Heech, a perma China bull like Jim Rogers claims polution (why he doesnt goes and lives there) and water suply are the 2 biggest obstacles China faces today. Would you agree and how is China doing handling them? Cheers.
exactly, u are closer to a american born chinese than the china chinese, that explains it, don't talk about a place where u experiences r more of a tourist!!
Mid-late 19th century. IE, time of my great-grandparents. Germany's transformation into Engineering Nation was intentional national policy driven from the top (ie, "socialism") and took less than one (modern) lifetime. Prior to that, goods from the region had a well-deserved reputation for suckage. Germany did it. Japan did it. IMO it would be extremely foolish to then conclude the Chinese can't do it. Whether they actually will or won't is a different question, of course...but you can bet your bottom dollar they are learning an awful lot about precision manufacturing and design from cranking out all those iPhone and iPads.
Not sure about water supply... I mean, intuitively it makes sense as an issue, but I'd have to see the math on it. (It's a lot like the discussion about "peak oil"; it "makes sense" as a theory, but I suspect a lot depends on how you calculate compounding over time... I really don't know the truth.) Pollution is definitely a huge issue. You know, in most other things there's a give/take: if you take someone else's land or money, they know about it; if you exploit your workers, they will push back; if you cut down too many trees, you run out of trees... so there's this natural pressure keeping business in check. With pollution? It's much harder. If we had a counter on our arms (a la Justin Timberlake) showing how much life we were losing every time the factory next door polluted... we'd shut it down immediately. But right now, we don't... so the problem just grows and grows and grows. I'd like to think the scientists/engineers in Beijing will put in the right policy to eventually restrict this stuff. But it's an open question. As far as why I wouldn't want to live there "permanently"... two issues: 1) lack of fair/reliable legal system. Once you get used to having that in the West, it's very difficult living with out it. This to me is a much bigger issue than physical pollution. 2) schooling is too difficult for the kids. I said earlier I'm thinking about having my kids do their early schooling in China... but I'd never let my kids attend junior high - college in China; way, way, way too stressful + difficult. The path to a decent university is incredibly challenging. They can probably put in 1/10th of the effort in the US, enjoy their childhood, and still end up attending a top university.
By the way, China's space capsule is being launched (for a rendez-vous with China's proto-space station) as we speak. You can watch live here: http://news.qq.com/zt2011/shenbazhibo/index.htm
Not according to Adam Smith. The current form of globalization is not capitalism, it is neo-feudalism. Give people (ie, labor) the right to cross borders, and then we might be on to something more like "capitalism".
no kidding, feudalism is a polite term, why not just call it government slavery. Work here or die really isn't much of a choice. Even the slaves were provided food clothing and shelter.
move that mason-dixon line to the Texas border, find a modern day Tubman and form a new underground railroad and when they finally make it to Cairo they'll finally be free. Cairo Il still protects escaped slaves , right?