This Is For The Economist In You....

Just last week, I was afforded the opportunity to take in a lecture at a Cincinnati law firm which gave insight into doing business with Japan. This caused me to take a good look at some of the differences between the way that Western economies (theorized by such economists as Smith and Ricardo) and Asian economies (theorized by German economist List) conduct business.

I found several resulting implications formulated from each set of ideas that coincided fantastically from what I heard during the presentation. I guess my education is not a waste of time.

In the Western world economic policies followed the belief that economies should have 'automatic' growth, measured by as how much well off the consumer is. Conversely, the Asian mindest is to run their economy in a more deliberate or controlled way, with growth being measured by how well off the producer is and not the consumer.

Yet another difference in the two style of economic policy making is that most Western societies subscribe to the thought that in order for growth , the process to which producers obtain wealth should be protected but the Asian market want to take a different pill. They think that the key to wealth should be to make sure that the producer's out come was fair, and not the process.

Also the Western societies had an over lying idea that business should cohabitate peacefully with one another, which is very different as to the way that Asians feel about business relationships. They feel that the more the business compete with each other, the better, very similar to being in a perpetual state of war.

I know that this may seem Greek to many of you, but some practical examples of the aforementioned economic thought could be found when looking at the economic decisions made by Britain and Japan.

During Margaret Thatcher's reign as Prime Minister of Britain, she forced her country to dismantle the 'Commanding Heights' and sell government controlled industries and place them in the hand of private ownership, letting competition dictate who would prosper and who would faultier. While in Japan, during the 1950's, this Asian nation viewed economic policy as being inherent to the control of the government and that government intervention should be a "national component of economic policy".

I am going to think twice when dealing with an Asian nation.