How damaging can it be to your career, life, family, income, investments, savings, and retirement plans, when the Pareto economic relationship suddenly flips and becomes the near-reverse of what exists in your world today? Very. Your life and that of your children is about to change…”big time!” It is time to pay attention and to make appropriate preparations…
Pareto discovered that 80% of the world’s wealth resides in less than 20% of the world’s countries. Today, that “20%”, though not exactly “20%”, is signified by America and the other G8 countries. In other words, wealth, since World War One, has favored the countries of the G8. 80% of the world’s GDP (wealth) resides in the Western countries that are members of the G8–America, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and United Kingdom. And if you are reading this, you are likely doing so from the comfort of a chair in a room built by that wealth effect.
BEWARE: that wealth effect is rapidly fading. It started to change in 1999 and most people don’t realize it as they continue to compete in an old, traditional world, built on British and American influences and the dynamics of the post-industrial age which largely favored the G8 countries. Since 1999, the transition of wealth has begun and is accelerating. To SURVIVE in the changed world ahead of us we must be aware of the changes and then prepare to adapt.
By 2050 there will be about 9 Billion people on earth. At that time, G-8 countries will account for only 35% of the global GDP and the wealth will have shifted dramatically with Asia, India, Russia, and Africa owning 65% of the global wealth. Why do we continue to focus on North America and Europe for our jobs, when today the shift has already begun towards China, India, Russia, and Africa?
The flip in wealth from the G8 to what we once knew as the “Have-Not” countries makes it pretty clear that our “Westernized” educational system and our job focus is already way out of whack. Yet, nobody seems to be addressing this issue. Understandably, politicians won’t lead the way and corporate leaders don’t need to. Politicians fear creating anxiety among the populace and losing the next election when the populace punishes the messenger. Corporate leaders are satisfied to participate and encourage job outflows to the once-labelled “Have-Not” countries.
Regardless if we like the message or not, the message is already written on our proverbial foreheads. It won’t go away. The “Have-not” countries are beginning to dominate the world’s wealth by taking everything away from the G8s…your jobs and your children’s jobs. Mind you, our politicians and corporate leaders gladly complied, or, as some theories suggest, arranged for the meetings that initiated this massive transference of everything that once made our nations great.
This suggests we will witness great, unstoppable change in the years ahead…and children in grade school, today, had better start learning everything CHINESE, East Indian, Russian, and even African…culture, language, geography…everything!! Time for parents to get their children prepared with knowledge and skills fit for jobs in a wealthy China and prosperous India, Russia, or even Africa.
A few short decades ago, China and India accounted for a mere 2% of the global GDP.
By 2050 CHINA and INDIA will represent over 50% of the global GDP. That growth has to come from someplace. It will CONTINUE to come at the expense of the G8.
Possibly by 2030 or sooner, G8 will be gone and G20 will have replaced it. Even Africa will grow from a current 900 million to over 2 billion. The G8 as we know it today may not even have a voice in the G20, and whatever the next evolution is after the G20, as yesterday’s “Have-Nots” gain more and more economic power at the expense of today’s G8.
The way our Western countries grew into our mighty, influential, wealthy nations to which we have been accustomed to, was by commanding global leadership positions and results in manufacturing, service industries, technology and innovation. That has all been changing rapidly since the rise of countries classified as “Preferred Trading Partners”. Since then the gutting of Western countries has been the major pre-occupation of politicians and corporate leaders. And it continues as new Preferred Trading Partnerships are locked into place with other once-“Have-Not” countries. The die is cast, the trend is in motion and is unstoppable. Other than the occasional positive blip, the gutting of, and downsizings within, the G8 continues.
This downward spiral of our business, economic, and political sectors becomes a dramatic challenge for our graduates who, ignorant of the challenges ahead within the G8, and all the more ignorant of the cultures in which they will need to compete for jobs overseas, proudly leave institutions of higher learning and try to squeeze into an already over-crowded job-seeker marketplace within the G8s. We should have started a long time ago to acclimatize ourselves to competing for the better paying jobs that exist overseas in places like China, India, Russia, and Africa.
James Wolfensohn provided a nerve-rattling comparison…READERS, PLEASE LET THIS SINK IN: “During one of my lectures in Beijing, China, one of my classes had over 700 kids speaking and asking questions in perfect English. There is no place where we’d find 700 kids in one room, in the Western world, attending a lecture and speaking perfect Chinese…We are miles behind where we should be to be competitive”.
And if you think America will delay this huge transition, then think again. America is losing it global economic and military influence. Where America once made countries shudder in fear, countries now wave a dismissive hand and turn their backs to create new alliances aspiring to strengthen currencies of their own, other than the US Dollar. You have heard the adage, “Those with the gold make the golden rules”? The gold, figuratively and literally, has been flowing to China, India and Russia, along with jobs from the G8. China is rapidly emerging as the dominant economic power. And…where there is money, there is might…and jobs.
China is going to soon be the most-admired, “Have” country of the world and the go-to country for jobs, with India a close second, Russia and Africa, third and fourth. Are we getting our graduates ready to compete in the new world order where China, India, Russia and Africa dominate manufacturing, technology, innovation and service jobs?
Maybe it is time to pay attention to the NEW WORLD ORDER, (NWO), where the G8s become the new “Have-Nots” and the power, economic might, and jobs rest within China, India, Russia and Africa?
[Source: James Wolfensohn, former president of The World Bank and CEO of Wolfensohn and Co., speaking to Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, 2010. ]
NOTE: Sources of information were kindly provided through efforts of Karen Hudes. Karen’s bio: Yale Law School, University of Amsterdam. Work experience: US Export Import Bank of the US from 1980-1985, Legal Department of the World Bank from 1986-2007. She established the Non Governmental Organization Committee of the International Law Section of the American Bar Association and the Committee on Multilateralism and the Accountability of International Organizations of the American Branch of the International Law Association. Our thanks to Karen Hudes.
