This is a fact that most in the US refuse to confront.
China has mastered making high quality goods at scale.
It does not matter how they got there, the fact is they did, and there are some pretty staggering military implications that are not really being discussed.
If you look at most of the “Europoor! Americans have so much more money!” articles, you’ll notice two things coming out of them — most understate the importance of quality of life and avoiding rapid Chinese growth of the past decade despite its own problems. It’s like a weird “no, no, ignore everything around you, we are literally the best despite everything!”.
I genuinely don’t know how I feel about this. I love parts of America. Half of my family lives there. But also, I have no inclination to move. Although I could make about 30% more, I have no idea how it would improve my life other than just more money in the bank. Unless I wanted to start a company, then yeah, probably bigger market and lax laws is advantageous… but other than that, it would be a huge downgrade from life perspective.
The difference between today and a half century ago is that today you either win first prize, or wind up dead. That stinks.
It stinks because companies that come in first are seldom worse at extracting value from customers than they are at providing value to customers, and therefore tend to be mediocrities.
And it stinks because such companies are seldom worse at extracting value from rank-and-file employees than they are at providing value to employees.
The world is better when there are societies that can afford to sacrifice a little competitiveness for a good quality of life. If that's over, it's a shame.
China has mastered making high quality goods at scale.
It does not matter how they got there, the fact is they did, and there are some pretty staggering military implications that are not really being discussed.