[dforrestwilson1]

What you neglect to mention is that Europe and the US had high import taxes to protect their industries from eachother.

Somehow the US still managed to become a superpower. China will be fine if it can transition to a better system of government. Globalization doesn't seem necessary for a country with a huge domestic market.

Demanding better working conditions for Foxconn employees is called having a conscience not hypocrisy.

[8note]

The same could be said about the US. If they could transition to a better system of government, they'd be doing fine with globalisation.

[ben_jones]

Ok the historian in me has to say something. The US is only a superpower because we pilfered an incredibly large and resource-rich land mass and had incredibly good geopolitical luck during World War One and Two. And that involved dropping a nuclear weapon on a civilian population. Those circumstances are NOT repeatable.

[MR4D]

The US is the only superpower because of two reasons:

1 - The Atlantic 2 - The Pacific

Those two present enormous competitive barriers in a fight.

[eternalban]

The British Empire changed its board of directors.

[thablackbull]

> China will be fine if it can transition to a better system of government.

lol, so the one that brings more and more people out of poverty everyday should suddenly change and adopt the American style of government where more and more people are ending up in poverty? Genius idea mate...

[pm90]

I know this comment has been downvoted, but I think in light of current events it does deserve merit. China has managed to do a spectacular job of lifting its populace from abject poverty... while spectacularly abusing human rights and flagrantly violating rules of law and due process. But the American system, if it continues to be dominated by rich oligarchs...how does it work for the benefit of its weakest citizens? I really hope that it does not turn out that way, but you can't deny that it isn't a possibility, with the current US president calling the media "Enemy no.1", not having any respect for independent judiciary, attacking other religions etc.

[thablackbull]

I purposely came off rude in my comment - probably contributed to the down votes. But I do think it's a big worry for many people here in the west when an ideology that is diametrically opposed to what we are use to over here is not only succeeding but thriving. It feels like people here have already given up; on Reddit, the buzzword is now basic income (i.e., give me free stuff). Pew survey shows Americans are essentially expecting to regress while people in China are very optimistic.

"When children today grow up, will they be better off financially than their parents?" http://www.pewglobal.org/database/indicator/74/survey/17/res...

People want change, but they're unwilling to consider anything else - democracy, like all systems have pros and cons. Learning from the successes of China doesn't automatically mean adopting the full ideology.