The New Yorker has a great article about Chinese tourists traveling to Europe on package tours. It expanded on the modern romantic ideal of travel, such as what it can give you and what it can’t. It also showed why the Chinese will eventually crush the West.
Li made a great show of acting out a Mediterranean life style: “Wake up slowly, brush teeth, make a cup of espresso, take in the aroma.” The crowd laughed. “With a pace like that, how can their economies keep growing? It’s impossible.” He added, “In this world, only when you have diligent, hardworking people will the nation’s economy grow.”
Can you imagine a Western girl speaking such an immutable truth of economic success? To European credit, not all countries are equally lazy (in my experience, Spain and Croatia were the laziest in terms of “taking in the aroma”). I guess some peoples simply value leisure above hard work.
Mark Twain, whose 1867 trip to Europe and the eastern Mediterranean produced “The Innocents Abroad,” described American tourists “who talked very loudly and coarsely, and laughed boisterously when all others were so quiet and well behaved.” But, through it all, the journeys changed the travellers in powerful ways. As Samuel Rogers, the English poet, put it, travel sowed in them “doubt of our own exclusive merits.”
I dined recently with an American in a busy Ukrainian restaurant, and we were the loudest ones there. A lot of people think Americans are loud because they want others to hear about our exciting lives, but even when the crowd can’t understand English, the loudness remains. It’s cultural upbringing, and can’t be helped.
“Analysts overseas can never understand why the Chinese economy has grown so fast,” he said. “Yes, it’s a one-party state, but the administrators are selected from among the élites, and élites picked from 1.3 billion people might as well be called super-élites.”
Wait, so we’re not all born equal? Is the Chinese man quoted above implying that Malcolm Gladwell’s tabula rasa won’t transform Jenny in HR into a capitalist superhero after 10,000 hours of paper pushing?
Li’s portrait of the West contained at least one feature of unalloyed admiration. He mentioned a Western friend who had quit his job to go backpacking and find his calling in life. “Would our parents accept that? Of course not! They’d point a finger and say, ‘You’re a waste!’ ” he said. But, in Europe, “young people are allowed to pursue what they want to pursue.”
It’s because all their survival needs are met, and even after that year of fucking around, they won’t be lacking food or shelter. They don’t need to work, but soon enough they will—if not them then at least their children.
People say that China has a bubble and will collapse, but after the collapse, which would affect the West just as bad, who is more poised to come back? Those with the factories or those with hollowed-out office buildings? The East will surpass us while we busy ourselves trying to be musicians, foodies, and Vine celebrities. I don’t wish bad on the West, but I can’t think of a people that deserves more to fall.
Read Next: When East Meets West
They’re already here. There’s data that for the past few decades asian households outearned all others on average including mighty whitey. Besides, if they were’nt such non original automotons they’d do the same shit too. It’s no coincidence that you post a pic of them lining up to consume Western designed crap which they voraciously copy and consume.
I think the West is bound for a fall in one way or another, but I don’t see the Chinese taking over the mantle. Where I work at Stanford there are busloads of Chinese tourists visiting every day, maybe 1000’s per week. They have a regimented and slavish mentality that’s great for copying and reverse-engineering Western innovation, but they don’t provide much value to the world, IMHO, besides cheap labor/manufacturing (which is growing more expensive). The big one for me is that Chinese culture is not popular outside of East Asia. Mandarin may be the most used language in the world, but most of the people that speak it are in China. Until Mandarin becomes widespread in international pop music, movies, literature, etc. I’m not losing any sleep over the Chinese taking over. You can have a billion-man army, but if that army is more infatuated with your culture than theirs, who wins?
I was at Stanford University a few months ago for a relative’s commencement. About 1/3 of the students receiving their engineering doctorates were Chinese (or Asian at least). Incapable of innovation huh?
Yeah, they’ll be great workers in Western companies. Chinese people are very intelligent of course. Don’t expect revolutionary innovation out of the mainland though. Driven a Chinese car lately? To their credit, they did a great job reverse-engineering our trillion-dollar Joint Strike Fighter and improving it. If we ever go to war over Taiwan, we could get our teeth kicked in. Their hacking and intellectual property theft methods are innovative as well.
They’ll not work in Western companies en masse, at least not in the US, because of the idiotic immigration policy that disallows even a large share of elite foreign college grads from getting green cards and contributing to the economy. Bloomberg even stated that in his commencement address. Train them here and send them over to build other countries’ economy…..
Plus those kids have wizened up these days. They’ll stack that paper in the US for a decade or so and go back and enjoy themselves in their home country. No point living in a society that doesn’t reward or give sexual access to elite productive workers.
They’ll not work in Western companies en masse, at least not in the US, because of the idiotic immigration policy that disallows even a large share of elite foreign college grads from getting green cards and contributing to the economy.
It’s not “idiotic”. Importing Chinese may increase GDP, but it doesn’t increase per capita GDP except for the 1% they work for. There’s a reason most Americans are dead-set against more immigration, especially when job prospects are so awful.
They’ll not work in Western companies en masse, at least not in the US, because of the idiotic immigration policy that disallows even a large share of elite foreign college grads from getting green cards and contributing to the economy.
It’s not “idiotic”. Importing Chinese may increase GDP, but it doesn’t increase per capita GDP except for the 1% they work for. There’s a reason most Americans are dead-set against more immigration, especially when job prospects are so awful.
Don’t believe the higher IQ myth. I work with Chinese and not only are they lazier than the westerners in my office (constantly checking and playing with their smart phones) but they lack any ability to work more efficiently than they were taught (e.g. if they were taught to scoop water with one hand none of them would think to try using two hands).
The “high” IQ is falsified by only collecting data from a small selection of their society. Most Chinese are farmers.
That is correct. They’re only really testing the top 10%. India too because their average IQ is low. The average in the US is 100 but if I were to test the people in my wealthy area it’s be more like a 120-130 average. Higher than the best of the chinks.
Just to add to this, I work at a top 10 engineering school. I see the same trend:
– really ‘smart’ Chinese students get picked up by slave-driving professors who care about publishing and getting tenure, but not so much about their students (they effectively tell their students what to do and the students dutifully oblige)
– the genuinely intelligent Chinese students are able to stay in the US and usually do as their pay is significantly higher than China.
— They can get access to special Green Cards if they demonstrate extraordinary brilliance and some other things…basically the US keeps the cream of the crop
— I’ve had numerous Chinese students tell me they don’t want to go back to China considering the shit pay they’ll get there.
I think the US will be fine for a long time
Like I said most Chinese with green cards go back to China after working in the US and milking as much money as they can for some time.
They realize that the lifestyle benefits in China far outweigh any additional pay in the US. They can actually be respected by their society instead of being considered skinny beta nerds who can’t get laid in the US.
Oh and I’m from a top 10 engineering school too. Midwest.
Yeah, they’ll be great workers in Western companies. Chinese people are very intelligent of course. Don’t expect revolutionary innovation out of the mainland though. Driven a Chinese car lately? To their credit, they did a great job reverse-engineering our trillion-dollar Joint Strike Fighter and improving it. If we ever go to war over Taiwan, we could get our teeth kicked in. Their hacking and intellectual property theft methods are innovative as well.
Europeans seem to have a slightly lower IQ than East Asians, but higher creativity, which is why they invent more things. The Chinese invent things too, but much more slowly, over a much longer period of time, and had the benefit of living in a relatively isolated part of the world, which kept civilization stable and helps explain why the Chinese invented a lot of things before Europeans. The only people who managed to invade and conquer them were the Mongols. But the Mongols also invaded Eastern Europe.
Europeans seem to have a slightly lower IQ than East Asians, but higher creativity, which is why they invent more things. The Chinese invent things too, but much more slowly, over a much longer period of time, and had the benefit of living in a relatively isolated part of the world, which kept civilization stable and helps explain why the Chinese invented a lot of things before Europeans. The only people who managed to invade and conquer them were the Mongols. But the Mongols also invaded Eastern Europe.
It might surprise you that way back when, Americans copied Europeans and before that Europeans copied the Chinese… in things like shipbuilding and firearms while improving upon them. Chinese inventing things over a long period of time? I don’t recall the Europeans inventing much during the dark ages.
Chinese inventing things over a long period of time? I don’t recall the Europeans inventing much during the dark ages.
Exactly. Europeans don’t invent much when civilization has undergone a collapse (Roman, in this case) and inventors have no way of earning a living. The Chinese had a more stable long-term environment conducive for inventors than Europeans. Unfortunately, this also meant it was less competitive, which is one reason people think the Chinese didn’t take over the world, while England, Portugal, Spain, and France tripped all over themselves to one-up each other.
Do you think this difference in creativity and intelligence is genetic or cultural?
Both… a culture is a product of a given people’s genetic makeup.
Some of the missionaries who went along with Marco Polo on his trip wrote accounts of China. Read them. Their paper was crap compared to Europe.In fact paper is inferior to parchment that Europe had and people were worried that documents on paper wouldn’t last which is why it wasn’t used as much at first.
so why aren’t we using ‘parchment that europe had’ for all our printing now? i mean, as you said, it’s a superior product! you are full of shit
It’s more expensive and they did have paper. You’ve probably never written a letter in your life but if you did it would likely be on some cheap yellow paper and not linen stationary from Crane’s.
You also sound like some butthurt kid from Dirtwater, US
Genetic 100%. People create a culture, a culture does not create them.
swing and a miss
Actually, that’s precisely the thing. The cream of the crop of Chinese engineers and other professionals come to live in Western countries and thus contribute to their economies. You don’t see too many American engineers going to live in China though, do you?
The China hype now is like the Japan hype in the 1980s. And the funny thing is, China’s population structure now is very similar to Japan in 1990. The Chinese being run by communists also can’t help their economic efficiency — the state micromanagement in an attempt to flout market forces is like our own Fed, only much more pervasive. I’ve read somewhere that 40% of their GDP is due to real estate construction, whereas it only got up to about 25% here in the USA when it blew up in 2007.
The only part of the world that’s still expanding in population is sub-Saharan Africa, and even there, there are exceptions (South Africa and most of its neighbors). Europe is contracting, East Asia (including China) as well as the USA are headed in that direction, and the rest of Asia (including India), Latin America, and the Islamic world are all down almost to replacement. Like it or not, the world will be relying on Africa for its future. It doesn’t matter how strong your economy is, if your country is filling up with old people.
yeah… look at what happened to Sony… and they at least designed products…. Foxcomm just pumps out units of western designed products……like someone said on here, when robots are faster and better at doing that, and oil is $250 a barrel… the manufacturing will move to local small scale factories…. hell maybe soon your iphone will be made in the shop by a robot while you wait…. china adios…..
all it takes is one white guy with the drive and imagination of Steve Jobs, on a manufacturing and robotics level and China is toast….
The US just has to start pumping all of its oil and that offshore, as well as the natural gas reserves larger than Russia and it will become the energy centre of the world. It will no longer be cheaper to manufacture outside the US.
However, unfortuantely, likely the corps. still would prefer outsourcing, because it costs money to develop robotics systems. Also, you will have American workers who will complain about their jobs “being taken”.
There’s 3D printing actually, but that stuff is nowhere near the rapid production of a factory.
Good point with Africa. But whos going to play the 3. World looser in the Future if Africa is getting developed. Our Economicsystem is not built for equaly developed countries. I think with Africa its going to be same as it is with SEA. They will have the chance to develope but only to a certain level. Take Thailand as an example that has reached the height of development for an SEA country. They cant go further than that. Take my word within the next 5 years Thailand will go down (cant wait to short them as soon as their king is finally dying!).
After that history will repeat itself with Vietnam, Burma etc. its like a cirlce putting them down again.
The World is just too small for so many potential Industrial countries.
The West has been in decline since the start of the 20th Century. Europe is already off the map and on a treadmill. Te US is now approaching that status. There is no doubt the debt situation in America will come home to roost, but I’m with Nick above.
