Future 101: Tom Friedman on China and the Trade War

[Moksha]

Moksha is wrong to root for China. China is way worse than the US is.

Consider this: The US is run by lawyers, and China is run by engineers.

[honorentheos]

Xi is also an authoritarian.

[Kishkumen]

There's a saying that the US isn't strong because the dollar is the reserve currency; the dollar is the global reserve currency because the US is strong. Nations peg the value of their currency and keep dollars in reserve to back them because we are reliable.

Guess what damages that and makes other countries eye alternatives to use as a reserve?

I agree with Friedman that the US was fine as long as we are winning at being the best at finance. But we have been the best at finance in no small part because we were both the most reliable and interested in global economic stability; and strong enough plus willing to enforce and defend our global worldview and allies.

Yep! I think this is exactly right. Trump is tanking the American brand. He is accelerating our decline as a world power.

[Gadianton]

Consider this: The US is run by lawyers, and China is run by engineers.

If you're driving along a section of freeway that suddenly collapses or you put your life savings into an apartment that's never finished or a platoon of Chinese engineers divert flood waters from Xi's favorite ghost city with a population of zero to wipe out your village instead, then you might wish China had a few more lawyers.

[Kishkumen]

If you're driving along a section of freeway that suddenly collapses or you put your life savings into an apartment that's never finished or a platoon of Chinese engineers divert flood waters from Xi's favorite ghost city with a population of zero to wipe out your village instead, then you might wish China had a few more lawyers.

My dad likes to say that Russians make wonderful poets and philosophers but terrible engineers. Germans seem able to pull off all three admirably well, but they are terrible comedians and insufferable to boot. I am not sure what the Chinese excel at, except perhaps sacrificing peasants in the interest of large totalitarian state projects. Of course, anciently the Chinese excelled at many things, outdoing Europeans. I am sure the same is true today in some regards, but the CCP firewall of reality distortion makes it difficult for me to get a clear hold on things.

[Gadianton]

If you were to go just by what influencers say, there's every bit as much reason to believe China is losing the trade war, that they are getting crushed with unemployment and homelessness right now.