我个人绝对不同意这种没有任何前提和条件而太过绝对和偏激的观点，在我们公司总部（当然它只是存在着同样现象的众多外国公司的一个代表而已），就去年几个月的切身观察和体会，凭心而论，中国员工是最努力和最甘于自我牺牲的（也许这也是由于境况所迫，带有颜色的肌肤在这个白人称王的国度难以获得一个公平的发展空间也不足为奇，但是不管怎样，事实就是事实，中国人不懒惰！中国人对于努力牺牲与成就之间的正比关系比起某些整天就知道靠耍嘴皮子而卖乖的白人清楚得不是一点半点！！），那些所谓的本地白人，哪个不是早九晚五遵守得如同清规例律，下午五点包准溜之大吉，哪个不是明年的年假计划在今年年初就已呈报上级；哪个不是过节的时候要他们加班，那恶狠狠的眼神毒得足把你杀了给他们全家做祭品；当然，保持生活工作的balance，强调家庭观念，无可厚非，我一个即将流落他乡举目无亲的外国人既无权多嘴也无能干涉，但是我绝对不能忍受当某些白人在旧金山享受阳光沙滩，在夏威夷手揽比基尼美女而中国员工在办公室里挑灯夜战废寝忘食的时候，他们还在大言不惭地说什么中国人不懂得努力和牺牲…… It sux!!!

赶在离开这个危机四伏的危险重地（伊利蒙牛奶俺是喝了不少，尽量不去想自己是否已经有了kidney stone)前回家看望了久别的父母。二老在花甲之年终于搬进了双卫的大宅，然而我这个做女儿的一直对未能参与搬家而耿耿于怀，如今回到家里，连电梯门如何开（需要密码）都不知道。吃饭了，碗筷需要问老妈；出门了，雨伞需要问老爸；不知不觉感觉自己在这个四室两厅的apartment里就如同一个过客，在这里自己得到的是最高星级的服务。

现在二老已经退休了，整天忙着收拾打扫房间而不亦乐乎，最高兴的环节就是擦拭那需要踩在板凳上才能够得着的全家福。找来需要的配件把电脑升了级，手把手教二老如何捣鼓鼠标键盘，老爸还是原来优秀共产党员的那一套，小本子在手每个环节都不落下，什么“啃脚（ctrl）”之类的语言也就他老人家能弄明白。老妈在这种涉及到学习的事情上，永远都只能是老爸的陪衬，看似在一旁听得挺认真，到关机的时候，她还得向我请教鼠标该何去何从（晕！）。最终在本人的耐心调教下，老爸凭借着他那一惯的刻苦严谨的求学作风，终于知道如何点击小绿人，如何发送附件，如何copy, paste。看着屏幕上我通过笔记本发过去的笑脸，老爸是乐得裂开的嘴半天硬没合拢过来，可爱之极！自从前天回到北京的那个晚上，老爸老妈的手机短信中于是又多了一个保留节目：“今天你发信了吗？什么时候MSN？” 得，我这算是引狼入室了！2001年在韩国的时候他们只知道QQ，仅认得那个小企鹅，如今又添一个MSN，多认识了一个小绿人，新事物自然需要通过练习不断熟悉，做女儿的，这免费的陪练还能有半分怨言？！:p

JB: thanks. i will forward some of them to the designer.  i feel he has much farther to go.... the site really isn't working overall.  Like i can't see an ad that i've posted,  and there are supposed to be default pictures which i couldn't see. (I think adding 2 pictures is sufficient, as we're talking about generic stuff here, basically junk, no one wants to look at too many pictures of someone's junk.)    but were you able to add a user?  and could you find your stuff in a search?  i feel the search stuff is not working right.  that's the most important thing!!

Lane: Yeah, I guess you seem to appear tough now. But, frankly, I have to say he is not a qualified employee for now. Good employees are supposed to check out everything they did and make it as perfect as possible, and are supposed to think more than what the employer told them. He shall be more goal-oriented rather than task oriented. L if he quits, I hope you can find another one who really enjoys this work, I guess this would be the only way to get the job done perfectly.

