i woke up in the middle of the night thinking about the changing world order as it relates to china vs US.
the US is fortunate in that we have the world's reserve currency, but man, i don't see how china doesn't just leapfrog over us in so many economic measures.
we have states fighting states. deeply divided politics and belief in facts. we have no manufacturing base to jumpstart our economy (good luck with consumerism). we have a horrible savings rate. lazy americans. severe health issues. a dramatic divide between have and have nots. a bunch of gun nuts. and incredible inefficiency in all govt agencies.
our nation's agenda flips every presidential term. china stays on course and crushes all in it's path. china has the advantage of stealing technology shortening its learning curve dramatically. we have so many headwinds in the US, i cannot see our stock market and overall business health projecting out well for the future.
People made fun of and criticized China for erecting the Great Firewall, but in hindsight perhaps this was the only way to maintain an empire in the early 21st century. Here in the U.S. we have people making anti-vaxxer videos so they can
maybe earn a hundred bucks off YouTube or blog ads, then a few thousand people decide they believe it because they saw it on the internet, then thousands of people start getting measles and mumps again. In the US, internet based conspiracy theories run amok, and so we've lacked a consensus about the causes and possible solutions to problems. In the U.S. our leader selection process can be affected by intelligence agencies from foreign countries who would like to see us flounder. Meanwhile, the dopamine economy keeps us glued to our screens for 2-8 hours per day, consuming more both in terms of purchases and false information, with the whole population becoming poorer and more foolish simultaneously.
China has sealed itself off from the destructive power of the internet, while reaping its commercial benefits. Yes, it's an authoritarian dictatorship, but there they are thriving - their latest cooperative success being the conquest of the C19 pandemic amid an environment of national unity.
The really scary thought is that the internet could make it impossible for open societies to succeed. There is this constant headwind of propaganda, misinformation, and productivity loss corroding open societies more than closed societies. For example, here we are in an emergency with an incompetent president who was elected due to online interference from a foreign enemy of the US, with 30% of Americans believing internet conspiracy theories about the virus being a Chinese bioweapon, with other large majorities wanting to ignore public health experts because they listened to a podcast or foxnews.com, and 70% of us having less than $1k in savings but damn sure we have iPhones with data plans. China is sidestepping all this and advancing.