about the time I was born, but we rode that wave of strength all the way through the 90s. The waters of prosperity in the United States are now receding and my generation has no idea the rest of the world no longer needs us. The flattening world has shown itself to leave the United States at a disadvantage. As my generation begins their careers, we enter into an environment not previously seen on the world stage. Because of the retirement of the baby-boomers, the deterioration of the geo-economical super-power status of the United States, and the growth of business activity outside this country my generation will have to face global competition for the first time.
As a “Millennial” or “Generation Y” member I currently work for the Generation X and Baby-Boomers. These generations grew up in the best educational environment. Inspired by the race to the moon and competition with Soviet Russia, as students, there was intense competition to be the best. Because of this we currently have a wealth of scientists, engineers, doctors, and business leaders running our country. However, these brilliant minds will soon leave the workforce. Not just as industrial workers, but the academics that make the schools in the United States the best in the world will also retire. As these leaders and academics leave the workforce, our partners across the planet will reduce their demand for US goods and services. It’s not that my generation is less intelligent, there are just fewer of us. International students still come to the US for their education because we still offer the best around. Yet, many will return to their country of origin to lead their industries and teach their children the knowledge passed to them by the schools in the US. When the academics retire and there are not enough Americans to continue teaching our children, the quality of education in the United States will likely suffer. With older generations retiring, the Millennials will face stiff competition from much larger populations with the same education.
When the Berlin Wall fell as we entered the 1990s, Americans again breathed a sigh of relief. The United States emerged once more as the only global super-power. Throughout the rest of the decade we moved into internet age, shifting many jobs overseas to countries like China and India. I never thought much about this growing competition until the Olympics put a face to the name. Seeing China on television opened my eyes to the fact their Millennial generation is the size of the US population. And they aren’t interested in putting together iPods anymore. Many of our Asian competition still does primarily manufacturing though. Because of this the United States now imports far more goods and services than it exports, unless you count the export of wealth. This trade deficit is one of many contributing factors to the devaluation of the dollar. Many international businesses have considered moving their accounting to the Euro, seeing it as the more stable currency. As we face the growing populations from rising super-powers, continue to export our wealth, and watch businesses conduct their operation in other currencies, my generation will find little leverage with which to compete on the global stage.
The continued use of the dollar has not held back smaller companies overseas, as most of their business is done in the local currency. All the local economies now have their own stock exchanges, with financing coming from the people. No longer do American companies invest in international companies to grow their business, the companies are already in place, funded by the people of the region. The perfect example is Apple’s iPod. Apple does not own the factories that make their product. The primary facilities are operated by Foxxconn, the largest private company in Taiwan. Along with American products, Foxxconn is also a maker of many of the electronics China, Japan, India, and Europe use to conduct their business. The shareholders of Foxxconn or not American, and they are not buying American products and services with their profits. They’re buying other products made by Foxxconn for companies owned and operated in China and Japan. Moving west to India, an information revolution has materialized with the aid of American outsourcing. We laid the cables that connected the two countries. Again though, instead of building businesses in India, American companies have contracted services ranging from software development to even filing American tax returns. These contract firms are now shifting to the growing demand for software and tax services of their people. In classical irony, India is no longer in need to using our cables to connect to the network of the world, meaning the flow of information will stop passing through our hands. Once again my generation is left in the dark as international companies finance their own businesses, grow their own workforce, and meet the needs of their people without the assistance of American money or consulting.
This is not to say all is lost for the Millennials back in the states. The world markets shiver when Ben Bernanke speaks, Microsoft and Apple control more the 99% of global operating system market share, and India’s Tata Group bought Land Rover and Jaguar for the potential American market. While the world no longer needs us, they still prefer to do business with us. The students in business schools can identify the weaknesses in global markets and offer the products and services that fill these needs. The scientists, engineers, doctors, and business leaders still have the best schools with which to teach in the United States. In the classroom, seats will be filled with locals and international students; its in these classrooms where the relationships of tomorrow will be formed. The previous generations thrived on the power and influence of America. But because of these generations leaving the work force, the weakened economic impact of the US on the world, and the growth of business relationships without American intervention, power and influence no longer work. The only way my generation will be able to compete, is to not look at my international classmates as competition, but as partners.
 By The Weakonomist |
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As a fellow Gen-Y-er/Millenial, I definitely agree with you a certain extent, but I also feel like the bigger issue here is getting people of our generation to give a poop about what’s going on around us. Rather than gawking mindlessly at facebook, myspace, and the latest celebrity gossip, why aren’t we interacting with each other and trying to forge a better community and future? For a world that HAS become so flat and interconnected, why are the biggest connections being passed over and why is there no sense of community on a global or even a local level? For a generation, who for the first time HAS THE ENTIRE WORLD at our disposal through the click of a mouse, why are we now a generation of apathy and lethargy?
Our generation is ambitious, sure, but only in a material way. We want bigger cars, bigger homes, more stuff, more friends, more superficiality. Intellectual achievement and simple awareness of the world around us has been thrown by the wayside in lieu of having more friends on social networking sites, wearing the trendiest clothes, and being as plugged in as possible. People of our generation and those who are younger simply have less room/mental capacity to care about what’s going on in the world, which leads to apathy, which leads to ignorance, which leads to hate. Without getting political, Bush remarked after 9/11 that we were attacked by evil. Nobody would disagree that 9/11 was an evil, heinous act, but by instantly labeling our attackers as evil, he instilled a blind hatred in all of us that was, and still is, based on ignorance. And we embrace it because we don’t know any better.
I fall victim to certain aspects of the culture I’ve just described (very, very minimally), but I’m very aware of it, and try to get others to notice it as well. I don’t think anyone would disagree that certain fundamental changes need to occur regarding our economy, energy, the environment, etc. The movers and shakers who pushed progress through the Cold War will soon age out of the workforce and educational systems. So, my rhetorical question is: if we’re not willing to step up and make these changes, who will? I feel like getting people to care will lend itself to a vast number of solutions, including those to various problems you mentioned. And your notion at the end – about being partners – I believe is a great first step. 18 kudos for that.
*Incidentally, I just did a quick search of the top 100 sites in the US courtesy of Alexa – it’s authenticity is clearly debatable – but general themes would be similar. The approximate ratio of Social Networking : Porn : News Sites is 2 : 1.8 : 1. Hooray? For every time someone logs onto a news source website, two others log on to get news on their friends or to get nude with their “friends.”