JB: i have no problem with someone quitting, IF they leave all the work they've done to that point, AND they make it editable by the next employee.  I feel like i might need to spend more money to get this right...I think my friend's guy is fairly good (in India), but he costs a bit more.  Hey what's with all the developing countries charging too much?  i think I'll just hire an american.. :P 

Lane: If developing countries are doing the same quality even better quality job as developed countries, they(we) are supposed to get the same pay. I didn't expect you would have said that. :(

JB: But in his case, they aren't the same quality of craftsmanship.  but people use them if they can't afford to have a full high quality job, but can live with less.  however if their costs are approaching what the developed countries are charging, then it is better to use them instead.  These countries should hear what I'm saying, as many of them are at the verge of losing the growth that they have built up. as their higher costs are no benefit . . . but, let's put that aside.   in a purely economic sense, it's not right to assume that they would get the same pay.  when you adjust for quality of life and cost of living, the developed country should earn less money.  not the most humane answer, but the law on which business works  it even goes for cities here where the cost of living is lower than others. the pay is certainly lower to reflect that difference.  and no one disputes it.. no one likes it, but in the end they also don't want to pay the high cost to live in say LA or NY.  so they just accept it. 

Lane：Well, I am talking about your friend’s guy whom you said is fairly good(in India but costs a bit more. We can see that the software technology is developing dramatically in India; more and more ppl there are engaging in this industry, hence more and more countries are searching the technical service from Indians. India is developing with their development in their technical skills. When they feel they are more in need and they can have voice to ask for more payback, why shouldn't they or say why couldn't they just go forward and do it? What you are saying is based upon an assumption that if they do ask for more, they will lost the attention from the world. Do you think they can't sense that if that's really the truth.  Anything happens must be followed with a reason. The reason for increase of cost of Indians is because their work is worth more payment under the international economic environment. Their living standard is also growing with their technology growth day by day.

JB: im just saying that if countries overseas start charging close to what their domestic counterparts are charging, then the incentive to use them is lost, as it's easier to go locally anyway, with planning, communication, etc.  so what happens is that they become a victim of their own success. it’s been happening to the US the past 20 yrs.. the cost of living made it too expensive for anyone to enjoy manufacturing here, so these developing countries took on the task much cheaper (and we went along with it, to save our economy.)  but now they are becoming developed and cannot sustain the same growth (and most of the goods that comes out of these places is not so high quality, or high tech anyway. I read the other day that this is starting to happen to china...especially with the currency increasing and the labor wage increase.. now the factories are shutting down.  it may take another 5 yrs for china to feel it, but things will definitely slow down and level off.  i think this might be a good thing for the US too, and i actually think that it's a good thing that our currency is down.  we have increased manufacturing, increased tourism, increased foreign investment now.. because things in the world are evening out.  so im just saying, unless developed countries have enough domestic or regional area business to keep growing, if they ruin the incentive that made them 'develop' (offering cheap prices for discount services to help the people in other countries who are on a budget, and can offer almost what these people can get in their developed country), then their growth will slow dramatically.  it's basic business.  it's about staying loyal to what your customers liked about you.  and ultimately that means saving money.  otherwise there is no point in dealing with the small frustrations of having labor overseas:  cultural, communication, quality differences.  among other things.

Lane: When you say “the incentive to use them is lost “ is based upon an assumption that the developing countries production is stuck in na unchanging stage on which the quality of the production is going nowhere but staying always poor. However, if you think of this issue with a dynamic view, the quality of the developing countries’ products or service is improving day by day and finally it might be better than those competitors in developed countries, when that day comes, their products and service will be welcome by ppl in developed countries even though from far away, at that time, why should they still stay with low price, besides, to produce better quality products, usually more cost would be needed, hence, it’s quite logic and reasonable that they have to raise the price to cover the cost. If you look at a bigger picture of the world, all developing countries are trying to developing their technologies, their employee’s skills; none of them is making their development by means of enlarging their labor force. All of them are inclined to be tech-intensive industrial countries rather than labor-intensive agricultural countries. What they are concerned about more is not to export more products or service because of low price comparability but to get more benefit by increasing the earning from per product. This is the main trend. RMB is increasing dramatically nowadays, from my point of view; it’s a good thing, because this will lead the exporters to increase the export price which naturally will discourage ppl abroad to import the products from China, in other words, Chinese products will lose the price compatibility.  Some enterprises which survive from low price will be eventually abandoned by the international market. More and more enterprises will turn to study how to develop and manufacture products which other countries don’t have, rather than those products which they can sell only because of lower price. This would be better off for the whole country in a long run.

