sadly, a common phenomenon

Submitted by Al Krepler (United States), Mar 11, 2008 at 09:43

This is a common phenomenon. Americans who have no experience themselves in the wider world have no faith in the ability of their own people to comprehend the world around them. I found this to be very common in American business, where executives prefer foreigners over native born Americans with substantial skill and experience to to work in or with a certain region -- even those foreigners whose paucity of experience in the United States leads them to have little understanding of the executives who hire them.

The executives cannot judge the right person on the basis of their (the exec's) own knowledge, so they make the easiest and most easily defended judgment, which requires little thought -- use the one who looks like he knows what he's doing. This extraordinarily shallow approach to the world has grave consequences for us as a nation, and is unlikely to be reversed soon.

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