Word: varian
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...improve education at every level," says Varian, "including elementary, high school, college and, most important, continuing and on-the-job education." Otherwise, a worsening skills shortage could dim the promise that the Internet will help narrow the gap between rich and poor. The gap could get even wider...
Paradoxically, perhaps, at least some board members think the accelerated pace of business can lead to more leisure for workers--in about 15 years, says Varian. The reasoning: more work can be done in less time. Romer is unsure about leisure, but predicts another, generally beneficial aspect of the speedup. Faster economic growth will lead to higher wages, he says, and as a result, "the cost of people's time will be going up. That's a trend you can count on into the far future...
...Internet and intensified by the enthusiasm of investors for Internet stocks, some of which may take many years to justify their current prices, if they ever do. The result may be a "bubble" of inflated prices for some Internet and IT companies, ending in a crash. Varian observes that the vastly greater speed of business information collecting and decision making ought to help executives avoid costly mistakes. But, he adds, there is a "dark side of the force. When you do make a mistake, it can be a lot bigger...
Berkeley's Varian mentions a more specific problem: "constructing a legal infrastructure for contracting and doing business in cyberspace which requires standards for things such as digital signatures, time stamping, antitrust, taxes, content regulation, intellectual property, privacy, jurisdiction, liability." The industry needs uniform standards covering all these issues, he says, and "it's very naive to think [federal and state] governments aren't going to play a significant role in setting such legal rules...
...people as will be needed, and will enough of those technically skilled graduates come from poor and minority groups to make IT the great equalizer between economic haves and have-nots foreseen by some would-be prophets? At best, there is a long way to go. Right now, says Varian, "educational institutions are moving in fits and starts" to integrate computers into classroom work. Romer asserts that education is "probably the worst laggard in coming up with better ways to do things," and it will have to change because the skills of the workforce can no longer be improved just...