A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap,
i6 q. [& h+ B but, if properly handling, it may become a driving force. When __1__0 m- L! H' f: z. l# {, d/ X# ?
the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of
0 b4 }/ P& e3 F" O; I4 J& G: e! F8 {7 W the Second World War, it had a market eight times larger than any other
1 d# r8 q0 ~$ D7 U2 ~( `! B# ? competitor, given its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its __2__
9 y' F: ]8 L/ d! a* J( C scientists were the world’s best, its workers the most skilled. America- k- n6 S3 i! R4 a Y
and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans6 M5 M7 G5 o( b1 b
and Asians whose economies that the war had destroyed. __3__
9 i4 t" m: x# ~ It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as$ e* {9 `- ^! @4 h. e' U' f6 K
other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably, the retreat from% F/ }! G+ m1 z1 W; ?* w, {
predominance proved painful. By the mid-1980s Americans found __4__9 u4 A1 ?6 M3 e
themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competition. Some __5__
9 Y* @# \ m7 k! Z" f huge American industries, such as consumer electronic, had shrunk __6__
7 ~# S! s0 l( d or vanished in the face of foreign competition. Foreign-made cars
/ F* M/ P* Q. r; l8 r D: O and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market and America’s5 N" Y) H, e; F# M
machine-tool industry was on the rope. For a while it looked as __7__
" Y/ S) N' e; C+ i though the making of semiconductors, which America had sat at the __8__2 m% b" _/ p6 f3 f& Z6 R' E! ]+ Z
heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty.
5 S) s4 h5 u5 v/ a All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped talking
2 E8 R# C- s% |( h prosperity for grant. They began to believe that their way of doing __9__
- b# Z, f2 G+ e( g& V3 t* [' { business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly
6 S, @. U- v/ C, ~! O begin to fall as well. The mid-1980 brought one inquiry after __10__- e$ O+ k6 S5 n
another into the causes of America’s industrial decline. Their sometimes
5 K* }4 W4 o! N- x( H sensational findings were filled with warnings about growing competition4 @+ h' Z) F/ H
from overseas |