[quote=briansd1][quote=Allan from Fallbrook] How can China do it, you ask? Well, if you’re interested in facts, China is NOT doing it. Its a friggin’ Potemkin Village over there, as evidenced by the recent chem/enviro issues in Dalian and that supposed “accident” involving high speed rail. The idea that we’re ceding the lead to China can be disproved and any lead that China is enjoying will be ephemeral at best.[/quote]
Time will tell, Allan. But I belived that you’ll proven wrong on China just like you were wrong on Iraq. But decades later it’ll be too late to fix our mistakes.
You and I would agree that competition is “war.” China is organizing a big army with big guns. We have ragtag bands of private militia.
In the scheme of things, the high-speed rail incident is nothing. China will power along and continue building infrastructure.
China is embarking a huge project of state sponsored innovation that Japan, Korea, and to a lesser extent Taiwan, successfully implemented. Germany is a strong export led economy thanks to government policies.
Yes, yes, Japan is not the feared industrial power it once was, but they are a rich country and a worthy competitor.
The question is: do we want the best jobs in America or not?
Yes, I agree that we have lots going for us, from demographics, to land mass, to natural resources. We will continue to be a wealthy country. But wealth is relative.[/quote]
Brian: Just out of curiosity, when’s the last time you’ve been to China? Let me know if its been within the last six months, please.
They have an army with big guns? Uh, no, they don’t. What they do have is nearly 100MM people in or approaching old age. They have a birth rate far below their replacement rate (China’s vaunted One Child Policy), they have a male-to-female birthrate imbalance that is nearly 1.2 to 1 in some provinces. They have a coming labor bust that will ensure China will get old before they get rich. They have a horrific environmental record (see Dalian) and, contrary to reports, its getting worse, not better. Their internal security budget is largely than ALL of their military outlays combined and their military spending is increasingly rapidly (to give you some sense of proportion).
As to infrastructure: China uses more fly ash in their cement (that’s right cement, not concrete) than anywhere else in the world. As a result, you now have failing structures all over the place, from buildings to bridges to dams, and all of the projects are fairly new construction. Speaking of dams, read up on the peer-review engineering reports on Three Gorges Dam and then tell me all about China’s infrastructure prowess.
I know you generally don’t like facts, Brian, because they do get in the way of the false narrative, but the facts are all there. Hell, we haven’t even discussed China’s bad loan ratios, in terms of all that state spending you love so much. The country is a mess, but they do an excellent job of hiding it from the world. Do a little research and find out how many riots and incidents of civil unrest occur throughout China in a single year. The number should stun you. It probably won’t, but it should.
