OLPC ($100 "laptop") FAQ

[Jeff Kinz]

On Tue, May 30, 2006 at 02:35:20PM -0400, Randy Edwards wrote:
>    This fundamentally is an area of economics.  We've seen that all vibrant 
> economies since WWII have used exports to generate wealth.  Japan, Germany, 
> the Asian tigers, Chile, China, etc. have all used exports to grow while 
> developing their domestic markets and keeping their foreign trade balanced 
> or, typically, in large surpluses.
> 
>    A Cambodian publishing industry isn't a cost per se -- it's the development 
> of a domestic industry; it means domestic jobs for Cambodians in Cambodia.  
> Resigning yourself to importing a critical component of your educational 
> system (the laptops) from overseas will add to the country's trade deficit 
> and will make the country poorer.  It simply has to be so unless there are 
> other offsetting exports.


Hi Randy - My argument wasn't against the costs (amortized or whatever)
of developing a Cambodian printing industry. They were purely about the
actual costs of getting the books printed. No matter where its done its
a costly proposition.  The argument is that physical books are much more
expensive and fragile and less sharable and less reproducible than a
bits-book.

>    There is a theme in the OLPC writings that the new, educated students "get 
> the education for real jobs that take them out of poverty completely." 
> <http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/OLPC_myths>  A wonderful thought, but where 
> do those "real jobs" come from?  There is no direct connection other than a 
> theory.  In reality, those "real jobs" are in Taiwan or China where the 
> laptops are being made.

Yes, and the real jobs in China and Taiwan are being done be people
with an education.  Both China and India are cranking out Engineers at
rates much higher than the US right now.  Both of their economies are
growing madly.  Yes education is clearly only one factor.  Bureaucratic
friction and barriers to starting a business are other strong factors.

No matter how an economy gets started , it needs people with skills to
populate it and generate the horsepower to move it along.

>    Don't get me wrong, I think the laptops are just what are needed in 
> education (in more developed countries) and it's clear that a lot of 
> ingenious thought have gone into them.
> 
>    And there is a correlation between education and wealth/jobs.  But a 
> correlation is not a cause and effect link and meanwhile you're asking poor 
> countries to send their money to Taiwan.  Based on how other countries have 
> successfully developed their own economies and generated nat'l wealth, I'd be 
> very, very leery of that approach.

I agree- this is only one factor in getting an economy working.  But, if
you'll allow me to be selfish for a moment, one thing I like about the
OLPC project is how much can be done with it in countries the the USA.

(just have to make sure that the units don't allow top-posting in email,
or HTML email... :-) )

> 
>  Regards,
>  .
>  Randy
> 
> -- 
> "You know, when I was growing up, or other Baby Boomers here were growing up, 
> we felt safe because we had these vast oceans that could protect us from 
> harm's way." -- George Bush, Jan. 11, 2006. Was Bush lying again or simply 
> displaying that in his youth he had never heard of nuclear missiles or 
> airplanes that drop bombs? 
> <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060111-7.html>
> _______________________________________________
> gnhlug-discuss mailing list
> gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
> http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
> 

-- 
Jeff Kinz, Emergent Research, Hudson, MA.
Speech Recognition Technology was used to create this e-mail