China is increasingly reliant on housing to prop its economic growth rates. Its data is suspect and its frivolously buying up energy assets at inflated values with some weak due diligence. You cant buy your way into being a superpower. 20% increase in home prices year over year. Four of the largest 10 banks in terms of income are now in China. Shadow banks are on the increase and nobody knows how healthy those balance sheets really are. It wasn’t long ago I saw the same whordes of Japanese tourists and talk about Japan taking over the world. It took over 40 years before that growing economy suffered a collapse. If inflation hits and exports throughout the world, the results won’t be pretty for China. And the US can just inflate their debt away.
Things aren’t always linear. Truth is its likely we won’t be alive when the US gets replaced as the worlds superpower. It might be China, it could be Mozambique, point is nobody knows for sure. One thing is certain, and that is that all good things come to an end.
The Chinese won’t take over the world. They make junk. (The less than one year old laptop I’m typing this one is falling apart.) They don’t innovate, or produce anything new. Their country is a pigsty. They have no art or culture anyone cares about. They have a very primitive language. They are incredibly corrupt. Rather than evolving into a new form of authoritarian capitalism that Thomas Friedman and James Fallows keep creaming over, they are trending back towards Maoism. Soon enough all will be done by robots and the Chinese will be left with empty factories and poisoned rivers. Industrial obsolescence isn’t the exception, it’s the norm- it happened to Manchester, it happened to Detroit, and it will happen to China.
Italians are “lazy” but somehow with all the getting up late, espresso breaks and going home early they have a culture of art, culture, design and manufacturing that stands up to anything in the world. They specialize in cost-is-no-object luxury goods, but if want the best of anything, it’s likely Italian. Best car? Ferrari. Best motorcycle? Ducati or Aprilia. Best shotgun? Baretta. Best leather goods? Any number of Italian makes. Michelangelo, DaVinci, Galileo, the list is longer than your arm. The Chinese never had anything like it and never will.
Spanish are not “lazy”.
They are in the top 3 nations of Europe by the amount of hours worked.The GDP per capita of Catalunya for example is at the level of Denmark.
Also saying that Italians are lazy is ridiculous.Northern italy is one of the most developed and productive industrial and scientific clusters of Europe.
And yes you are right- chinese are not able to innovate,develop and resarch.Big danger is waiting for China just around the corner.
This article is just empty and meaningless demagogia.Read more specialized literature,instead of some NY times garbage.
Best attempt to explain “Why Nations Fail” was the well researched book of the same title by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson.
In a simplified form the book describes how successful nations must have inclusive economic and political institutions. Argues China is still on par with Russia in terms of extractive political institutions and economic institutions that are becoming more inclusive.
The comparisons in success and growth between China and Russia are closer than many give credence to nowadays. Poses the theory that so far China appears likely headed for similar troubles as to Russia, which is still in need of further revolution to create inclusive political frameworks.
The book isn’t a predictor of sorts, or meant to be one, but it is very convincing and well researched. Great for history buffs too.
Best attempt to explain “Why Nations Fail” was the well researched book of the same title by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson.
In a simplified form the book describes how successful nations must have inclusive economic and political institutions. Argues China is still on par with Russia in terms of extractive political institutions and economic institutions that are becoming more inclusive.
The comparisons in success and growth between China and Russia are closer than many give credence to nowadays. Poses the theory that so far China appears likely headed for similar troubles as to Russia, which is still in need of further revolution to create inclusive political frameworks.
The book isn’t a predictor of sorts, or meant to be one, but it is very convincing and well researched. Great for history buffs too.
Russia is arguably better off than China right now, because they have had to face serious economic trouble and fix it on their own, without the help of billions of dollars of investment by U.S. corporations.
That’s exactly what they argue. The “revolution” towards inclusive institutions in Russia is far more advanced than in China. The comparison is done more in terms of when communist Russia began to surface as a power threat and China now.
Democracy is overrated. Where would you rather live? In India or Singapore, where inclusive political institutions mean that they include the Family Lee and the Peoples Action Party PAP. The people there in Singapore seem happy with that.
I suppose they maybe Singapore was just lucky. They could have gotten stuck with the Family Kim and the DPRK instead.
Latins (including those in Europe) get called “lazy” because their Catholic culture views money as a tool to enjoy life, not as an end in and of itself as it is in Protestant countries.
Equalism convinced U.S. corps that they could shift R&D to Asia, but it’s become clear that this doens’t work out too well, and the outsourcing fad seems to have come to an end.
This is an oversimplification.The southern provinces of Holland are also catholic,yet they are rich as f*ck.
Austria is catholic,Belgium is catholic,Switserland is partly catholic.Yet nobody would call them “lazy” (though knowledgeable people would agree that belgian flemish know how to enjoy life unlike the dutch,same goes for austrians vs germans).
I already mentioned above that some provincea of Spain (Catalunya,Basque country) are richer than f.e. France or Germany (in terms of production per capita),and Northern Italy,would it be independent,is one of the most productive and innovative regions of europe.
And btw Polish are dedicated catholic too.The most hardworking people of Europe.
And if you take a look at some selected german states, esp. from the south like Bavaria and compare them to those provinces in Spain, you have a different outcome again.
But you are right, blaming everything on religion is an oversimplification.
“Northern Italy . . .”
. . . used to be Austria until fairly recently.
Northern Italy had wealthy city-states (Venice, Genoa, Florence, Milan), more like the Netherlands, while Southern Italy was an impoverished, corrupt backwater under neglected Spanish rule for hundreds of years, more like Mexico.
“the Netherlands”
Another Germanic country.
Fairly recently-its up to 1918.Almost 100 hundred years ago.Those 100 years when things like automobiles were innovated.You know,Italian ones..
And let’s be precise here-not austria but Austro-Hungarian empire,a state incorporating Czechs,Balkan nations,Italians, Hungarians,Austrians,Ukranians and Poles.
100 years ago the land speed record was 115.93 mph and the English Channel had been flown.
And northern Italy was occupied by blue eyed blonds, 98% of whom spoke German and considered themselves Austrians. It’s the land the Austrian Tyrol is named after; the location of Castle Tyrol itself.
Look, if you think I’m trying to dis Italian goods you’re wrong. I’ve owned an Alfa Romeo, a Maserati, a number of FIATs, an all Campy Atala and Cinelli.
I’m just pointing out that the reason the industrial center of Italy is in the north is because its culture during the Industrial revolution was Germanic.
And it remains highly productive.
Actually its deeper than that.The reasons for the cluster formation are favorable infrastructural and geographic situation.There is a whole science to it-spatial and regional economy.
With regards to the blond with blue eyed,it’s not relevant.The biggest number of blond Italians surpisingly live in Sicily.
“spatial and regional economy.”
As a result of being one the crossroads of continental Europe.
Unlike Sicily.
Actually, before Italian reunification, the South was way richer than the North account for two thirds of the money reserves, but because reunification started in the North, they just simply emptied the south and privileged the north
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Two_Sicilies#Economy
I’m not so sure the north would agree that they were being privileged.
Northern Italians aren’t Austrians, except in the Südtirol, which is a small section of northern Italy next to the border. However, they are descended from the Lombards and Ostrogoths, who were still Germanic.
Don’t be daft. Austria and Helvetia used to be Roman until recently :o)
And that area you’re referring to in the Alto Adige is tiny and about all they have there are some cows and fruit trees lol. 1/2 the pop. of Italy lives in the North
There was no North and South because it wasn’t one country or even one ethnic group or people. Sicily and the south didn’t even speak Italian.
its culture during the Industrial revolution was Germanic.
The people are Lombards but that’s 1/2 of Italy. They speak Italian not German and consider themselves Italian. Germanic peoples are most of Europe anyway but they’re not German or speak German.
That’s because of the Normans who controlled Sicily.That area of France is Viking.
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean that has been fought over by everyone. It is a crossroads.
Never said it was a whole country before or all of them speaks Italian, just that the creation in Italy started in the North, just like the USA started in the 13 colonies in the Atlantic coast and at that time 3 different languages (english, french and spanish) were spoken in what today is the current USA.
Like feminist don’t agree either than 99% all humankind discovering has been made by males :-). But facts are facts
Everything was written in English in the colonies. There were some Dutch and Germans . There may have been a little Spanish in Georgia in Savannah and a handful of French near the border. Upper classes likely knew French.
So? The creation of Fascism was from the north too. Mussolini (Milan)
Did they speak English in the French Louisiana as well? Happened that too in the Spanish Florida? Or in the Mexican California? I mean, before they were invaded, annexed or conquered by the Americans….
If you study a little bit of European History, you will be surprised as well of how many territories changed their languages even just less than 70 years ago….
You said the 13 colonies. I’m well aware of the history of the New World and of Europe.
This is very irrelevant.Most of the european nations ascended from different ethnic groups than they are now.
Less than 10% of British genetic material is related to the Anglo-Saxones,british are mainly Celts,thus they have nothing to do with germanich heritage technically speaking.
Northern spaniards (Galicia and Asturias) and Northern Portuguese descend from Bouri (germanic tribe).Andalucia is called Andalucia because Al-Vandal,used to be the realm of Vandals.
Germans are 30 to 50% slavs and balts (sorbs,prussians etc).
Polish and czechs on the other hand have massive germanic component in them.
Scandinavians have the highest percentage of eastern european Y gaplotype markers,typical to Ukrainians or Poles..
Russians are 50% finnic.
Bulgarians are not Slavs at all,they are Turks who speak slavonic language.
Romanians are not latin,yet speaking latin language.they are thracians.
French are the weird mix of saxons,franks,celts and whatever.
You can go on and on and on.
English has 4x as many words as the next closest language. More than 1/2 are from Latin. English should be classified as a Romanic language. Only 1/4 of the roots are Anglo Saxon.
The original tiny population was mixed with Romans who were there for 500 years. These are the founding genes. The Angles, Normans etc are only a small %.
Yes I agree with you here
Latins are Indo European. We only refer to places as Latin America because they speak a Latinic language (sort of) The people themselves were Amerindians and then Blacks brought to the islands who mixed with their Euro masters.
Exactly.There are “latins”and there are europeans.Nothing in common except the language and religion,but than f.e. Angolans speak portuguese and are catholics too and nobody calls them “latin”.
All of europe is slated to go Islamic over the next 40 years. I’m not speaking of Jihad nor anything against the peaceful muslims, but rather one only need look at the demographics shift happening over time.
Totally unrelated, but the highest average national IQ is in Poland. I’ve spent about 9 months in Poland, and I utterly love the Poles. Cool, hardworking, intellectual, friendly people.
Wrong. Andalucia is derived from the arab Al-Andalus since the area used to be under moorish control.
If you study a little bit of US history, you’ll be surprised at how wrong you are.
Where did you pull this from? Historically, the English population is descended from several peoples — the earlier Britons (or Brythons), the Germanic tribes that settled in the region (including Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons) who founded what was to become England (from the Old English Englaland), and the later Danes, Normans and other groups.
As a Mediterranean-Canadian I just want to say thank you!
Italians spend a lot of time visiting family and friends and enjoying life. Every newborn brought into the family is call for celebration. Traditionally, there is not so much separation between age groups and everyone sits at the table together and can have their say.
They do work hard but ultimately that money has to serve a purpose. If we aren’t focused on the good things in life than whats the point?
No it isn’t. It’s tied for 8th with: Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Germany, New Zealand and Sweden. Still pretty good company though!
In every global company exist comparisons between working hours and productivity. While i don’t know about Spain, i do know about comparisons between Germany and India. Germans are working less hours than Indians but the productivity remains the same. The hours are spent differently…
When i think of China i automatically think of the Borg…In the end i don’t think that their biggest problem is wether they are able of innovation or not but how they solve their internal problems, e.g. massive environmental damage, massive gap between country and city and lack of women…
Why don’t you actually go somewhere kid.
The statistic about Germany is BS. It was half the reason I came to work in the country and proved to be false.
I can’t think of a single contract – either my own, or those under me – that was less than 45 hours. I have more vacation days in the UK than I do in Germany, so it’s not a factor.
