People's Republic of Capitalism: China

[turbo6bar]

I recently watched this four part documentary about the growth of China. It's fascinating to see the Chinese population embrace capitalism. I don't see a lot standing in the way of China. They aren't perfect, but neither is the US.

While I admire the Chinese work ethic and the country's respect for education, they're drive for growth at all cost presents real challenges in the future.

If the United States wants to maintain premier status in the world, we could do far worse than learn from the Chinese.

Some things that stood out in the documentary:
Ridiculously priced real estate. Even more ridiculous is that lots of Chinese families pay for RE in cash.
The almost fanatical drive to put children through school. Families will live meager lives to afford to send their children to boarding school. I admire this form of sacrifice, but I worry if the marketplace can provide jobs for the huge number of graduates.
The Southwestern part of China has 300 million people. The planned megacities are wild. OTOH, we've already seen satellite images of cities that lay abandoned. The only presence is that of government. The citizens can't afford to buy the apartments, so no one lives there.

Jurgen

[nostatic]

China has embraced capitalism since well before the US ever existed.

[Rick Lee]

China is a capitalist country that pretends to be socialist. We're the opposite.

[krystar]

yea in china, money can get u anything. really. there isn't any concern for public welfare as long as there's a buck to be made

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by krystar

yea in china, money can get u anything. really. there isn't any concern for public welfare as long as there's a buck to be made

And I have to ask how much concern there is for public welfare in this country with the debt we've racked up to China.

[jpachard]

Yes, and they steal any and every bit of IP they can in order to get ahead. They have ZERO respect for someone else's ideas or products. I worked at a place where we decided to have some components made there, when we went to visit the factory it was found out that they were making over runs of our product and selling it to whomever would buy it. Needless to say, we stopped having our stuff made overseas.

[Rick Lee]

And they do that with impunity. We don't have much leverage there because of the debt we've racked up with them. What are we going to do? Risk their cutting up our credit cards with a trade war sparked by an IP dispute? Not likely. They hold the cards now because we handed them the deck.

[jpachard]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

And they do that with impunity. We don't have much leverage there because of the debt we've racked up with them. What are we going to do? Risk their cutting up our credit cards with a trade war sparked by an IP dispute? Not likely. They hold the cards now because we handed them the deck.

True, but speaking personally I do my absolute best to avoid buying anything Chinese, even if it means paying more. What I have found is that in the end I spend less since the American made product outlasts so it's money well spent.

1. I do not shop at Chinamart, AKA Walmart, EVER. They are the largest importer of Chinese goods in the USA.
2. I try to buy clothes that are made here.
3. I look at just about every label for a product I buy, food included, to make sure it's made here.

Sometimes it's unavoidable but I try my best.

[turbo6bar]

Originally Posted by jpachard

Yes, and they steal any and every bit of IP they can in order to get ahead. They have ZERO respect for someone else's ideas or products. I worked at a place where we decided to have some components made there, when we went to visit the factory it was found out that they were making over runs of our product and selling it to whomever would buy it. Needless to say, we stopped having our stuff made overseas.

Yeah, the Chinese notion of ethics is certainly skewed from ours, but they're embracing a facet of capitalism: greed. It's the same greed that may have motivated your company to have components made overseas.

I go out of my way sometimes to not buy Chinese products. I refuse to buy tools from Harbor Freight. I usually pay a premium to get tools made in America, Japan, or Europe. Call me irrational or perhaps absurdly patriotic.

That said, I believe China is like the United States of 60 years ago. There is an abundance of inexpensive labor. Folks want to buy nice homes and a car. They want fashion and music. Putting aside the political scenery, why shouldn't the Chinese population be able to prosper and become competitive in the world? What entitles us to success and cheap consumer goods, but not them? And yes, their culture and political system is in some ways backwards to ours, but look at the crooks on Wall St. Look at our politicians. Are we a model of excellence?

Let's begin a trade war. Let's take on the Chinese. We can find someone else to loan us the money to begin a war. China will invest their cash surplus into building their nation, investing in other countries, and buying resources. I don't like it, but we walked into this with open eyes.