Lord Vader

Supposing that there are more active Christians in NA and more home grown Muslim lunatics in the UK, what difference would it make as to where to set up a biotech company?

Alan2005

The example was stem cell research which is still very controversial in north america because of crazy christian fundamentalists (it is actually banned in several US states). These issues don't really exist in the UK (muslim extremists have other things on their plate I guess).

The point being you would start up a company like that where the research is legal, the infrastructure exists and you can get the people with the skills. The UK is such a place and China isn't (yet).

In terms on manufacturing, the UK is (or at least was - not got the latest figures) the worlds 6th largest exporter, and a good chunk of these exports are pharma and bio-tech. Not the most labour intensive industries perhaps, but highly skilled.

MarkG

Until the Daily Mail start a campaign against your evil genetically-modified products, which have DNA and atoms. As for building nukes, forget it.

And the best people will go to where they can do the best work.

Alan2005

But that hasn't happened yet. Right now the UK is a world leader in bio-tech.

Lord Vader

I figure Germany or the US would be the first choices though, I'm just saying,..

Alan2005

Stem cell research is illegal in Germany and much of the US.

Look, it wasn't me that picked that as an example and I'm sure that other area's of bio-tech could be done in the US, Germany or even Canada. I'm not even sure why I'm debating this - it is not my opinion that the UK punches above it's weight in the bio-tech and pharma industry - it is fact.

Lord Vader

I'm trolling the troll man.

Alan2005

pwned... grrr!

el_richo

Ok i've seen that spelling before. What does it mean?

Trophy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn

el_richo

Well you learn something new every day.

Thanks for that.

Oakvillian

that's pretty much how I would describe what my organization does, except that I wouldn't need to put quote marks around the word "employ" since our 140,000-odd employees are all proper employees and all get a full benefits package.

I wrote a longer response, but it came across as a bit combative so I won't post it. Suffice to say that I would indeed take issue with your characterisation - if that was the way my employer did business I wouldn't be working here.

I would like to think that I could also be relied upon to leave the knives and forks behind when I dine - perhaps there's hope for us both yet?

Oakvillian

No back at you; increasingly it really is about the availability of qualified people at any price - labour cost doesn't come into it. It's always a bit of a numbers game when it comes to India: as one example, my company (and we're but one of many) recruited over 30,000 fresh graduates in computing and engineering disciplines last year. We could not possibly have fulfilled that recruitment need in North America, where as it is we hired a couple of thousand people last year.

In the same vein in this country we have been working with industry bodies, the Canadian government, and a number of University and College administrations, to advise on how to halt the staggering decline in enrollment for engineering and other technology degree courses in Canada.
I'm not that familiar with the background to the assault on the Bretton Woods agreement, but wasn't that to do with the US administration at the time deciding to decouple the dollar from gold? And the subsequent run on gold in London? Perhaps I misunderstand, but I don't quite see what that has to do with the internet or with outsourcing...

Again, perhaps I'm being dense, but why would it not be environmentally friendly to deliver a particular IT process from a building in India with less than half of the power (and therefore, broadly, carbon consumption) requirement of delivering the same service from a building in California?

jimf

If engineering/technology graduates in the west have to compete with graduates in India where wages are far lower why would any sensible school leaver go into that business if there are better options?

The company I used to work for in the UK, like most, has offices in India where design work is sent to for financial reasons. Work is still being sent to India despite redundancies in the UK. No doubt it is more profitable for the company to do that.

jimf

I was talking to someone at work from Holland about these sorts of issues recently. He mentioned a shrimp peeling operation which sounds like the one you've described.

Governments do seem to be relying on the "entrepreneurs" to be able to set up businesses which provide the new employment but the reality is that doesn't seem to be happening. Labour do a lot of talking about encouraging entrepreneurship and people starting their own businesses but in reality it seems to amount to school leavers setting up a pizza delivery shop.

That said some countries do export successfully to China. I read somewhere that Germany and Japan are successful in exporting the equipment used to manufacture the plastic toys etc that China exports. When the UK "exports" such equipment it is done rather differently - dismantling of the MG production line to send to China and the cranes from the shipyards in Wallsend to send to India.