I compared Germany with India. I never said that it is fun to work in Germany. It heavily depends where and for whom you are working. If you want a heavenly working place you have to work in the french public administration. 35 hour week, great food in the so called cafeteria and retirement with 60. Ok, things are slowly changing there too, but compared to the conditions most of us have, this sounds really good.
Then why is Spain bankrupt and part of the PIGS? They are not lazy but stupid and financially irresponsible.
Germany and the UK will continue to dominate Europe because they work hard intelligently through good leadership.
You must not follow Spanish news. Catalunya is on the verge of revolution and secession, because the rest of the country is a POS and contribute nothing.
Also the Chinese have invested heavily in Green tech, more than the USA and will dominate the coming century.They also have more honor students than US has students and teach English and Chinese in their schools.
Amount of hours work means jack shit. Productivity and results is what matters.
The Spanish are not financially irresponsible. They were victims of a planned attack. German investors, the local elite, the banks and the land developers, their combined efforts made a gigantic bubble that Citizen Joe could not escape. I asked middle class young people why they bought into eternal mortgages, and they told me “everybody was doing it. Not buying meant that you were left behind”. Remember, the bank gave money for the big apartment, a vacation, the furniture and a car. If you didn´t bought, you were afraid of never being able to afford housing in the following years. Also, to make thins worse, the laws there were made so not only the bank gets your house, but still you own to the bank the rest of the mortgage not paid by the value of the house (“bought back ” by the bank at half its previous value).
Spaniards are screwed.
Planned attack by whom? Global banksters? lol Wtf u smoking… tin hat pickle eating conspiracy theorist. The global market is a zero sum game.
One man’s loss is another man’s gain. Stop making excuses for greedy morons who lived above their means.
Where the PIGS were slaughtered Germany, GB, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, and the Finland made up for it.
No, global market is definitely a positive sum game. That does not of course mean, that everyone wins, but that it actually creates more wealth overall instead of being purely redistributive.
Spain is not bankrupt wtf.It has massive unemployment which is a social issue,but their economy is not doing that bad as you would love to think.The spanish govn debt is at the level of Germany,as % of GDP.
The reason for that unemployment was overheating of the economy due to the Spanish economic success,thus banks injected a lot of cash into the Spanish economy.Once the crisis struck,banks took the cash back-and a lot of industry got frozen,in particular -the building of commercial and private housing which caused the stagnating in other aspects of the economy as a chain reaction.
It has nothing to do with the productiveness of Spanish etc.Spain is one of the most effective and innovative economies of the EU.
And the PIGS-it’s just the name given by the primitive journalists of dailymail.
Perhaps the global market and the stock market aren’t zero sum. But EU is because it’s a socialist nightmare, hence Germany and UK having to bail out PIGS… that’s called redistribution.
The most competitive country is always the most capitalistic country.
IMF begs to differ. Where’s your facts?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jeremywarner/100024476/spain-is-officially-insolvent-get-your-money-out-while-you-still-can/
The latest IMF Fiscal Monitor, published last month, comes about as close to declaring Spain insolvent as you are ever likely to see in official analysis of this sort. Of course, it doesn’t actually say this outright. The IMF is far too diplomatic for such language.
Next year, the deficit is expected to be 6.9 per cent, the year after 6.6 per cent, and so on with very little further progress thereafter. Remember, all these projections are made on the basis of everything we know about policy so far, so they take account of the latest package of austerity measures announced by the Spanish Government.
All this leads to the conclusion that a big Spanish debt restructuring is inevitable. Spanish sovereign bond yields have fallen sharply since announcement of the European Central Bank’s “outright monetary transactions” programme. The ECB has promised to print money without limit to counter the speculators. But in the end, no amount of liquidity can cover up for an underlying problem with solvency.
They are totally fucked.
UK is not bailing out anyone. Why are you all trying to paint UK as a productive economy? They have the bond market, and nothing else. Their economy is bottomed out, they have no manufactering, they are a sinkhole kept afloat by the Germans. They make money on Greece and Spain’s troubles…. they with Goldman Sachs were the ones who engineered the problems in the EU so that the EU currencies would not soak investments away from the US dollar bond market. If the EU kicked out the UK for good, and put the socialist UK/US sponsored marxist 5th column up against a wall in Bruges and shot them. The UK/US , unable to parasite off European economies and US dollar oil arbitrage would sink to 3rd world level in months.
Ive been reading this sort of articles in British newspapers everyday since 2007.Never ever trust a british newspaper on European economic issues.
Meanwhile the british media is trying to kill the spanish economy,it’s GDP per capita remains to be just couple of thousands dollars less than British (and higher than that of new zealand).
And here is the biggest shocker: Spanish public debt is 85% of GDP (IMF data) while British is 88%.Britsih debt IS LARGER than Spanish.And the spanish credit rating is just one rank lower than british.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt
Thus as per your logic we conclude that British are lazy and insolvent.Parasites of europe,basically (just check who gets the biggest amount of net agricultural subsidies from the EU budget).
Just looking at public debt is idiotic.
Why is the British pound stronger than the Euro then? UK Credit Rating is AAA, while Spain is BBB-. Spanish unemployment rate 24%, UK 7%.
Spain is ranked 35th, while the UK is 10th in the World Economic Forum’s 2013-2014 Competitive Index Report. Explain that if you think you know better than the Davos crowd.
The Spanish economy will remain weak as it undergoes a correction of its imbalances. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s central scenario is that the recession in Spain will persist during 2013 and 2014. GDP growth will still be subdued even in the second half of the forecast period, with significant downside risks attached. The public finances will continue to post large deficits throughout the forecast period, with the government missing its targets by some distance. The debt/GDP ratio will rise significantly as the government has had to shoulder the costs of the bank bail-out. Spain has been forced to access emergency financial support from its euro zone partners to prop up its banking sector. We expect the government to avoid applying for some sort of sovereign bail-out from the euro zone at least during 2013, although a strong risk remains that market sentiment could deteriorate amid weak economic data or unexpected political developments. A bail-out would probably take the form of an enhanced credit line, aimed at reducing yields for short-term debt but without complete loss of market access.
Unemployment is a social issue not economic.Unemployment is actually good for economy,open any Macroeconomics 101 book.
Spanish economy “will remain weak” (how do you define weak btw?),but British economy is constantly weak,if to follow your own logic.
UK is 10th and Spain 35th?hahaha…GDP per capita (PPP,2012): Uk 21st,Spain 25th.For comparison: the Netherlands 12,Austria 10,Ireland 11th,Sweden 13th.
UK GDP per capita is just slightly above the one of Slovenia.
Both,Spain and the UK are Tier-2 countries of Europe,limping far behind the northern continental europe and will be overtaken p in less than 5 years by countries like Czech republic and Slovenia.
Hmm specialised literature… So what about Chinas increasing Goldreseves? Or their trading-contracts to push the Dollar away as a Worldcurrency. Do not make the mistake of underestimating China out of fear that things will change. Otherwise your like all the other western blue pillers that hope everything will just stay the same.
In general I find it rather blue pill to make assumptions of a countries development due to their work culture. Culture is just another word for Programming. Or do you really think certain cultures are the way they are because of their food, gens etc.
Talking about reading specialzed literature. Why do I only see comments about Culture, Work-force, GDP etc.
What about Currencies and Gold? Not the one who owns all the money is in power, the one that controls the Currency is. its meaningless if you own a Billion USD if someone can just destroy that currency within a glimpse. So far no currency has survived. Only Gold…
Then why is half of Spain unemployed?
No, time spent working does not equate work effectivity.
Exactly, Catalunya and northern Italy will either have to secede or be dragged down with the rest.
Human labor won´t disappear anytime soon, Automation rarely functions as a direct replacement for labor, it allows workers to produce higher quality, varied and more complex products.
Simple manual activities were designed out of manufacturing process a long time ago.
I’m going to disagree, people who sleep in the middle of the day aka seiesta are lazy
I wouldn’t get too worked up. The Chinese build cities for absolutely no reason other than to make their GDP look high. Entirely brand new cities stand empty in China.
The Chinese also buy dollars/euros in order to create inflation in our countries, while making their products cheaper.
That shit can’t last forever. Its like gambling on stocks in the ’20s. Someday people there are going to wake up and wonder what the fuck they are doing.
The Chinese realize they depend on us to buy their shit.
Most of the East realizes they can’t innovate. The Japanese, particularly in software, just wait for Americans to innovate and rush their product to market. Then they go back, fix what they perceive as being wrong with it and release it under a different name.
its the other way around, you depend on the cheap imports as its all you can afford. If you don’t want to depend on foreign imports don’t buy them
“The Chinese also buy dollars/euros in order to create inflation in our countries, while making their products cheaper.”
It’s the other way around. Buying dollars for freshly printed yuan creates inflation in China, but props upp the value of the dollar. Without this mechanism, the dollar would propably be bust already. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5nEwBHZhT4
China needs to repurpose large part of their industries for chinese consumtion, before all those savings turn worthless.
The US dollar is the world’s reserve currency and has been since Nixon was in office and it was made so by the IMF. All countries must trade and pay debts in dollars which is why China and everyone else must stockpile them. Oil is always traded in dollars. Sure, a lot of countries would like to change this and perhaps use a basket of currencies as the world reserve but they have not been able to do this.
The IMF has a plan to move away from the dollar. Read “Currency Wars” by James Rickards. Some of China’s trading partners such as Chile and Korea are trading without the dollar.
China already had its day in the sun. It was the world’s technology leader 800-1400 AD when it was producing silk fabrics, fine china pottery, and tea –all products so valuable that returning a ship of these goods to Western Europe made you instantly wealthy despite the two year trip there and back, since no one else could make them.
Unfortunately, all these goods were made through the plantation exploitation system. And China’s successful companies, like Foxcomm, still operate as a plantation system.
Europeans eventually learned how to make the valued Chinese goods themselves (there are still silk plantations in Italy today; porcelain manufactoring spread throughout Europe). or replace them with even better goods. Today, cotton is preferred over silk for clothing while silk stockings have been eclipsed by nylons with elastic built in. Most people prefer dishwasher safe dishes over fine china. And tea has been eclipsed by coffee mostly grown in South America and Africa. (But again unfortunately through plantation systems).
If I had read your post first, I wouldn’t have bothered with mine.
Not many people wore silk anyway. Cotton really just replaced linen (flax) in Europe. We still use linen and we’ve learned how to improve natural and animal fibres.
“The Chinese never had anything like it. . .”
Best silk. Best tea. Best, ya know, china.
Actually, the Chinese don’t have the best silk, tea, or china.
The operative word was “never.”
Ever heard of Silk Road or Da Hang Pao tea? World’s best Chinese tea that sells for 1.2 million USD per kg.
Most Americans like you fail at history and make us look bad.
A lot of European inventions and adaptations were meant to get around the centuries-old trade deficit with China caused by Europeans buying silk, tea, and china but the Chinese not wanting anything from Europe. Tea? The tea-loving Brits took over India and got it from there instead. Porcelain? The Germans figured out how to make it themselves and started the Meissen porcelain works. Silk? Switch to using cotton. Even the opium trade was thought up as a way to cut the trade deficit, since it was apparently the only thing that Europeans could sell in China.
You are correct. They may have had silk and traded it by the old silk roads even to ancient Rome but Italy actually has had the best silk for some time. Best tea is from India-Assam, Darjeeling etc. And the best “china” was made in Japan.
Yeah that tea sounds like the coffee beans,Kopi luwak, that a certain cat eats and then shits out and then is collected lol
And btw, I’ve drank that tea, Da Hang Pao , it’s about $100 a pound so I don’t know where you got that insane price from. If you had a brain you’d know it couldn’t be correct. The average Chinaman drinks crap tea.
The opium was actually from Bengal(India), under the British, and sold to the Chinese
You’re a total fucking moron. You drank and bought a cloned strain or version of Da Hang Pao and got totally ripped offed.
