I'm not saying we're not a great country, but if we're honest with ourselves (and truly great) we need to take a serious look at things, see where we fucked up, and get to work fixing it.

This is the utmost patriotism, the utmost love: to look at things as they are and as they should be and to strive to make them as they should be. I also happen to think that this is the best and easiest way to be a virtuous person in general, to live by that cheesy corporate catch-word, kaizen, which means "continuous improvement" in Japanese

Speaking of the Japanese, that provides a nice segue into the topic I really wanted to write about when I started this post: long-term vs. short-term planning and results. The Japanese, you see, are some of the most long-term, big-picture sort of people in the world. Did you know that Sony once poured tens of millions of dollars and ten years of labor into studying ESP and other extra-normal phenomena? Why? Because on the off chance that they hit on something, it would have been big, and they would have been way ahead of the curve. That one didn't pan out, but similar bets on microchips, small cars, solar cells, and cell phones have paid out in spades. The Walkman had a nice run, too. If I'm not mistaken, the movie Avatar (which I had the opportunity to see in 3-D and loved) was shot with cameras specifically developed for the purpose by Sony over a period of years.

Meanwhile, American business (Google aside) has continually focused on short-term, next-quarter results. Most American companies don't even have a two-year plan, let alone a five-year or ten-year plan. You would be hard-pressed to find a Japanese company that didn't have at least a five-year outlook.

(By the way, in case anyone thinks I'm pulling this out of my you-know-what: I studied Japanese business at the Master's level at one of the best universities in Asia under one of the foremost scholars in the field, who happens to be a woman, interestingly enough.)

This is precisely why Japanese companies do not axe workers the way American companies do. When Japanese companies need to downsize, they typically do it via attrition: Letting people retire and not replacing them. American companies, as all too many of us know, will lay you off by taking your computer off your desk and replacing it with a pink slip, totally un-announced.

Why the difference? Japanese workers are seen as members of a family. Loyalty to the company is everything, and companies don't get loyalty when they treat people like disposable diapers to be crapped in and trucked off to the assheap. In fact, it doesn't make sense to pursue big, bold, long-term projects with a revolving door of workers who have to be trained. Stick with the same team over a period of ten years. Take everybody out for dinner, drinks, and karaoke once in a while. You will get much better long-term results.

Of course, in the American company, this is impossible because the CEO wants his bonus, and he doesn't get it unless the company gets results right now. Google aside (When's the last time they had a mass layoff?), there is very little long-term strategic thinking in American business at any level. That, in the final analysis, explains why Ford pays Toyota for its hybrid technology. That's why GE pays Siemens for its wind technology. The American businesses that do think long-term, do so in an incredibly stupid, evil way (Think: Monsanto and its totally insane plot to dominate the world's food supply. Seriously, Lex Luthor couldn't come up with this shit.)

Anyway, what does this have to do with you and your situation? One paradox (I love those, as regular readers probably know) of long-term thinking is that it necessitates action right now. You will never achieve a long-term goal without taking many tiny steps toward it. Those steps start right now.

Hey, America, let's set some ambitious long-term goals and take steps toward them right now! China did that 30 years ago. It's worked out pretty well for them.

(Stay tuned for a future post on some ambitious long-term goals for our country.)