What if China tanks?

ARTICLE: Q&A: Author Will Hutton on China's Future, By James Pethokoukis, USNews.com, 1/5/07

Good examination of our economic interdependence with China.

Comments

[JRRICHARD]

Pethokoukis & Hutton pushing the pile forward. The new realism: connectivity, reciprocity, democracy.

[Aaron]

If China tanks, something that I don't believe has any real chance of happening, then our planet will be in very serious trouble, because China is the future, everyone with eyes can see that. Over the next 50 years the Chinese economy will be the teat from which we will all suckle. The populations of China and India are quickly becoming the new consumer base that will create a demand for products and services heretofore unknown by humankind. Following close on their heels will be Africa, whose people are already being pulled into the 21st-century by the cell phone and $100 laptops which are going to change the face of that continent.

It's a brave new world people, and America needs to get with the program and get on board for the big win. We need to remember who we are and what we have to offer the world. And that is our dream, the American dream. It's not a dream of economic wealth, or shiny cars, or nice houses, those are just the perks, just the fringe benefits. What we have to offer the world is freedom, the freedom to take control of your own life and build something for yourself and your children, and there is no more powerful dream than that.

The people of the world want that dream, they yearn for that dream, and if we are smart, we'll get busy helping them to realize their dreams, we'll get busy helping them to build the world of the 21st-century, and stop worrying about holding on to what we've got, until it slips away because we forgot who we are, and what we're all about. It's time for Americans to start building things again, put away the guns and start picking up the shovels and getting to work.

We just need to remind ourselves what we here in America have always known, that if you help people realize their dreams, help them create a brighter future for themselves and their children, they will gladly make you wealthy, prosperous, safe and secure in return. All we have to do is remember who we are. I know we can do it, because I'm an American.

[sp0078]

great article-- love the break down of scenarios and their respective ramifications.

also, great summary quote: "China's astonishingly low productivity, wastefulness, and environmental degradation are self-destructive; it needs institutional change and the panoply of democratic institutions. By staying open, the U.S. brings forward the day that China has to change–and especially by exposing it to best western practice. But that means we have to practice what we preach."