Da Hong Pao’s attraction is its rarity. The authentic Da Hong Pao comes from cuttings of three of the original Da Hong Pao Tea trees that are still living on Wuyi Mountain and are believed to date back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Some of the tea harvested go directly to the President of China while the rest are sold at auction. In 2002, 20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of Da Hong Pao sold for 180,000 RMB or about US$23,000 at the time. The tea has only been available for public auction three times in 1998, 2002 and 2004. Previously, it has only been offered to leaders of government, emperors, and religious leaders. According to some reports, Mao Zedong gave President Richard Nixon 50 grams of Da Hong Pao during his visit to China in 1972.
As the Chinese saying goes. There’s no medicine to fix stupid.
Do you pull everything out of your ass? Just STFU.
Last year one of the most expensive things sold at auction was an 18th century Chinese porcelain vase which was sold for £43 million ($69.3 million) at Bainbridge’s Auctions (£51.6 million after the buyers premium). The vase was only estimated to sell for £1.2 million at the small auction house but fierce bidding among Chinese would-be buyers drove up the price. The vase sold to a Chinese bidder who turned up to bid on behalf of an undisclosed buyer.
You’re stupid. A clone is an exact reproduction of the original.
Stop getting all of your info from prole sites like wiki and google. The vakue of the tea has nothing to do with its quality abd more to do with the fact that the bush was in some Emperor’s garden and the dopey superstitious Chinese think that means something. I have about 3k bottles of wine in my cellar. One of them is an 1797 magnum of Lafite signed by Jefferson and from his cellar at Monticello (he used to sign his bottles of wine in some sort of white ink) That bottle would probably fetch about $100k at auction but I can tell you that the actual wine is undrinkable and too old so it’s just really the rarity that gives it its value not any intrinsic value. Same with that tea. It’s means nothing and is no indication of quality which was the lamebrained point you were failing to make about Chinese products.The Chinese are dumb and believe that rhinoceros horn (just specialised hair cells really) will make them potent and give them a hardon lol
It’s the rarity value not the intrinsic value. Snake wood may be the rarest wood in the world but items made from it are no better looking or of a higher quality than those made of black walnut (pretty rare). The price may be many many times the price of the other.
An amphora by Exekias may be priceless because there are like 6 left in the world in private collections but is it really worth the millions it would fetch at auction if one came on the market.
You’re obviously someone who has never been to an auction. You read about some Van Gogh that sold for $10m but don’t know that other works may have sold for $50k
So a replica or fake Rolex is the same price as the original right? Only to the moron that can’t tell the difference and don’t understand supply and demand.
You’re comparing tea leaves to fermented grapes. Two different things and one has a much longer shelf life.
So you admit to owning a supposed $100 K vintage wine that is undrinkable, yet somehow think you’re in a position to judge the Chinese? Hypocrisy at it’s finest.
A quarter of Americans don’t believe in Darwinian Evolution. What’s your point? Or are you trying to white wash everything with useless straw man arguments?
You’re either a troll or just plain dumb. I said a clone. But even a reproduction can be as good or even better than the original (and may even cost more). If you knew how to read you would have seen that I said this was all nonsense. There are top items whether it’s wine or anything else but the example of the tea you gave is one of those items that really doesn’t have an intrinsic value other than the fact that it was grown in some Emperors garden anymore than the wine has a big value because it belonged to Jefferson. And btw, I wouldn’t waste that amount of money on a bottle of wine. I happened to inherit a lot of this and I just have it.
hey mate, you sound like an idiot. a $50 bottle of wine is $50 not because it’s fucking ‘rarity’, you idiot. it’s the quality – i.e. if you compare it with a $10 bottle you can definitely tell the difference. same goes for tea, you uneducated retard. “I have about 3k bottles of wine in my cellar” my ass.
Learn how to read son. I was not talking about the normal wine(or whatever) prices but these handful of insanely high prices that have nothing to do with quality.
And stop with the jealous prole insults. Up to a certain point the price of an item may be justified due to quality but the wines at the very very top today (Petrus, Romanee Conti, Lafite etc) do not reflect the quality at all or at most are only a hair better and the price is driven by demand. An amateur like yourself would not be able to differentiate from a wine at 1/10th the price in a category a tad lower.
Lafite may come on the market at $800 today but even most experts couldn’t tell it apart from an $80 bottle(still a high category) of Lynch-Bages.
Lol. So what is it that you actually do? If you were anywhere as successful as you make yourself out to be you wouldn’t be bragging in the comments section of a roosh column.
“A quarter of Americans don’t believe in Darwinian Evolution.”
It’s probably higher than that and count me among them. Guess what? I’m not a creationist either. Both ask for leaps of logic that can’t be supported by the evidence. I realize this opens me to scorn, but frankly I don’t give a damn. Darwin was a brilliant scientist but his philosophy was badly used and caused and continues to cause much misery. Very few understand “survival of the fittest.” Often times it is not the fittest that survive and even Darwin admitted as much.
What is it that that people say is the best of the best ? Italian design and Germain engineering. Got a friend who is half Italian and half German and she keeps reminding me of this phrase !
Yes but we have industry today. Rifles, supercars, clothing etc, it’s all handmade. You don’t expect future to depend on handmade goods.
If Italy was so advanced as you speak, it wouldn’t need German submarines, American and British Airplanes, etc etc.
The US military uses Barretta pistols lol
^ most of america uses chinese made goods – whats your point?
The Chinese won’t take over the world. They make junk.
I wouldn’t say that but a lot of the top quality stuff is made in the former British Hong Kong but is now labelled made in China. You also have factories owned by foreigners in the other areas of China. They do make a lot of very high quality expensive items like clothes. Of course they make the cheap stuff too that’s sold at Walmart.
Actually, the Chinese are now one of the only countries working on Thorium nuclear power plants which are likely to be the future of energy for at least a century and China will probably own the intellectual property rights. We developed them first in the 1960s, but because of crony capitalism we shut the program down. (Thorium power if it is half as good as some say could put all of the natural gas, coal, wind power, solar power, and existing uranium nuclear power companies out of business.) It is true that a communist government will not create great innovations like you said, but a crony capitalist state will create them and then never utilize them if they prove too disruptive to existing power players.
In short Capitalism > Communism > Crony capitalism
That is why China is pulling ahead of us for the time being. However, the race will never be over and the future is still unwritten.
Actually, the Chinese are now one of the only countries working on Thorium nuclear power plants which are likely to be the future of energy for at least a century and China will probably own the intellectual property rights. We developed them first in the 1960s, but because of crony capitalism we shut the program down. (Thorium power if it is half as good as some say could put all of the natural gas, coal, wind power, solar power, and existing uranium nuclear power companies out of business.) It is true that a communist government will not create great innovations like you said, but a crony capitalist state will create them and then never utilize them if they prove too disruptive to existing power players.
In short Capitalism > Communism > Crony capitalism
That is why China is pulling ahead of us for the time being. However, the race will never be over and the future is still unwritten.
Chinese lack soft power and do not have cutting edge design because the communist revolution destroyed chinese culture. Chinese slavishly follow western culture with no cultural strength of their own because the communists wiped out the longest standing cultural behemoth in history, the culture around which all of East and Central Asia revolved, a culture that boasted linguistic, political and religious continuity for 5000 years.
It’s the exact opposite. Through out history China’s strength has been it’s soft-power while it has been weak on hard power. Even when China was at it’s peak it was still getting losing militarily to other nations such as to the Arabs during the Tang Dynasty (which along with the Han dynasty is considered be a lot of Chinese to be the greatest dynasty in Chinese history), losing to Japan during the Ming Dynasty, and also been embarrassingly driven out of it’s tributary states like Vietnam or Korea at various points in history. China’s power has come from being able to spread it’s culture around. There’s a reason why the China’s neighbors all have used Chinese characters as part of their language at some point and why after China was conquered by foreign invaders the invaders eventually ended up adapting to Chinese culture rather then the other way around – quite unusual as it’s usually the conquered that wants to imitate their conquerors.
It’s the West that has been big on using hard power to throw their weight around. Look at what the West has done to other civilizations and compare it to what China has and is doing. The West came in with their guns and cannons to cow other civilizations into submission while China comes in with their money and culture. Observe what China is doing in Africa right as opposed to what the West was doing during the age of imperialism .
thats exactly what I said, chinese soft power has been extremely strong for millennia. But not any more because the Communists uprooted everything.
Yes, they make junk. But they also lead the world in Steel manufacturing. It really depends on what decisions the Chinese ruling class makes, but in the next few decades we could see China, with its 1.3 billion people, be another Japan. Asians are smarter than Whites, and in the next few decades Chinese universities will graduate millions of high-IQ workers for their high tech industries.
^ smells like butthurt
the best european economy/government system – Ital… wait
Are you some expert on butt sniffing?
However until Italy can bring it’s economy and more importantly, it’s government up to par with the rest of the world it will remain forever a joke. Japan might make some of the best electronics but does America take it seriously (no).
I loled at ‘primitve language’. How can a language that is arguably one of the oldest in the world be ‘primitive’. It obviously gets the job done.
Except you people completely failed to predict the rise of China as it is.
Human labor won´t disappear anytime soon and technological progress is not at all the reason for Detroit´s ruins and western deindustrialization.
The only thing that will save the West is a virus that kills anyone over 65.
And anyone under 35.
“Armaments, universal debt, and planned
obsolescence – those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. If
war, waste, and moneylenders were abolished, you’d collapse. And while
you people are overconsuming the rest of the world sinks more and more
deeply into chronic disaster.”- Huxley
The Chinese are going nowhere. If they were a great race they would have ruled the world thousands of years ago. “They’re going to conquer the world!” First the Yellow Peril, then the Nazis, then the Commies, then the Japanese, then Muslims…now the Chinese. It’s all paranoid hysterical bullshit.
The Chinese are going nowhere. If they were a great race they would have ruled the world thousands of years ago. “They’re going to conquer the world!” First the Yellow Peril, then the Nazis, then the Commies, then the Japanese, then Muslims…now the Chinese. It’s all paranoid hysterical bullshit.
The Chinese could have taken over the world as early as the 1400s, with the voyages of Zheng He, but they unilaterally withdrew and left everything wide open for the Europeans to do it instead.
The Chinese could have taken over the world as early as the 1400s, with the voyages of Zheng He, but they unilaterally withdrew and left everything wide open for the Europeans to do it instead.
Zheng He wasn’t a conqueror. He was there to allow the rest of the known world to pay tribute to China.
I laugh when people say China is bubble about to burst.
China has invested vast amount of it’s fortune in infrastructure. It has world most extensive network of dedicated high-speed rail in the world which only keeps expanding. America has none, for comparison. Now who is closer to future ?
Take for example Spain mentioned above. Where was fortune invested ? Into commercial real estate. It doesn’t matter who invested, state or private owners in the end (No matter how much Capitalists will bitch). What matters is what value was created.
America has a great freight rail & interstate highway network too, but does it matter that much now?
Spain has more kilometers of high-speed rail than France and Germany
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVE
and has a lot of new airports some of them with no passengers at all
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spains-eerie-1bn-ghost-airport–a-snip-for-the-discerning-buyer-at-just-100m-8751641.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9084202/Castellon-airport-Spanish-ghost-airports-unused-runway-to-be-dug-up-to-meet-regulations.html
Read up on white elephant projects in Japan, a lot of Japanese villages are being crushed by the debt accrued to build ‘infrastrucutre’ that was suppossed to grow the economy and their village. Instead they were left with a giant reminder that they pissed away trillions of dollars over the course of two decades.
Infrastructure isn’t necessary a net positive in regards to economic growth. If you overbuild infrastructure beyound what is actually needed then you are simply misallocating capital that could have been better used elsewhere.
Also, the US has the greatest infrastructure system in the world and it isn’t our roads or rail ways. It is the Mississippi river system.
I laugh when people say China is bubble about to burst.
