Interesting+Take+on+Culture+and+the+Economy

The Wall Street Journal this weekend had an interesting article about the dangers of protectionism with the current economic climate. It was a rather lengthy article with about 2 pages dedicated to it. It summed up the dangers of countries caving in to a wave of protectionist forces, and the damage it can cause the global economy. The article could be broken down by this excerpt:

//Not long ago, on a visit to Bangalore, India, I made what I thought would be a 15-minute trip to the outskirts of the city. The journey took 90 minutes on roads filled with cars, trucks, bicycles, push carts, children, all kinds of animals and giant potholes. At one point my taxi was at a dead stop for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for a small group of cows to move to the side of the road. It was dusty and noisy, filled with the sounds of buzzing scooters and honking horns.// //We eventually came to our destination: the campus of Infosys, an Indian technology company with major operations around the world. Here was a city within a city, with ultra-modern buildings, movie theaters, restaurants with international cuisine, workout facilities, classrooms for executive education, accommodations for workers who had to stay late and communications capabilities that I had never seen in American companies.// //Two worlds. One globalized, the other not. One that had access to the world's capital, technology and management, the other stuck in another century. Many of Infosys's management and employees came from that poorer world. I wondered what it would take to pull up the millions of others.//

It was a fantastic article, and can be view here if you have a subscription: []

This article was in stark contrast to an article I came across tonight, which I found to be exactly what the Journal was talking about. It was titled **Cutlurist Economics** and can be summed up by this paragraph:

//Culturist problems do not only lay with the poor. The business class have taken our manufacturing industries and shipped them overseas. This reflects globalist thinking. And this, like multiculturalism, stems from an inability to realize that we have a culture, a side, to be loyal to. This, in turn, has a double effect in that the understanding of factories and how things are made is also goes overseas with the factory. The idea of starting a machine shop to make a part your factory needs disappears. Thus businessmen´s lack of attachment to our nation has undermined our economy.//

The entire article can be found here for free: []

I found the article interesting in its slant towards the West. I am unsure if this tends to be the basis of this site, as I have never heard of it before. Its interesting to me how people are starting to fall into one of two camps under these dire economic times and how culture has taken the forefront in quite a few economic discussions. I myself fear that protectionist leanings may end up prolonging the recession.