--- begin forwarded text X-Lotus-FromDomain: BIONOMICS@INTERLIANT @ OUTBOUND From: "VitaminB"<VitaminB@bionomics.org> To: "DAILY DOSE"<DAILY_DOSE@maxager.com> Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 16:17:40 -0700 Subject: <<Vitamin B>>(September 26, 1997) Le Brain Drain Mime-Version: 1.0 Vitamin B: Your Daily Dose of Bionomics September 26, 1997 Le Brain Drain In the age just past, a nation's natural resources were the key to its success; today it is its intellectual capital. And with the world linked like never before, nations must nurture intellectual capital lest it walk away. But don't believe us. Ask our friend Olivier. When Olivier Cardic figured out that if his electronics company were based in England his 1995 net profit would have been $300,000, compared to just $80,000 in France, he decided to do what 1,000 French entrepreneurs have done already. Move. In the era of globalization, voting with your feet becomes a pretty easy stroll, especially when the country you're in is France. Consider this: British employers pay 10.2% of salaries in payroll taxes, compared with an insane 46% in France. According to Jean-Pierre Letouzet, president of RGA Systemes, a systems engineering company, "We live in a Marxist system. France has never been capitalist. We're not prepared for globalization, and we're sinking." Last year, Cardic asked French authorities on national radio to, "Explain to me why it is better to be unemployed in France than a worker in England?" The French authorities didn't have an answer for him. Neither do we. Source: _Business Week_, October 6, 1997 --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/