China has invested vast amount of it’s fortune in infrastructure. It has world most extensive network of dedicated high-speed rail in the world which only keeps expanding. America has none, for comparison. Now who is closer to future ?
Take for example Spain mentioned above. Where was fortune invested ? Into commercial real estate. It doesn’t matter who invested, state or private owners in the end (No matter how much Capitalists will bitch). What matters is what value was created.
The Chinese as it was said are not innovative,they are copy-cats basically.Its funny that this was posted today because I was listening to some classical music and realized that asians can learn to play the technical part perfectly but they never seem to “feel” it,they just do it like robots.Same with everything else.Sure they can make their economy grow but this wouldnt take them anywhere if they would be left alone without other nations.They lack imagination,they never invent anything really “new” and they are like ants.They lack “heart”,its in their culture.
Hey mate, I would rather be able to get there without ‘heart’ than to be forever a bottom feeder like you… but don’t worry its your culture, not you
Yet they seem to consistently outperform their western counterparts in almost every aspect… If they can do that then they’re doing something right
If cultural consumer dominance (music, art, fashion, design, etc) is the measure of the strongest nation, consider what all the people in those two photos are wearing. Just count the number of blue jeans alone. Who invented those vs. where they’re made.
Good Point. Eventhough Europe is slowly turning into a retirement home their culture (mainly established in France with Ludwig 14) has everlasted. I do not know of any country where the upper class does not eat with a fork and a knife. Take 5 star hotels for an example they are all built up by european cultural standards (even Chinese Hotelgroups such as Shangrila).
Another thing is Beauty. All over the world the Beuatystandard is somehow adapted to the caucasian face. Nobody wants a plastic surgery to make his nose more flat or get smaller eyes. All Beautyrolemodels over the world look like a mixture between a Caucasian ethnic and the local ethnic. Literarly every Chinese Beautyqueen or Actress has done plastic surgery giving her a european chin, nose and eyes. Same goes for other non-western countries.
Bleaching is another thing. Every ethnic besides the caucasian wants to have white skin.
As long as people do not make their eyes smaller or want to have a flatter nose the Western World will be able to spread his belief system through movies, songs, tv-shows etc. They are all watching the newest Iron Man 3 down their in India, China, Africa singing Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus…but I dont see any one here watching their newest Blockbusters and besides Gangnam (Korea is basically a “cultural-colony” of the USA) we havent heard much from Asias Popculture.
De Nimes is French
You’re wrong Roosh. The creation of the 3D Printer will destroy the
factory based production model in every country at some point in the
indeterminate future. Why produce things in bulk over seas and lose
money on both shipping and materials when you can more easily mass
produce things in your own home country for a fraction of the cost since
all you need are the materials and to then ship them directly to the
stores or the consumers for direct purchase.
Heck you even save money by not having to produce things in bulk.
Print me a cold forged crankset.
The “3D printer” is slow as fuck and can only use crap quality plastic. There are no efficiencies of scale. Spoken like an American who has never been on a factory floor. Mass production, my ass. That’s what factories are *for*, mass production.
that’s how the PC started off in the mid 80s…… it was a huge expensive useless tool used only by stock traders and mad professors….. erm…roll on 30 years… anyone not heard of a smart phone ?
30 years time, you will probably have nanobots and 3D printers, assemble your new car in your garage….. that was delivered as 10 boxes of different colored dust….
I already have a car that fits in my pocket. It’s fun to play with now and then, but I don’t find it particularly useful.
The boxes of dust will be delivered by . . . car! Why not just take delivery of the car and start driving it right away?
How are you going to print your printer?
yup… this article will predict the peak of chinese economic power and probably the beginning of a decline in the stock market…. short with five hands…..
Yes. And maybe after three hours I can produce “one” part.
The group of people that cut corners by spiking baby formula with melamine to pass health tests, riot when they are prevented from cheating on exams, abandon female babies in sewers when sex selective abortion fails, and play shadow accounting games that are the envy of every developed country in the world are not going to beat the West any time soon, even coming out of the decline.
I might also point out that the US still leads the world in manufacturing equipment that you use to manufacture things with, in addition to our substantial agricultural exports. So we could reproduce the Chinese factories in the US in a mater of years not decades and we won’t be starving while we do it.
“The East will surpass us”
And then they will fall.
And the seasons, they go round and round,
and the painted ponies go up and down.
A brief conversation from the future ….
A millennial’s granddaughter speaks with her grandmother.
Grandma, I don’t believe that you were actually once allowed to own and drive private transportation vehicles. They even let you drive one as a teenager? Are you sure you’re not losing your mind from those Alzheimer pills? As much fun as it might be free to explore independently, I can’t really imagine needing that kind mobility. But really who cares, every thing we need is on our transit lines. I’m not even jealous that you once had such a big house with your own old-fashioned kitchen and your own private space outdoors. I can’t imagine ever wanting to cook like you describe; it sounds like such drudgery. And if anyone ever wants to go outside, there is a park less than 30 minutes away by transit.
But tell me more about this college experience… It sounds fascinating…
How were you also able to spend four or five years after the age of eighteen in idle reflection, reading and learning? That’s really awesome! You know how most of us have to go straight from our highly efficient cooperative vocational and professional training into work at the age of seventeen. You mean they had leisure time and fun things like sports and parties then too? What are these Greek “fraternity” social organizations you speak of? I thought Greece was that place that went bankrupt and got bought by our Chinese friends to become one of their colonies in the Mediterranean? But this study abroad experience you talk about and spending something called a semester in Ecuador and Italy really are too much to believe. You really must be losing your mind after all and maybe you should talk to your doctor about changing your medicine. Grandma, I don’t see why you complain so much about having to be paying back some loans for that still; it sure sounds worth the fun!
Whatever, I’m really glad to have my job working in the Nike factory. It’s such a great opportunity to be making the sneakers that all those cool people in China and India are wearing. I just wish I could afford to buy and wear those cool things we made for myself, but you know how they cost the equivalent of two weeks wages. I find it really hard to believe that the Chinese once were paid less than we Yanks or that they ever produced the unsophisticated things like the Barbies, bras and Nikes that you say they used to make.
A fellow I work with in the Nike factory had been saving for years and finally was able save enough to be able to afford the passage to China. He can’t wait to see his wife again, who’s been working over there as a nanny and domestic for years. He hopes working in a Chinese slaughterhouse or a garden to earn more than five times what he gets now.
What a dream it must be to travel in the sky over the clouds like that. I wish I could do that sometime in my life. You’re so lucky to have been able to experience that. I suppose we should be thankful that we figured out how to put together an electric powered ground transport network after petroleum got really scarce and expensive. I just wish that they were able to find a way to make flying affordable again so I could travel around the globe and to cross the oceans like you did, Grandma. I can’t believe you had the time and ability to go to and experience places like South America and Europe while you were so young.
You really were a fortunate young lady, Grandma.
WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC WORK ETHNIC
hahahahahahaha hahahahahahaha hahahahahahaha
“Those who merely work hard generally lose their focus and intellectual energy. In addition, they end up drowning in randomness; work ethics draw people to focus on noise rather than the signal.”
While you weren’t looking China is rapidly passing the West. Wage differences between China and the US aren’t even that great anymore. In 2012 Foxconn paid its workers making iPhones in China around $2 an hour and plan to double this by the end of 2013.
Flextronics pays assemblers in Texas making Google Motorola smartphones $9 an hour.
Even if there is little final assembly in Texas, almost all of the supply chain and product development talent and resources are in the far east. Because all that production is so far away, westerners are too far removed to contribute to the next generations of innovation.
An economy can’t survive on consumer demand alone.
I will believe this as soon as the Chinese take all the IP they have more or less been stealing from us for the last 15 years and make something innovative rather than an iterative improvement, which they aren’t all that good at anyway.
People were saying similar things in 80s about the japanese. And in the 50s & 60s even called japanese stuff ‘jap crap’. Then the real estate bubble popped, they stopped having replacement level babies and have been a stagnant economy ever since. Japanese people work very diligently, but their working culture is also extremely inefficient.
I’m not saying the Chinese are going to follow the Japanese, they are different cultures and places, but it is not inevitable that the chinese will ‘take over the world’ either.
Whatever happened to our spirited commentators “EastAsianNationalist”, “weiyuan” , and the unforgettable “YayAreaGame”?
This article is begging for their input…
DON’T
FEED
THE
TROLLS
Good article….
This is a tough call, and one where I might diverge a bit from Brother Roosh.
Yes, it’s true that, culturally, Chinese society is fanatical about education, betterment, getting wealthy, and upward mobility. These are positive traits. And their economy has undeniably made amazing leaps forward in the past 50 years. The big question is: will it eventually peter out, or are they poised to be the next big superpower?
Tough call, and a mixed bag.
Against all those positive attributes, there are also some serious negatives. Chinese history has been characterized by alternating periods of centralization and then centrifugal chaos, with often violent social instability. There are very serious problems with transparency and corruption. No one is going to want to invest in a country where they can’t trust the numbers and the data. And the reality is that in China, it’s amazing “growth” may be built on a foundation of sand.
I would never invest money directly in a country where everything is dependent on connections, cronyism, and invisible deals. Pollution is a major problem, and northern China is running out of water.
And finally, Chinese society as always been inward-looking, not outward-looking. It’s difficult to see how they can transform themselves into a superpower with something to offer, say, to Africa.
But I definitely agree with Roosh that we (western Americans) have societies that have degenerated. Decades of wealth and luxury have softened us up. We do deserve to fall.
But who will take our place? That is the question.
Reality is, cold war is over. USA and Allies will remain on the top for long long time. No matter how much it is romantic to imagine a world after America, briefly reading some texts about new developments and investments in arms, tightening of connections, growth of super-national organizations, global extending sanctions towards all who disobey.
If i could judge future by current armament plans, neither Russian or Chinese are preparing for any big changes. Next generation plains and bombers are scheduled for as far as 2040.
I totaly agree with the planned bombers. However I think war has changed its not about plains and bombers anymore its about controling the currencies. If you really want to ruin a country you destroy its currency.
The western economes might be not doing that good nevertheless they still own most of the Gold. Take Italy as an example their economy might be shit but they still own the World 3th largest Goldreserves. A countries economic situation is just a facade its their goldreserves that unveil their true powers.
When war bursts out, currency becomes pure shit.
Gold, unlimited access to whatever is contemporary fuel resource, raw materials, industrial capacity, technological capacity, geography, strategic depth, quantity and quality of long range strategic weapons (aircraft carriers, strategic bombers, ICBM…), manpower… Errr, can’t think of anything else.
For example, UK was leading power in industrial era, when coal was main source of energy, and it possessed all of the above (large global fleet was a strategic weapon of that era).
Today, USA fills all of the above criteria.
You first have to buy the weapons than you need food for you army etc. All these things come at a price. Our World is too interconnected with each other trade is still going before, during and after war and for trade you need money. Its not going to be two autarkic countries fighting against each other. Its going to be two countries supplied with goods from the rest of the world fighting with each other.
England had and still has a very succesful banking history. Everything can be bought and if you control the currency you have an unlimited buying power.
That goes for technologies awell which require investments first. New invetions do just fall out of the sky there is a predict investment behind it aiming for a certain innovation at a certain time. Behind every scientist you have a company investing money and behind every company you have a Bank that hands out the Currency. And Behind every Currency you have a Nationalbank controling the Currency.
I think a good historical example for the money behind the army is the example of Nathan Rothschild. It was the final fight between Napoleon and Duke Wellington. If Napoleon wins the british stocks would have obviosly gone down. So Nathan Rothschild secretly supported Duke Wellingtons and Army so he would win. Besides that Rothschild had some of the best spies on the battlefield that would him inform him before everyone else who won the battle. Due to Rothschilds heavy investments into Wellingtons Army, Napoleon lost the fight. Neverthelss Rothschild started selling all his british stocks. Being a wellknown investor everybody followed his lead and started selling their stocks aswell. What nobody knew was that Rothschild was secretly buying all the stocks that were available now and got himself in control of most of the British financialsystem.
