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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| China's going to overtake the U.S.??? Not likely! |
| 2008-12-05 |
| Jonah Goldberg, National Review For more than a century, countless American intellectuals and business leaders have looked enviously at how foreign countries “planned” and “managed” their economies. Woodrow Wilson and the Progressives drooled over Otto von Bismarck, and today every self-proclaimed “global strategist” gazes at China’s managed capitalism like a kid with his nose pressed against a candy-store window. Of course, China has made enormous progress since it decided that markets are a more desirable means of improving the lot of its citizens than organized mass murder. But China’s fans still have an enormous blind spot. Ask yourself this: Why are we in this financial crisis? Any short list of reasons would include a lack of transparency in markets and regulatory rule-making; collusion between business and government; the politicization of lending practices (including the socialization of risk and the privatization of profit through giant governmental entities like Fannie Mae); and, of course, simple greed. Does anyone honestly think China doesn’t have these problems ten times over? It has no free press, no democratic accountability, and no truly independent regulators. After every Chinese earthquake, we discover that safety inspectors couldn’t be trusted to oversee the construction of schools and hospitals. And we’re supposed to believe that China’s corrupt model produces toxic baby formula but spic-and-span finances? There’s an honest debate about how much blame institutions like Fannie Mae and laws like the Community Reinvestment Act deserve for the financial crisis, but few honest observers dispute that they played some kind of deleterious role. Well, China’s entire economy is one big Fannie Mae, its laws one big Community Reinvestment Act. I’m willing to bet that the bill for that comes due long, long, long before China catches up with the United States of America. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #11 perhaps "stainless" has a different meaning in Chinglish? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-12-05 22:18 |
| #10 phil_b: I'll bet all of those made in Malaysia products came from Malaysian Chinese owned factories and largely manned by Malaysian Chinese workers. I can't speak to the ethnicity of the assembly line workers, but I can say this - the only stainless steel knives and can openers I've had rust on me after a couple of uses had one country of origin in common - China. I don't think that's an assembly line worker problem. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-12-05 22:10 |
| #9 CHINESE MIL FORUM > RUSSIA TO REVERSE PRIVATIZATION PROCESS, giving Russ companies a US$200.0Bilyuhn Bailout of their own??? Also, WORLD MIL FORUM [paraph] > CHINESE STATES OF AMERICA [West/Pacific Coast, espec California]LIKELY TO DOMINATE POST-BREAKUP USA [Igor Panarin Scenario]. CATALYST TO INDUCE BREAK-UP SCENARIO WOULD BE FOR POTUS-ELECT OBAMA TO BE SHOT/ASSASSINATED!?; + US STATE DEPT DESIRES TO FORM AN INTERNATIONAL "ALLIANCE OF YOUTH MOVEMENT" TO COMBAT TERROR, POLITICAL OPPRESSION, AND CRIME, FOSTER AND PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS; + CHINA'S POVERTY-STRICKEN POPULATION DECLINES TO 1.4MILYUHN FROM 250.0MILYUHN DURING ERA OF MAO ZEDONG [aka Mao Tse-Tung]. Article prob is that Author uses or denotes figure described as "1,400 Milyuhn(s)", a sum which inversely subjectively indics an INCREASE, NOT DECREASE, to 1.4BILYUHN = 1,400,000,000??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-12-05 21:51 |
| #8 I'll bet all of those made in Malaysia products came from Malaysian Chinese owned factories and largely manned by Malaysian Chinese workers. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2008-12-05 19:42 |
| #7 phil_b: Try doing the same with Malays or Banglas. I don't know about the Bangladeshis, but I have a fair amount of electronics bought in the late '80's and early '90's that says "Made in Malaysia". Assembly work with soldering irons and screwdrivers just ain't that complicated. It certainly doesn't rate paying the Chinese more than Malaysians or Thais, especially since Chinese real estate is actually more expensive than in Malaysia or Thailand (thanks to Chinese government hoarding). |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-12-05 18:57 |
| #6 Zhang, I think you are underselling the Chinese cultural advantage. They are great method people. Show them how to do something and they will reliably repeat that method with impressive precision. Try doing the same with Malays or Banglas. What the Chinese are not good at (culturally) is figuring out how do something without a method or figuring out how something can be improved (relative to Westerners). Otherwise, I agree with the article. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2008-12-05 17:47 |
| #5 I doubt that USA have much less State Economy than China I wouldn't be so sure. The Chinese government is the majority shareholder in most of China's equivalent of the Fortune 100. Banking, insurance, heavy equipment, aerospace, electronics - the Chinese government owns it all. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-12-05 15:56 |
| #4 UG is correct in that it is the amount of control (aka money) that the gov't controls with regard to the economy that drives corruption. As a thought experiment How many lobbyists would there be if there was minimal regulation and no corporate taxes? How much political corruption? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2008-12-05 15:54 |
| #3 I disagree Democracy is not a boon to no corruption. The bigger the State Economy bigger corruption. I doubt that USA have much less State Economy than China and State Economy have been increasing in all Democracies because the elections favor Politics "giving" and taking from X to Y. Democracy will have to prove that can live and still be at front without a Westernized Culture and Morals and i doubt it will be able to that. All Government agencies of a Democracy work to stiffle and augment their power so the state can grow since it has popular support while a Dictatorships tries to maintain the political status squo so tries to change much less. I think the only solution is that maximum tax rates should be in Constituition. Those that disagree make another country. |
| Posted by: Uleck Ghibelline9225 2008-12-05 15:32 |
| #2 Without America as a consumer of its goods, China is nothing. Actually, the US produces - by value - most of its own goods, since invention, design, product improvement, marketing, et al are all done in the US. Only the manual assembly and manual packaging are carried out in China. Fordists - people who believe that manual assembly is the biggest value-add in the supply chain and assembly workers should be paid UAW wages - may disagree, but the fact is that China's place in the supply chain can be taken by any country with low labor and land costs and a reasonably stable government. And that is indeed what is happening, as names like Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and the Philippines start to show up on country of origin labels. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-12-05 14:11 |
| #1 Without America as a consumer of its goods, China is nothing. They are a producer of convenience goods, and with exceptions of course, we could do without their stuff. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-12-05 11:40 |