JB: but if they increase their costs too much, then they will lose the ability to make more for their products.  and if their products cost more, then the world will instantly move on to the cheaper deal.  and if that place is a little behind, they will work with them to make the quality just good enough to sell on their market (if the difference make up to it.).  The us, and capitalist countries in general (but mostly u.s.) is more about the cheapest they can possibly get.  if that means losing some quality, then so be it, as we are in such a consumer country anyway, where we love to buy and throw away (not me, I hate to throw things away, but i hate to have things too, so i don't end up buying much.  I'm bad for the economy.)  but anyway... word of caution to china...they can't increase too much, or the market will go another way.  we already had that happen in Taiwan and Japan.  now they make higher quality tech items (Japan being a higher quality), but we already have them...  we still need a country to continually cover our need for cheap items (it's wal-mart world out there as most of the u.s. is just struggling day to day to get by, we need cheap stuff.)  and capitalism has no loyalty except to those who keep more money in it's pockets.  so the world will say goodbye overnight to whomever is not saving them that money.  for example the us corporations (bad, i hate them, but they drive all this development) started with Mexico, then when they wanted more (and frankly their quality sucked, bc they are lazy workers), we went to Japan, then Taiwan, each eventually wanting more money.  then china took on the task and they were a great deal.  now their costs are increasing and they are emerging to be the next Taiwan.  . . but china still has so much development to go in it's infrastructure, and it's philosophy and research/development abilities. it's basic culture and political scene has a long way to go.  just it's quality output (although much better than Mexico.)  the difference was that those last two countries were open to the west for a long time...china has a long long way to go.  they still don't understand customer service from what i have experienced.  so it's a bit premature for some developing countries to think that they can increase their prices on the world market. 

Lane: From the perspective of international economy, the first tier countries are those who setting up the industrial standards; the second tier countries are those who creating intellectual properties; then the rest courtiers (third tier countries) are those who can only do the manufactures based upon the standards set up by the first tier and depending on the IPs created by the second tier. Now, it’s out of question that U.S in absolutely in the first tier and China is in the third tier and trying to move on to the second tier. Why? It’s because China doesn’t want to be controlled and led by others, so do other third tier countries. If you are saying that “we still need a country to continually cover our need for cheap items”, does that mean that you are hoping the third countries are always keep at the level where they are? Yeah, for the purpose of harmony and for the sake of first tier and second tier, maybe that’s the best idea. But no one country wants to stay where they are forever; every country wants to take upper ranks and wants to make progress. I do agree with you that China might have a downturn or say China has been tasting the downturn now, but actually that’s inevitable if China wants to be a really powerful and controlling country and wants to join the second or even the first tier countries in the long run.

JB: I was just stating a fact coming form a ‘1st tier’ country.  Or a capitalist country at least.  That we need someone to do it cheaper.  Because consumerist countries need cheap stuff.  It’s the risk the other countries must take...can we increase our prices, but also risk losing the business...so it’s up to them if they want to stay where they are or move up. Of course the answer is to move up, as this is human nature, but then they must also calculate this very carefully as there will certainly be consequences.  Right now the u.s has dealt with this for a long time  But now we are seeing a resurgence of more manufacturing because of our lower dollar.  Im in favor of the lower dollar, it’s time that things even out for us.  We have been in a trade deficit for a long time.  And maybe it’s time that we started to make / export more instead of having it made from overseas.  And I think some of these developing countries who have kept their currency falsely low to attract overseas manufacturers are now paying for it with inflation, and the only thing that can happen is to increase the price of the currency to their correct levels.  It’s just an evening out that is happening everywhere.   And it must happen.   U.s. Needs an evening out too..namely of our trade deficit, and the lowering of the dollar is a good thing  And healthy for the economy.  I think it’s laughable that everyone touts the higher level of the Euro, but the europeans are hurting as no one can buy their goods or manufacture there.  They can’t compete against our dollar.  All these brilliant people who want to be paid in euros now (like brazilian actors and models, the brilliant economists that they are, hehe) will be crying when their lack of economic sense pays off in a few yrs and the euro is worth about even to the dollar.  It has to happen.  If these economies want to play together, their playing fields must even out, ie their currencies.  And that can mean some will hurt for a while, while others gain.  That’s globalization I guess.  

