Approaching to the 21st century, world economy becomes more and more global. In
today’s life, several parts of an item can be made in different countries and
unified to produce an output. Realize a laptop whose processor is made in U.S,
by Intel, whose screen is coming from Japan, Toshiba, and whose other various
parts are coming either from Taiwan or from Korea. Lester C. Thurow, a professor
of economics and management at the M.I.T, and the writer of the book “Building
Wealth”, considers this era as being the third industrial revolution. He
claims that this one differs from the former two industrial revolutions, in a
way that the first two revolutions were based on the capital and land. However,
the third revolution is based on the technological improvements such as
computers, robots etc., and knowledge. In the second revolution that created
national economy, the main idea was the “German Systematic Industrial
Research”, research of land and capital. On the other hand, electricity that
was invented during this era, created the modern life. The third one has created
global economy. In each industrial revolution there had been a dominant country
that leaded to the world economy. In the first revolution, the British leaded to
that era. In the second one, the dominant country had been Germany above the
British. And finally, in the late 20th century, U.S. emerged as a world power in
the last industrial revolution. The questions to be asked are: How did U.S
become the best in the industrial world and what are the evidences of this
strong dominance? . The success of U.S. in the industrial world originates from
country’s generic structure and ability to balance control and chaos side. To
begin with, America is making the entrepreneurial jobs very well and this aspect
allows U.S to play “the game of shutting-down and opening new ones”
successfully. For instance, in 1981 AT&T was nearly breaking and in the
1984, the company fired more than five hundred thousand people in order to cut
its excessive money flow. However, entering 21st century, AT&T became one of
the most strong telephone companies in the world. Even if the company didn’t
shutdown during 1980’s, they showed a significant improvement in the industry.
Additionally, when it comes to playing in a knowledge-based economy, U.S. leads
the industrial world. For instance, in Nevada gold production has doubled in the
recent years. Of course, the reason is not a new-discovered gold reserve but the
technological improvements. Nevada became the place where 10% of world gold
production takes place. Not only did those two generic structure of the country
made U.S. a leader in the world economy but also its ability to balance control
and chaos sides served America considerably. Regarding Lester Thurow, balancing
those two things are considerably important. Because, in order to put the
creativity in economic use, a country should balance both chaos and control
side. For instance, the most creative country in the second half of 20th century
was probably Russia. Authors like Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Pushkin, artists
such as Kandinsky, Tchaikovsky, and scientists like Pavlov, Mendeleev were grown
up during this era. But everything was so chaotic and they couldn’t put this
creativity in economic use. They could not balance the line between the
productivity and order. And they had lost the game of technology. However, U.S.
technology was not suppressed by order. Because country’s productivity can
supply the willing of society. As a consequence, U.S.’s dominance on the world
economy has been a result of its generic structure like entrepreneurship and
knowledge-based economy, and of its right balance between chaos and control
side. The evidences of this dominance become more clear after playing the game
better than others. For example, the wealthiest man in the world, Bill Gates, is
from U.S. Today’s seven of the twenty-five biggest U.S. companies didn’t
exist in the 1960’s but all of twenty-five biggest companies in Europe did
exist at these times. Another example, while there were only two American firms
among the world’s ten largest in 1990, nine of those firms were American in
1998. Similarly in finance, in the 1990, none of the American banks was among
the world’s biggest fifteen, but at the 1998, nine of those were American. The
last but not least, as Lester C. Thurow indicates, during the decade of 1990’s
$2 trillion will be added to the U.S. Gross domestic product (GDP). This amount
is larger than GDP’s of all the countries in the world except Japan. So,
it’s obvious that U.S. dominated world economy a little bit! Today, the name
of the world power is America. Its economic dominance on the world is obviously
the reason of this power. In a knowledge-based economy, U.S. plays the game
exactly as it should be. And as Lester C. Thurow mentions, the gap between U.S.
and the other countries becomes larger and larger.