20/06/2005 12:19:05 pm
In TCS: The Shock of the New. Today, I have a longer analysis about the current wave of protectionism in Europe in Tech Central Station, a leading European web magazine. My point is that if we lose companies and jobs, we should lose them - and that is the only way to open up for the new to come:

"We have every reason to welcome the new. That means the old must disappear. If we lock up productive resources in the old, the new will not expand. This is always a painful process in the short run for those who are affected. What is a metal worker going to do when his job vanishes - either leaves the country or is taken by a foreigner? We still don?t have a society that makes gaining new competence and change profitable enough. People in Western Europe don?t have enough opportunities. If we stopped focusing on how to protect the old, we could think more about that.

We already live with one horrific example of where we end up if we try to keep the old: Europe?s Common Agricultural Policy. Enormous sums of the taxpayer money go to farmers -- close to half the EU budget. Consumer prices are higher, poor countries are kept from exporting and resources are locked up. The plain truth is that if the European farmers can?t produce without tax subsidies, there should be no farmers in Europe, since consumers would obviously choose such products from other countries.

The same goes for traditional manufacturing. Today, about 18 percent of the Swedish work-force is employed in industry, and if the present trend continues, the share will be some 10-12 percent in ten years? time. Industry is the agriculture of our time. And that is the point; if we lose plumbing and construction jobs, we should lose them. If we are not competitive in that field, we should not do such work. Those jobs should disappear and we must do something else. Not even the worst protectionists could possibly imagine having a Common Industry Policy."

Read the entire article here - >