Lane: Chinese factories can render the world with low prices mainly due to the low labor and material cost, ppl always try to take the most economic way to get most materials which eventually result in environment destruction and recourse scarcity. That’s a obvious fact that if they wanna protect the environment and save the resources under their homeland, they have to put a lot of money in the process of production which inevitably get their production cost increased tremendously, naturally cause decrease in the profit. In the past 20 years, Chinese government used to just focus on the number of GDP and has no any sense of environment protection, blindly encouraged exportation and so enjoyed the high  trade surplus. Then, let’s see what happened, American athletes tried to ware masks when they came in China; Foreign friends coming abroad love Beijing so much but frown when you mention the air, and more seriously, ppl died because of drinking the water of Songhua river in west east of china last year. Fortunately, the Chinese government finally  kind of woke up after numerous environmental crises happened, in the near past 5 years, the government did and does grow plenty of  awareness of environment protection, they are really putting numerous practical measures in force to regulate factories’ acts to protect the environment and to save our recourse. No doubt, it will definitely increase the production cost and eventually increase the export price, but if let the ppl to choose between to have billion dollars rush into this country to feed us for a couple of years with the environment continually deteriorating and to push those manufactures which abuse the recourse on right track to get the blue sky back to the country.  I bet most of the ppl would like to choose the latter. At least, I would.

JB: that's what happened to the us about 40 yrs ago.  people were all up in arms about the 'liberals' ruining the manufacturing of this country with their cries for cleaner everything.  but at least we have cleaner air now.  but we shipped all the manufacturing overseas.  now china is going thru it.  i think basically as I’ve been saying the world needs to even out, costs need to be equal, then we can all compete based on skill and speed, etc.  really it will take some time as there are lesser countries that the developed and developing countries will let do their 'dirty' work, and let their air become dirty for the more developed countries' profit.  but in time things will be more even, and all these factors (profit v.s. environment) will all weigh into the picture.  basically china, for a long time, could take on all the work we didn't want to do, because we were at the point where our environmental laws made it not as profitable.  but now they are 'cleaning up' their act.  and they will join other developed countries in shipping their manufacturing to other countries (India, Vietnam), until in decades they will also clean up their air.  but eventually the whole world will have higher standards for their environment, higher costs of living, etc,  and all the costs will be about the same.  so we will all be equal, and be able to compete on what is the best product, who can build it the best, and fastest, etc etc.  i guess this is what globalization is all about.

Lane: Hey, don't you think you have been on my side?  

出生的时候，俺很简单，吃喝拉撒，开心了就笑不爽了就哭。

刚开始会说话了，爸妈就教育俺要懂礼貌守规矩；

刚跨进学校了，老师就教育俺要学知识懂文化；

刚学会和同龄的小朋友一起捣蛋了，社会朋友就教育俺要懂规则讲义气；

刚懂得自我反省了，俺自己教育俺自己要牢记俺爸俺妈俺老师俺朋友俺社会的blah blah。

于是，我告诫自己我要懂得含蓄，我要学会谦逊，我要力求上进，我要坚强自立；

终于，我学会了如何去察言观色，我知道了什么是阿谀奉承，我体会了没有回报的付出，我感受了些许冷酷的世态炎凉；

我依旧还在吃喝拉撒延续生命，然而我不再有绝对的开心了笑不爽了哭的简单经历；

So....到底谁能告诉我“活出简单”的正确途径？！