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Finding Opportunity in the Global Economy

Bill Gates says today if you had to guess (угадать) somebody's approximate income (i.e., money you receive) and you were lim­ited to asking one polite question, a good one would be: «What country do you live in?» That is because of the huge difference in average wages (weekly payment for work) from country to country. But a generation from now, if you want to guess someone's in­come, a more-telling single question might be: «What's your edu­cation?» «This, at least, is my belief», B. Gates says. Future business opportunity will depend on educational opportunity — for everyone.

Compared to almost anything else in a developed society, the cost of investment in education is low — and the returns are high. Even the poorest of countries can develop better schools. Educa­tion is essential because electronic networks and software-driven technologies are beginning to break down the economic barriers between nations. The Internet and the availability of inexpensive, powerful computers are helping spread opportunity to developing nations.

International communication, which is certain to become ex­traordinary¹ cheap in all its forms, will bring suitably educated peo­ple from every economic region into the mainstream of the world economy. Well-educated, enterprising individuals with access to information technology will do well no matter where they live.

Nearly a billion people in rural China may find their lives little changed for decades, but tens of millions of the best-educated Chi­nese could earn more or less what similarly educated people in the United States or Germany do.

As technology breaks down the barriers of distance and national borders, it will be even more important that everybody be given equal educational opportunities. Eventually, being «poor» won't be much a matter of living in a poor country as it will be a matter of having poor skills.

Assuming you want to develop those skills, what should you study? There are a lot of opportunities in the knowledge-based global economy, and B. Gates is particularly enthusiastic about the business he knows best — software.

Because software is an almost pure expression of logic, the in­dustry is a great field for almost anyone today. Just about every technical and scientific discipline will apply. The business side is equally exciting and challenging² because the industry is so dy­namic. And software jobs are among the highest-paid. It is not a win-lose industry, either. More software development in one re­gion does not mean reduced software development in another. Rather, software development as a whole helps to grow the world economy.

The value and importance of the software industry — and its employees — will continue to grow indefinitely. Software is trans­forming the workplace in industry after industry, increasing pro­ductivity and helping globalize the world economy.