War is just a facade the money that flows behind the war thats whats going to reveal the true meaning of it.
The reason you can’t sustain what China is doing forever is that eventually, affluent people demand some measure of control over their environment. The affluent Chinese ten years from now will travel to Europe, and America. They’ll see the pretty, but less-productive wasteland that has occurred in these places, and they’ll return to their smog-choked cities and wonder why they live in such conditions.
When that happens, regulations will start popping up, labor regulations, environmental regulations, etc… all down the line.
Affluence begets legislated regulation, and legislated regulation begets economic slowdown.
The West needs only to de-regulate itself in many ways and they would take off like a rocket. But, that will never happen, because we’ve got too many millions of people in these western countries who are certain that the world will end if we keep driving internal combustion engines. Fools.
in the late 80s they said exactly the same thing about the Japanese… that they would take over the world…. 25 years of economic recession (and a nuclear disaster) has proved that theory about as right as the sun orbiting the earth….
The Asians are great at working like mad to make products that creative westerns design. Name one product you own that is designed by the Chinese ? …. hmm I thought so….
Even the mighty Sony that was once the darling of the electronic industry lost it’s way through bad unimaginative management and badly designed products, so much so that today it’s largely irrelevant… trounced to smithereens by one white man and his Apple.
The chinese will have a huge economic crash very soon, and anyone that can’t wake up in the morning and appreciate the smell of the coffee, take in a nice cigarette and start their day off right, is a man that is nothing more than a laborer, a construction machine, pumping out products for the creative designer that draws his inspiration exactly from that slow start to the day…..
amen.
DURR HURR, one country was predicted to overtake the US and failed, that means every other country that is predicted to do the same will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS fail.
Whether a country succeeds or not depends on whether your number of losers vs winners. Right now, the west is on a sharp decline. The Chinese would merely need to remain stable to slowly overtake the US.
not exactly… china draws many parallels with the Japanese boom… infact the Japanese are way more creative and innovative as a race than the chinese, and not mired in communism or puffed up with pride like the chinese…… the japs having been bashed in WW2….so China has it’s own fall coming…
the US is also a creative hub, full of very inspired, driven and motivated people and companies…. that is unlikely to change even if the US economy sinks due to Govt. folly….
the US is also a place where it is easy to get things done and life is very centred around business and entrepreneurship
you don’t find the communist party at your office door in the US putting their hands out for brides,…. and although there is alot of pork in Washington, it’s nothing like the scale of corruption and Govt. meddling that China is run on….. even google is censored in China.. that’s not good for business or social development in the long run…..
no sorry… China has a long way to come….
classic case of denial buddy. would love to be there when your business and ‘entrepreneurship’ based system hits the fan. oh wait, I’m forgetting 2008
Chinese won’t be taking over shit until they learn to invent, create and discover things on the scale that westerners do. They simply don’t think for themselves.
Dont be fooled to put Asians into that stereotyp picture we get from the Media.
Although on one hand I gotta say you are right they tend to be retarded and like the thought of “ou wow if that restaurant is making good money I might just do exactly the same”.
But dont forget that China is getting close to the point where their society is having enough wealth to establish their own culture (or in their case rediscover). Within the next 10 years you will more and more Chinese rediscovering their own culture and reinventing it. This will automaticaly lead to more creativity, which means less copying and more inventing.
Asians might treat us like gods wanting to take pictures us and copying our styles. But afterall Europe to them is Disneyland and we are just Mickey Mouse and the other puppets from Europe to them. Gods can be owned to!
Despite Chinas huge economical strength they lack one thing which is oil or in other terms the currency in which oil is sold. So on one hand China needs oil for its fast growing economy and on the other they need a cheap currency compared to the dollar to keep exporting their stuff. So far despite the economical situation the West controlling the Worldcurrency still remains in Power. Therefore the only way for China to become the Worlds “Number 1” is to crush down the US-Dollar as a World Currency which they already trying to do by trading goods in other currencies and establishing their Currency in SEA countries.
They are even doing this quiet agressivly in Africa. All in all it wasnt humanitarian rights that made the West attack Lybia it were the oil contracts with China.
The last time Oil was sold in a different Currency than Dollar was in 2003 when Sadam sold his oil in Euro and the Dollar dropped 10 percent. It only lasted 3 months this way until they busted Sadam and put everything back to normal (Oil for Dollars).
To put it short if you want to be in control in this World you have to own the Worldcurrency or in other Words you need the Petrodollar.
Another thing which is proving Chinas run to get a more powerful Currency is Gold. Eversince the last decades China was constantly buying Gold and not allowing any foreign company to get physical Gold out of the Country and they continue to do so. So far they are in the top Countries when it comes to Gold reserves.
I therefore have to correct myself the Powersource does not controls the Worldcurrency it owns most of the Gold. Always has and will be.
Interesting fact: Germany is Nr. 2 when it comes to Goldreserves. Looks like Adolf might still have won the war (or at least a different slightly more complex one).
The reason the PBoC was buying gold and other FX assets is to destroy the value of the currency to make exports more competitive. Gold really can’t be used for international trade any more considering there isn’t enough of it for international trade to actually take place.
adolf shtler was of austrian origin – not german. there’s a reason it shot itself in the head – because it was a coward that wanted to take the easy way out instead of dealing with reality – that it lost the war (in all ways).
Oil causes a whole lotta problems and does not leave a whole lotta good vibes to pass around.
Alternatives sources of energy are alright. Except during times of war. You really cannot really rely on sun, water, wind and The Jedi Force when you are trying to kill other people.
Whoever controls the oil controls the pace of war. And In order to control the oil you need to go to war with whoever produces it. It is a pretty sick cycle of self destruction.
Anarchy is the only slight glimmer of hope.
And they don’t fight fair either. Damn “people’s war”.
Don’t forget about the Japanese. Back in the 80s they were supposed to eventually buy everything and everyone, and they ended up treading water.
Will China do the same? I don’t know. Nobody really knows. Their work ethic doesn’t seem much different from the Japanese one, but they have the resources and the capacity to project considerable military might regionally and eventually abroad.
If anything it’s a lesson on how things change, and how fast. How Black Swan events can change the course of history. Not even 60 years ago the Chinese (and the Koreans) were caricatured as buck-toothed slit-eyed poor peasants, and nobody batted an eye. I doubt anyone would find such a caricature credible today.
I wish the Mainland Chinese wouldn’t cut in line, spit all the time, push people out of their way on the street, or talk so loud in places where you’re supposed to be quiet- like the USS Arizona memorial. Also, I wish rich Mainlanders wouldn’t throw such epic tantrums when they don’t get their way. Otherwise, they’re ok.
Americans are lazy? Well before the 1980’s only the man worked, and the woman could afford to stay at home and not work. Now both parents need a job, and in many cases each of them needs more than one job. Income and standard of living has fallen despite that. I guess computers and all the technology improvements hasn’t benefited the average Westerner.
By all objective standards we should be working 20 hour weeks or less. The purpose of technology is to replace labor and make life easier. Yet despite all the tech improvements people have to work harder than ever. Why is this?
The thing about “growing economies” is that they only benefit a handful
of people. To have a “growing economy” it means everyone else needs to
work their ass off for less and less while the few “capitalist” cronies of govt. power have access to cheap money, so their assets are inflated and everyone else’s standard of living plummets. They want to replace their workers and populations with hordes of third worlders (Mexicans, Chinese, etc.) who will work for less and less while the profits stay with govt. and their cronies in finance. You get an inflationary economy where, despite advances in tech, people have to work harder to survive.
In reality we could all live decently for 20 hrs/week or less without having to do much work. There’s no reason to turn everyone into cockroach Chinese who work 12 hour days to make a few govt. cronies fabulously wealthy. When you’re working an 80 hr week for a “high” salary of 80K/year remember why.
Sieg Heil, Comrade! Crush the capitalists and occupy Wall Street! We can become Egypt if we just try harder!
Read the post again dumbass America is not “capitalist” and hasn’t been for a long time. Inflation-based finance economy dependent on govt. cronyism and connections is not capitalist.
All I can say after reading all these comments, is GOD BLESS AMERICA!
There is nothing particularly amazing or innovative about the Chinese. In fact they attribute success to only one virtue: hard work. Thus they lack the logical brilliance of computer scientists in the West, who grok the essence of comp sci. Or the mathematical, scientific, economic, artistic brilliance of certain Western geniuses.
They lack the spirit of the West, which is creativity, independence and innovation. Which is why they will never rule anything, they might as well be a bunch of clones, their popular culture sucks, their food is ok, their emotional lives are dead and deadening, mainland China just sucks. It is actually a nightmare to live as some meek, scared, un-confident Chinese man who never did anything because he didn’t have too.
I’m Chinese myself and I can’t stand the hardcore Chinese traditionals, but the phenomenon I notice is not only peculiar to the Chinese. Most, if not all people, regardless of race, never took the initiative to better themselves and grow into adulthood.
Nearly all of them, drift through life, as if the motion is obligatory. But nobody realizes the essence of duty to one’s fellow human beings to be the best one can be, to literally get off one’s ass.
The Chinese are pretty vapid in this regard.
I’m Chinese btw.
Although their way of thinking might be different I am not sure whether the western belief system is better. its just different…We always assume that copying is something bad that shows a lack of creativity, intelligence etc. In Asian culture copying isnt seen as something bad, it is believed by constantly copying you will once become as good as the one your copying. Take Asian martial arts as an example where you constantly repeat certain movements or calligraphy where you have to constantly repeat the movements of a graphic character until perfection.
In the Western World we belief by being different, individual, better than the rest we can obtain our goals.
In China it is beliefed that you can obtain your goals by precisely copying until you are as good as your master and can than become better than him.
So if you look back in history there once was a time when China with their belief system was better off than the West. Their philosophy about copying therefore cant be all that bad, it just does not fit together with our belief system which is why automaticaly think it wont work.
The issue was never whether or not one culture was superior to another, it was whether or not its individuals were superior to the individuals of another culture.
China possesses no individuals.
‘I’m a Chinese btw.’ Really…
This is bullshit
“I can’t stand the hardcore Chinese traditionals”
Hahaha. Good try.
You are funny man.
China will not recover from a collapse of several Qs of negative GDP growth. They devalued their currency by 50% in recent memory. The USA has no issue coming out of the worst recession in 70+ years, if slowly but surely.
Have to call BS, there “1 child policy” will lead to masses of Beta men with -0- chance of meeting women, these are the lowest tier and history shows when Beta’s no longer buy in the chaos ensues.
Work away making things Wang Xian Chen, you have -0- chance of hooking up outside of a whore house, the State needs you to die a quiet death of service to it.
Sooner or later.
Lots of dumb tropes and stereotypes in the “article.” C’mon Roosh, this topic maybe be above your pay grade ;o) The Chinese government has be subsidizing their failing businesses for a decade now to stave off unemployment. In other words, its a BUBBLE thats going to pop anyway day now (just like Japan did in the mid 1990s). And, they need US to buy their junk. If we stop buying there junk, do you know what happens? You don’t need to read the Wall Street Journal everyday to see the writing the wall.
The Feds did/do the same thing in the US. Govts will be govts, They create bubbles and bureaucracies. However, the general trends are there and can’t be wished away by one’s sense of national superiority or exceptionalism.
The people in here shitting on Chinese growth have no clue–ABSOLUTELY no clue–what they’re talking about. So China isn’t innovative YET. But what would a Brit have said about American industrialists in the late 18th century when America was still on the come up? I remember reading this article about how around the fall of the Ottoman empire, the “elite” Ottoman craftsmen laughed at competition from “low priced European goods,” yet within a century, Europe was the world’s standard bearer and the overpaid Ottoman craftsmen were out of work. Now Europeans and North Americans feel pretty comfortable that their “Superior standards” will win the day. But are they REALLY that superior anymore? I hear Lenovo makes a pretty good PC these days… Certainly good cars, clothes, phones, and .com startups are not far off.
