TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Political Discussion / Debate
-- Will Russia bet on its people?
Will Russia bet on its people?
| quote: |
| OIL AND DEMOCRACY Will Russia bet on its people? Democracy can be buoyed by resources, or drowned in them. In a high-rise building with a view of Lenin's Tomb, the U.S. aerospace giant Boeing is designing key parts of its new 787 Dreamliner, using hundreds of Russian aerospace engineers. Yes, President Putin may be talking Cold-War tough, but down the street from the Kremlin, America's crown jewel industrial company is using Russia's crown jewel brainpower to design its next crown jewel jetliner. Boeing's Moscow Design Center, which employs 1,400 Russian engineers (earning less than their U.S. counterparts) on various projects, symbolizes Russia's unique potential: Russia is that rare country that not only has a treasure trove of natural resources -- oil, gas and mines -- but also has a treasure trove of human talent: engineers, mathematicians and other valuable minds. Most nations with highly developed human talent -- like Singapore or Taiwan -- have few natural resources, and those that are rich in natural resources -- Venezuela or Sudan -- tend not to develop their people's talents. The exceptions, like Norway, which is rich in both human and natural resources, usually built their democratic institutions before they got rich on oil, so the money was well spent. The meta-question with Russia today is this: Will it become more like Norway, a democracy enriched by oil, or more like Venezuela, a democracy subverted by oil? Is the Boeing center Russia's future or its exception? You see signs of both trends. On the positive side, Russia has been smarter than most petro-states. It has set up a rainy day fund and tucked away $100 billion from its oil and gas windfall. Direct foreign investment in Russia hit $30 billion last year, according to The Economist, and not all of it goes to the oil and gas sector anymore. And then there's Boeing. Its impressive Moscow center operates two shifts of engineers: 7 a.m. until 3 p.m., and 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. -- which is during the workday in the United States. A Russian Boeing engineer might be designing part of the 787's nose during his day, and then initials and stores his work in the computer. A U.S. Boeing engineer, working on an identical computer, then picks it up during her day and engineers it some more. With regular teleconferences, it's as if they are in one virtual 24- hour office. "There is no paper at all," said Sergei Korolev, the deputy head of Boeing Moscow. "We do the presentations electronically and have online sessions with Wichita and Seattle, and everyone looks at the same part and talks about it. Our center is the reason people are not emigrating." But Russia has a unique legacy in aerospace from Soviet days, so the educational centers and talent were in place for Boeing to tap. What Russia still glaringly lacks is an ecosystem of secure property rights, venture capitalists and homegrown innovators, and universities and business schools churning out idea-entrepreneurs. "Made in Russia" will never be a global brand as long as research spending by Russian companies remains among the lowest in the world. The Moscow Times recently reported that only two Russian colleges -- Moscow State and St. Petersburg State -- are listed among the world's top 500 universities. When you walk down the streets in Bangalore, India's high-tech capital, it feels as if there's a computer school or English-language school on every street. You walk in Moscow, and it feels as if there is a new shoe store or beauty salon on every street. A former top aide to Putin remarked to me that Russia had a huge interest in building a postindustrial knowledge economy, not an energy-intensive industrial one, so it can export most of its oil and gas, not consume them at home. But that would take a big investment in education, which is not being done. Noting that Russia today spends far less of its GDP on higher education than Europe or America, Sergei Guriyev, rector of Russia's New Economic School, wrote in The Moscow Times, "Russians simply are not prepared to pay the taxes that would be necessary to finance science and education at Soviet-era levels, and no incentives have been created to attract more private funding." So here's my prediction: You tell me the price of oil, and I'll tell you what kind of Russia you'll have. If the price stays at $60 a barrel, it's going to be more like Venezuela, because its leaders will have plenty of money to indulge their worst instincts, with too few checks and balances. If the price falls to $30, it will be more like Norway. If the price falls to $15 a barrel, it could become more like America -- with just enough money to provide a social safety net for its older generation, but with too little money to avoid developing the leaders and institutions to nurture the brainpower of its younger generation. THE NEW YORK TIMES |
This can be very lucritive for both Russia and boeing. since airbus has been screwing the pooch of late with thier new super plane. Both parties can gain allot.
| quote: |
| or more like Venezuela, a democracy subverted by oil? |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Q5echo don't let Magnetorium read that. he'll go apeshit. |
Tsagi trained engineers are highly sought-after by both American and European aircraft designers as they effectively "think outside of the box" of conventional "western" aircraft design due to the differing nature of their schooling. Soviet designers were well respected in the West for being able to produce highly capable airframes on much tighter budgets and with less advanced manufacturing techniques.
Boeing being a for-profit company, they would be remiss if they did not have interest in hiring people who were brought up in a system where looking for efficiencies in different places was paramount.
Also, Boeing has a fairly long history of working with former Soviet designers. They had a program to study supersonic commercial flight with former Tupolev bureau engineers using a modified Tu-144 during the 1990s. Most likely the people working for Boeing now are some of the engineers from that partnership.
It is also important to note that the 787 is being designed by engineers in more than 10 countries, with manufacturing operations in at least as many. They have taken the "airbus leap" of manufacturing large components in several countries and doing final assembly in their home facility, and moving the parts via a highly modified 747. Airbus has been doing it for almost 30 years.
Video of the modified 747 for moving fuselage parts to Seattle: http://video.boeing.com:8080/asx_ex...F_90906_300.asx
MrS
EDIT: Heh, I just read the middle part of the article, interesting commentary on how the Russian economy (and indeed much of the world) relies too much on oil and too little on developing human resources.
Re: Will Russia bet on its people?
| quote: |
| Originally posted by star-traveler |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by MrSquirrel Video of the modified 747 for moving fuselage parts to Seattle: http://video.boeing.com:8080/asx_ex...F_90906_300.asx |
Bet on these people?
http://www.solargeneral.com/video/patriotsblood.wmv
HELL NO!!!
| quote: |
| Originally posted by metalgearsolid Bet on these people? ... http://www.solargeneral.com/video/patriotsblood.wmv HELL NO!!! |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by star-traveller you just jelaous, 'cause an average Russian could easily kick your fat ass. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by metalgearsolid Right and when would this be? After he finishes drinking a liter of vodka or after beating his wife or children? |
US has squandered its wealth , democracy,reputation and security in their imperialist wars on serbia and iraq so I am not concerned about Russia which is a young democracy with its own set of problems and a lot of potential but a lot of enemies who are looking to seize its resources among other things
Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.