There are plenty of technological factors that are killing the book (not least of which... people read alot less than they used to). One key concept is this: the Internet has removed the time and space from thievery. Almost any form of 'art' (media, movies, books, etc) can be had in seconds. This sort of shatters the supply/demand models of old. Now companies are scrambling to find the iTunes for books (Amazon's Kindle Store), and find the right price points and DRM keys, etc. I love my Kindle. As long as teh stories keep coming, and great authors are happy, I'm happy. :D

It's interesting to see which countries are actually developed, by checking the GINI score... per capita is nice, but it doesn't indicate that a country is wealthy, only that some of its citizens are... if you combine GINI with Income per capita, you get a better sense

So developing countries are growing and developed countries aren't so much? Awesome.....*nods enthusiastically Oh wait...

The next step for the US is not getting manufacturing bases back from the Chinese via tarriffs, etc, but educating its workforce that seems so distraught over the loss of these low-paying jobs. How much is Harvard? 200,000 for a 4 year stint? That's comtemptable. Thankfully, unlike the US health care system, there are great options for Americans to get educated. So why are so many crying over the loss of manufacturing jobs?

Nice Directing!

"1) Koreans have no idea, because of ethnocentric myopia, what it is about Korea that foreigners tend to like. They're too busy asking us if we know what kimchi is." LOL.. Love it. I always found Korean tech companies like LG/Samsung really fresh, hip, and innovative. Their JP/CH rivals look so boring by comparison. The Korean food might be the single biggest 'draw' for tourism. I'll say this: when I was in Korea, I had people there taking care of me, but the few times I was solo, with very basic Korean, I felt like I was hooped (and this was in Gangnam!).. The Koreans might want to look to North China and Japan for tourism dollars, because still, it's kind of a leap to get white people coming in droves to a place that doesn't speak a ton of English. Also, I come from a small country too (Canada!) and we have small cities (ugh....) and your post made me think, 'What the hell does Toronto do?...It's basically a mini-NYC... How can they attract tourists?" Well, the truth is people will go to Toronto for a weekend if they think they're having fun. It's not so much about culture, as fun. So 2 questions: Is Seoul a fun place? Is Seoul a fun place if you can't speak Korean? In the Canada example, Americans can take a bus, or road trip up to Toronto or Montreal, and have some crazy french food (Poutine?!) and get sloppy drunk (18 yrs old in Quebec), and have a great time. I'm assuming there's some good skiing/snowboarding around there. The point is, you don't really have to have the biggest building, or best in the world of XYZ, you just need to be fun. You know what was really fun in Korea? Drinking with my Customers, eating delicious Kalbi, and going to the Karaoke place. Almost none of that would be possible with me and 5 other non-KOR-speaking white guys. Wait a second.. I was just about to say, Advertise to North Chinese (spk Korean) and Japanese (close, many spk Korean).. then I realized, most Chinese can't even leave the country. It's not really an option to fly over for the weekend. Ugh. Ok, Japan? Well, part of the Korean culture is... if I'm not mistaken, ... talking crap about other Asian countries, and at the top of that list has gotta be the Japanese right?! Or the Chinese?... Either way, Korea has spent a few hundred years lambasting its 'target market'.. You're right, the K-Tourism industry is fucked.