It’s pretty funny how Europeans and Americans now feel like Euro-American technological superiority is just a fact of life, dismissing Chinese contributions as if human history only started 500 years ago. When Europe was in the dark ages, the Chinese would have laughed at European culture–and rightly so! But the next superpower always, ALWAYS comes from the scrappy, hardworking culture that’s not afraid to try its hand at new technologies and certainly ain’t scared of jealous pennyloafers crying about “outsourcing” and “low quality.” Sorry kids but dem’s da facts.
The people in here shitting on Chinese growth have no clue–ABSOLUTELY no clue–what they’re talking about. So China isn’t innovative YET. But what would a Brit have said about American industrialists in the late 18th century when America was still on the come up? I remember reading this article about how around the fall of the Ottoman empire, the “elite” Ottoman craftsmen laughed at competition from “low priced European goods,” yet within a century, Europe was the world’s standard bearer and the overpaid Ottoman craftsmen were out of work. Now Europeans and North Americans feel pretty comfortable that their “Superior standards” will win the day. But are they REALLY that superior anymore? I hear Lenovo makes a pretty good PC these days… Certainly good cars, clothes, phones, and .com startups are not far off.
It’s pretty funny how Europeans and Americans now feel like Euro-American technological superiority is just a fact of life, dismissing Chinese contributions as if human history only started 500 years ago. When Europe was in the dark ages, the Chinese would have laughed at European culture–and rightly so! But the next superpower always, ALWAYS comes from the scrappy, hardworking culture that’s not afraid to try its hand at new technologies and certainly ain’t scared of jealous pennyloafers crying about “outsourcing” and “low quality.” Sorry kids but dem’s da facts.
The people in here shitting on Chinese growth have no clue–ABSOLUTELY no clue–what they’re talking about. So China isn’t innovative YET. But what would a Brit have said about American industrialists in the late 18th century when America was still on the come up? I remember reading this article about how around the fall of the Ottoman empire, the “elite” Ottoman craftsmen laughed at competition from “low priced European goods,” yet within a century, Europe was the world’s standard bearer and the overpaid Ottoman craftsmen were out of work. Now Europeans and North Americans feel pretty comfortable that their “Superior standards” will win the day. But are they REALLY that superior anymore? I hear Lenovo makes a pretty good PC these days… Certainly good cars, clothes, phones, and .com startups are not far off.
It’s pretty funny how Europeans and Americans now feel like Euro-American technological superiority is just a fact of life, dismissing Chinese contributions as if human history only started 500 years ago. When Europe was in the dark ages, the Chinese would have laughed at European culture–and rightly so! But the next superpower always, ALWAYS comes from the scrappy, hardworking culture that’s not afraid to try its hand at new technologies and certainly ain’t scared of jealous pennyloafers crying about “outsourcing” and “low quality.” Sorry kids but dem’s da facts.
The people in here shitting on Chinese growth have no clue–ABSOLUTELY no clue–what they’re talking about. So China isn’t innovative YET. But what would a Brit have said about American industrialists in the late 18th century when America was still on the come up? I remember reading this article about how around the fall of the Ottoman empire, the “elite” Ottoman craftsmen laughed at competition from “low priced European goods,” yet within a century, Europe was the world’s standard bearer and the overpaid Ottoman craftsmen were out of work. Now Europeans and North Americans feel pretty comfortable that their “Superior standards” will win the day. But are they REALLY that superior anymore? I hear Lenovo makes a pretty good PC these days… Certainly good cars, clothes, phones, and .com startups are not far off.
It’s pretty funny how Europeans and Americans now feel like Euro-American technological superiority is just a fact of life, dismissing Chinese contributions as if human history only started 500 years ago. When Europe was in the dark ages, the Chinese would have laughed at European culture–and rightly so! But the next superpower always, ALWAYS comes from the scrappy, hardworking culture that’s not afraid to try its hand at new technologies and certainly ain’t scared of jealous pennyloafers crying about “outsourcing” and “low quality.” Sorry kids but dem’s da facts.
Well said.
It’s not perfect…
especially the govt (as it is with all places).
It is rising though and Western national superiority complexes won’t change that.
Koreans were thought of as just “copiers” of the Japanese and the West (and rightly so in many cases).
But look at them now.
The people in here shitting on Chinese growth have no clue–ABSOLUTELY no clue–what they’re talking about. So China isn’t innovative YET. But what would a Brit have said about American industrialists in the late 18th century when America was still on the come up? I remember reading this article about how around the fall of the Ottoman empire, the “elite” Ottoman craftsmen laughed at competition from “low priced European goods,” yet within a century, Europe was the world’s standard bearer and the overpaid Ottoman craftsmen were out of work. Now Europeans and North Americans feel pretty comfortable that their “Superior standards” will win the day. But are they REALLY that superior anymore? I hear Lenovo makes a pretty good PC these days… Certainly good cars, clothes, phones, and .com startups are not far off.
It’s pretty funny how Europeans and Americans now feel like Euro-American technological superiority is just a fact of life, dismissing Chinese contributions as if human history only started 500 years ago. When Europe was in the dark ages, the Chinese would have laughed at European culture–and rightly so! But the next superpower always, ALWAYS comes from the scrappy, hardworking culture that’s not afraid to try its hand at new technologies and certainly ain’t scared of jealous pennyloafers crying about “outsourcing” and “low quality.” Sorry kids but dem’s da facts.
The people in here shitting on Chinese growth have no clue–ABSOLUTELY no clue–what they’re talking about. So China isn’t innovative YET. But what would a Brit have said about American industrialists in the late 18th century when America was still on the come up? I remember reading this article about how around the fall of the Ottoman empire, the “elite” Ottoman craftsmen laughed at competition from “low priced European goods,” yet within a century, Europe was the world’s standard bearer and the overpaid Ottoman craftsmen were out of work. Now Europeans and North Americans feel pretty comfortable that their “Superior standards” will win the day. But are they REALLY that superior anymore? I hear Lenovo makes a pretty good PC these days… Certainly good cars, clothes, phones, and .com startups are not far off.
It’s pretty funny how Europeans and Americans now feel like Euro-American technological superiority is just a fact of life, dismissing Chinese contributions as if human history only started 500 years ago. When Europe was in the dark ages, the Chinese would have laughed at European culture–and rightly so! But the next superpower always, ALWAYS comes from the scrappy, hardworking culture that’s not afraid to try its hand at new technologies and certainly ain’t scared of jealous pennyloafers crying about “outsourcing” and “low quality.” Sorry kids but dem’s da facts.
Has roosh ever posted a positive article
Um, yes and no.The Nation-State concept is being recognized as obsolete and dangerous by more and more of the populace.The future is not about the rise of China or the fall of the USA.The intelligent and productive will align themselves ,regardless of their ethnicity or birth place.The geniuses and intellectual elite could be from Germany,Japan,USA,Chile,or anywhere,will all congregate and collaborate via the web,as is already the case.
In the past America was simply a free -reign pasture land for the Intelligent to migrate to and flourish,and hence as a nation it appeared that the USA was the most innovative and productive.But that is a false picture.
E-commerce has shattered financial and intellectual boundaries.The nation that will rise to the top won’t be in any particular geography.
Pareto’s Principlers of the World,interface!
Take that govt worshippers!
I’m sorry Roosh, you’re just wrong on this one. I’m neither from a Western country nor from China, so it really makes no difference to me who wins, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be China. You’re thinking of this in a very one-dimensional way, only considering how diligent workers are. There are a huge number of other factors. The West might have lazy people, true, but they’ve created a system where the economy is successfully propped up by a smaller number of highly-productive people. America doesn’t need billions of workers. They would just be extra mouths to feed.
And the West attracts the elites from all over the world – whether they be scientists, engineers, or skilled workers – precisely *because* of the promise of good living conditions. China ain’t attracting shit. Who in their right mind from, say, Europe or the Middle East, would willingly go live in China if they had a green card offer from the USA? The skilled and motivated people are going to continue to flood Western countries for the foreseeable future. Chinese engineers come to live in the USA, not the other way around.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see China overtake the West in these areas, but I know that it’s not going to happen, and if it does, it’s going to inadvertently lead to bloating and collapse, just like what happened in Japan. That’s another thing; Anglo countries have each other’s strong mutual support in times of crisis; something that Asian countries don’t.
Very interesting note on the Anglo countries supporting one another; this is true. Kind of a recent phenomenon – guess after we all kicked the stuffing out of one another in WWII, we decided to rein it in a bit.
Asia continues to squabble amongst itself; as does Africa; as does Latin America; as does the Middle East. There is a distinct lack of unity there.
Then again, some of history’s greatest nations have emerged from internecine conflict – Babylonia’s New Kingdom, ancient Greece, Rome, Yamato Japan, Spain, the British Empire, Napoleon’s France, Hitler’s Germany, the United States, the USSR all emerged as dominant world powers not long after bloody civil wars in which these countries tore themselves apart, and/or bloody wars with their neighbors next door. Fighting isn’t necessarily ALL bad, we might infer.
Yea right. China’s got major, major issues. You’re talking about running into a demographic cliff in the next 15-20 years. Chinese working age population maxes out in about 2-3 years tops while Chinese population continues to increase until the next 15-20, which means rising dependency rates. Remember that some of the most critical events in history are often caused by major demographic shifts in population.
Also, how useful do you think those manual labor intense factories will be against 21st century robots and technology? Don’t ever bet against the innovative capacity and ingenuity of American business; it’s the single worst bet anyone can take, period.
Sorry to burst your bubble guys but the Chinese were never really “big”,ancient Middle-Eastern and pre-aryan Indian cultures surpassed them BY FAR and later not to even speak about ancient greece and rome.Let me remind you that it was not the Chinese who came to the shores of Europe and blockaded the ports.Culturally speaking the best were always either the middle-easterns,north africans,indians or us Europeans.
There was no pre aryan culture in India. The first was Aryan then it deteriorated when the coloureds started to move in about 2500 years ago.
l’ll settle this right here and right now, look up the Indus valley civilization, then look up the statistics for GDP per capita, HDI, literacy for Afghanistan(The most Aryan people), Pakistan( Silver medalist), India, that is a mixture of Aryan and Dravidian, and Sri Lanka, the darkest of the four, what do you see?
I see White Brahmins at the top. The 25% Indian Dravidians at the bottom. And all mixtures in between.
Yeah, look at them now (except the Europeans).
Broke, impoverished, backwards, riled by Islam, and far behind the Chinese.
there was no need for china to force trade with europe. China at that stage was far ahead of europe in every aspect, they didn’t believe there was a need to trade with ‘barbarians’
This kind of article is the exact kind of shit that makes me want to go short China. Anyone that actually bothers to look at the numbers of what they’re doing over there can realize two things very quickly:
1. things are absolutely horrible
2. this is about as spring-loaded a scenario as you’ll see
The assets of the Chinese banking system have expanded at a rate of 50-75% of GDP/year over the past 3 years and the total assets are roughly 3-4 times GDP assuming GDP isn’t overstated, which it is. This is equivalent to the US lending $20 trillion through the US banking system over 3 years, which would easily get us to 10% NGDP growth. There are consequences for this kind of behavior–major consequences. The profitability of Chinese businesses is basically non-existent as very few actually return their cost of capital due to negative real lending rates over the past 15-20 years. This is fiscal profligacy on a massive scale; there are consequences for this kind of behavior–major consequences
In addition to the financial problems, China is about to start facing major demographic issues starting in 3 years and in about 15 years due to the one-child policy, Chinese demography falls off a cliff. If you think Japan’s bad now, wait until you see China 15 years from now.
Clearly, Roosh hasn’t done his homework. It seems like the views expressed in this article are motivated based more on emotional feelings rather than common sense. This guy needs to shut up about all issues economic/financial.
Li made a great show of acting out a Mediterranean life style
I’m laughing at this dopey provincial chink. Italy ranked 5th in the world in GNP before these countries like China with 30x the population came out of the dark ages. 90% of China is still backward. And let’s see how that other 10% (size of the US) turns out when they have a little money. Seems that they’re getting fat and stupid with their commercialism and other nonsense.
