37 and Now...Quick Observations
The mood hit me the other day
What has changed from 1937 and now? The year chosen btw is not arbitrary. Could be any year from the 20th Century actually up to 1949.
China is rich.
Yes wealth is “relative”, but it’s hard to call a country
with over a trillion dollars in the bank “poor”. Yes, China has really screwed itself by
making a deposit it cannot so easily withdrawal, if ever. I wish China would do a writeup in the People’s
Daily explaining such a thing, but it probably lacks the courage to do so.
On a sidebar, it probably would’ve been better if China had
taken some of this money and created a stronger social welfare system. Problem is, China considers that a “non
productive” investment. It’s far more
glamorous and globally face giving to just buy treasuries.
China is confident.
Oh yeah. This is a
good thing, right? Do we really want an
insecure China threatening to blow up the world, ie North Korea? We can ignore those guys, (I think), but
would we be able to so easily ignore a China with it’s size, acting the way of
brat North Korea?
A confident China is an engaging China. A country willing to cooperate on the global
stage. And also a country more willing
to tell others to take a hike.
China is stable.
See above…..China had last I heard a 2 year supply of rice
on hand. (I didn’t know you could keep
rice that long) . China doesn’t have
guns in the streets. The warlords are
gone, and the triads are discreet. Yes,
there is an extreme poverty that still exists and is embarrassing to witness,
or read about. But China compared to
1937 is obviously in much better shape.
China has an infrastructure in place, and things do run, albeit not
always smoothly, and not very well at times.
The world should be breathing a sigh of relief, actually.
Now, what really hasn’t changed since 1937?
Due process and rule of law are still lacking. I like my Justice to be predictable, how abt
you?
The disparity of Wealth has caught up to the 30’s.
Landlords still exist, except their called “Developers”
nowadays. As for the serfs…well, that’s
the rest of us. We have to pay a rent
that never goes down.
Foreigners are still the bane of the Heavenly Kingdom, and a
convenient crutch for everything wrong with China.
Government officials are still some of the wealthiest people
in China.
in western countries, government officials are also in general wealthier than the rest.people with political ties always can make abnormal return, the same for the west and the east (inc. Japan).
ReplyDeletethe problem for China is that it has dwarfed the normal economic sector because "greed" is playing his trick.
high level officials will eventually realise the need to balance the two sectors to achieve a fairer distribution of wealth. this is easy to say than to act.
Yes, well said.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I would like to think that due to the self proclaimed media as "watch dog", that the level of greed would not be as high in the West. It always exists. People always think they can get away with it....