The World Impact of American Technology

The enormous success of American technology is the envy and imitation of the world. Some products of high technology, such as Dichloro - Diphenyl - Trichloralethane (DDT) and the inoculation "gun" have made a signal contribu tion to the foreign-assistance program, but, for the most part, goods financed by the Agency for International Development (AID) are of kinds readily available from other sources. A significant share of the assistance program consists of technical assistance aimed at implanting modern technology in recipient countries. Most of this, however, is focused on the develop ment of educational and other supporting institutions, rather than a direct transfer of technique to practitioners. Since American technology is a product as well as a cause of a high- wage economy, it is often inappropriate to the typical low-wage, less-developed country situation. Thus, the most valuable as sistance we can provide is to help recipients to establish those conditions of opportunity, incentive, support, and guidance that will lead their own innovators to develop their own technology. The growth of savings-and-loan associations and mortgage markets in Latin America and the ferment of locally organized, centrally supported rural activity in East Pakistan appear to be examples of this procedure.