Italy’s a joke to the rest of the world buddy… time you accepted the fact and got over it. I’ll repeat: Italy is now a joke of the modern world. just name one recent success (Berlusconi, Costa Concordia…) btw spag bol doesn’t count
Most of the rest of the world doesn’t even have ships like the Concordia. Almost everything you have today and is copied by other countries was invented in Italy from the radio (Marconi) to the telephone(Meucci). Even the computer (Baldini)was invented there 200 years before Babbage.
No go back to your little dirtwater town or bog. Save up that money you make at MickyD’s, assuming you even have a job, and go see the real world outside of your dopey Baptist slum.
So… what about gunpowder, or the lightbulb? Please, convince me history was wrong and that they are in fact Italian inventions. And Baptist? please…
Italy may have been one of the cradles of the Renaissance, but then again, China used to be the technological pioneer in the world, and the USSR a superpower. Right now, Italy and the EU aren’t doing that well, China has some serious environmental issues, and the USSR doesn’t even exist anymore. All the calligraphy, music, and art in your history isn’t going to change the facts about a nation’s current state of affairs.
Chinese arent the smartest or the hardest working people in the world, however they have 2 factor that play well for themselves. Huge workforce and central government with power to enforce that their peasants work for the sole purpose of getting them richer
I usually agree with the author 100%, but in this case he is being a wee bit alarmist. If we are to tremble at the approach of the Chinese, please show me ONE Chinese alpha male leader.Roosh even selected a Chinese girl for his lead photo. Where is the Chinese Vlad Putin? Hmmmmmm…. methinks Roosh forgets much of his own red pill philosophy work.
The Chinese like to keep a low profile. Just take a look at how they handle international politics most of the time.
Every time you see a Chinese talking trash in public, you just know that Chinese does not represent the majority of his/her people.
They know that competing with their own people does not bring better results than cooperating with each
other.
The final goal of both Communism and Anarchism is exactly the same: The dissolution of the State.
But their methods are different.
On the other hand, the representative democracies have no goal. They strive to maintain the status quo and the status quo is always against the natural order of things.
“In this world, only when you have diligent, hardworking people will the nation’s economy grow.”
That’s why Brazil is fucked!
“In this world, only when you have diligent, hardworking people will the nation’s economy grow.”
That’s why Brazil is fucked!
It is true that the Chinese people are working more, but you ignored why they are working more. It is probably not in their DNA. Perhaps it is to a degree, but culture and circumstances (which can both change) are bigger reasons. A house in a small country of 1.25 Billion is quite expensive so they have to work hard. However, they also have a very old population and few women. The population has just recently stabilized and in the next few decades it will decrease. That means that the infrastructure that was struggling to hold 1.25 B will soon only have to hold maybe 800 million once the old generation dies off. This will create much more room in the country and then the Chinese won’t have to work as hard so of course they won’t.
Also the high male to female ratio will inevitably cause misandric laws in China to explode just as they have in India. The communist totalitarian government is keeping it in check for now, but the future is unwritten. I guess we can only see. The future will be as interesting as it will be bleak, but for a true look into human nature this is the best time to be alive.
“but I can’t think of a people who more deserves to fall”
I was going to say blacks,but you can’t fall if you never leave the ground.
How can they fall if they were never at the top (or even in between)?
Roosh I usually agree with most of what you say. But your points here are way off. Especially coming from someone like yourself, who lives a life only possible and even imaginable from the western way of life. Additionally, the point about the “super elites” running the country and economy of china is the quintessential communist model as envisioned by Mao and Lenin.
America and Western Europe definitely need to trim the societal fat, but our democratic way of life is still vastly superior to communist china’s.
Nah, don’t believe it for a second. People said the same thing about the Japanese back in the 80s, and they were wrong. People also said the same thing about the Fascists and the Soviets, and they were wrong again.
Programmed puppets of the communist party, grow some balls and get rid of those Mao shits!
They got rid of Mao’s economic policies already. The new dog in town is Deng Xiaoping and his favorite bone is State Capitalism.
State Capitalism makes infinitely much more sense than Neoliberalism and The market economies of representative democracies. In State Capitalism the govt. keeps foreign investors in check.
Nice.
Lots of comments about the importance of “creativity” in the West. I’m sorry but dumb high school and college kids trying to take starving artist hipster path < Asian nerd studying 40+ hours a week for his electrical engineering major.
fuckin’ hipsters
Just like the Japanese are going to take over the world. The 1980’s called.
Well, there are a few small problems with your analysis, but I’l point out the major one: Demographics. China is utterly, totally screwed on that front. They have a birth rate like Japan’s, but – unlike Japan – they are still largely poor. China also has debt problems that – relative to the size of their economy – dwarf ours. At the end of the day though, their demographics are their ruination. 20 years from now, the children that were never born won’t be there to take care of the rapidly aging population.
who cares– 1.6 BILLION PEOPLE= 5 times the US population. It matters for Japan– but NOT for China
Sigh. First, it’s around 1.3 billion. Second, when you look at birth rate, and then you add in the issues of selective abortions to get boys, you start to see the problem. There are millions of boys growing up in China today who will never have a girlfriend, never mind a wife and children. There’s an ongoing demographic experiment in China that the world has never seen.
I thought it was 1.3 billion too- but numerous Chinese have told me that it’s actually 1.6. People in the countryside and rich people have more than 1 child. Anyways, the point is moot– regardless of numbers or sex ratios, it’s still 4-5 time the American population– it’s massive.THAT PART is UNDENIABLE.
Yes, and those numbers are poor. Your anecdotal “there must be another 300M people there” simply does not square with anyone else’s data. And the demographics – both raw numbers and gender distribution – point to a looming crisis there
It’s not so much that China will take over the world in GDP per capita, it’s the sheer numbers that will change the world. The thing is that China still has an awful long way to go– we will start seeing changes and how they affect things over the next 10-30 years.
As far as Asians and Chinese not being innovative– the camera phone was invented in Korea– they were using the 3-4 years before it caught on in the US. Nokia used to be a cell phone giant– now it’s mostly Korean and Taiwanese companies.
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, not to mention the wealthy of SE Asia show how productive, creative and innovative the Chinese people are. And places like Korea basically created and entire entertainment industry out of thin air– it didn’t even exist 10 years ago.
And even if demographics doom China, what does it matter with 1.6 billion people? So the population gets reduced to 1 billion or even 800 million– as much as Europe and America combined– Asia in the future will become more of a counterpart to the West, not to overtake it.
Look at Japan, Korea, Taiwan, HK and Singapore– they basically mirror the west and take up similar trends– albeit in a different way and preserve more of their traditional ways and culture.
The demographics matter in terms of labor shortages and caring for an elderly population. Consider our mathematics based issues with entitlement programs – China has a much larger problem than that rolling downhill at them, gathering speed. As to Japan – hell, that country is a dead man walking. Their lost 20 years are from the demographic issues, and it’s only getting worse.
it doesn’t matter- they’ll just let them rot in poverty. No such thing as pensions or Medicare= no burden to the state. Why do you think everyone is so keen on having male children?
You really don’t understand anything do you?
Three words on why demographics is a problem and the PRC cant just let their people rot….’Mandate of Heaven’. It’s a Chinese concept almost as old as China herself.
Unlike the West, China doesn’t have a gigantic government welfare system. Their baby boomers are the biggest savers in the world and distrust, much less expect welfare benefits, the government. Once their baby boomers die out, the country will no longer have a giant burden from the old and be the superpower of tomorrow.
All of the liberal social diseases that are dragging the west down (anti-racism, feminism, etc) China doesn’t give a shit about.
Their women are on average, far higher quality in looks and personality than women here too. To get the equivalent western woman would be nigh impossible.
If you look at the PISA rankings, http://www.oecd.org/pisa/46643496.pdf Spain, Italy and Greece do far worse then the more productive economies. Clear explanation for why they lag behind – their students are simply less educated.
You could bash West all day Roosh, but and the end of the day, you can sustain your lifestyle thanks to the way things are in West.
“It also showed why the Chinese will eventually crush the West.”
Fortunately, the Chinese only excel at crushing the Chinese. Their government is corrupt and wicked. Its hard to expand while 90% of your military is pointed inward.
Remember in the 80s when the Japanese were taking over? Their students and employees worked so much harder, their management was to be studied and emulated. But their own monetary policy laid them low. We have more to fear from our own leaders and their reckless borrowing, than from the Chinese. We can much more easily hobble ourselves than they can.
Because if they point it outwards they will die. The Chinese know that if they start wars seeking regional hegemony, they will end up like Germany in 1919 and 1945 or Japan in 1945. They wish to avoid such outcomes, which would effectively end their nacional ascent.
Well, with the way things are looking right now, with the Russians cozying up again, it will certainly be quite detrimental to all if wars escalate. Now, as quite a few countries have nukes, things aren’t going to be the way they were in the 1930s.
The long term doesn’t really look all that good for China though. They have a massive real-estate bubble right now, bigger than the one the U.S. had in the 2000’s. The majority of their population still lives in utter poverty, and the demographics look even worse.
Wycked just recently shared an article showing how their work force peaked in 2012, and it isn’t going to get bigger any time soon.
Ultimately I think people were too quick to call this century a Chinese one. It looks like it’s going to be a multi-polar one. We’ll all likely decline together.
Good article. And to all the “China won’t ever become ” losers – . instead of hiding behind past achievements of people greater than yourselves, why don’t you just man up and face the facts? You’re just threatened by reality. Every empire that has risen has fallen, America is on the way now, and Italy and Spain shat themselves centuries ago. There’s no point in trying to circlejerk each other into a false sense of security – a real man would accept the facts. Peace
Chinese are amazingly lazy. Ever notice how lazy awful service you h get at Chinese resturants? Near enough is good enough is China’s motto. Sweeep it under the rug. Japanese and Koreans are deiligant workers but Chinese are incredibly entitled. Most Chinese expect the good life to fall at their feet because well, it has been. Everyone is living better than their parents.
Remember the communists are still in charge and do have some subtle laziness encouraging policies. a lot of vacation, Chinese will take 3 weeks to 2 month vacations for Chinese New Years; it is hard to fire workers (so they do not produce);
people are concerned that whatever wealth they create can be taken away from them so there is a grab the quick buck mentality.
I love China and cannot wait to get back there (currently business has brought me to Bangkok) but Americans can hold their heads high next to the Chinese when it comes to work ethic.
I think they said this type of thing about the Japanese too,but it didn’t really happen
The Japanese didn’t take over America.
The Chinese own all that American debt sure,but when it’s at that level it’s more of a problem for them than an advantage!
This interview with Sir James Goldsmith on Charlie Rose warned about globalisation though and seems like he was right !
These scenes are reminiscent of Japan in the 80’s, hordes of tourists shopping in Paris…buying real state everywhere, copying and emulating the west. Ghastly.
Let the richer ants spread their crumbs around. They are dorky as hell, true that.
Chinese are a bunch of materialistic, pussy-whipped godless fucks. No matter how tireless they work, they will never become superior to european, especially mediterranean cultures, especially since the chinese killed off their confucionist/buddhist culture (thanks, Mao!). Mediterraneans are being dragged down with the rest of the west. Once the bomb explodes and the smoke diffuses, the mediterranean peoples and their progeny in the american continent will dominate the world again while the rest of Europe is consumed by islamic barbarism and China has more warlord fun time with some enviromental collapse to add extra taste.
Also, lol at hard work – What makes nations rich today is intelligence and creativity, hard work is for machines. The future is smart, effective work. Create, not merely copy repeatedly.
As admirable as East Asians are in some regards, I find the extreme conformity and willingness to slave away one’s existence fucking repugnant. If living like those poor bastards is what it takes to what, maintain superpower status and astronomical wealth increasingly horded by rotten oligarchs, fuck it, let the whole thing collapse.