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> However, once you have (mostly) caught up, it becomes less obvious what the next thing to do is. Literal moonshot? Fiberoptic internet to every house in the n
by sanxiyn 8y ago
> However, once you have (mostly) caught up, it becomes less obvious what the next thing to do is. Literal moonshot? Fiberoptic internet to every house in the nation? Particle accelerator that can hit energies never before reached? Every student gets a spot in a university? Some of these might be good ideas...
All of these are good ideas, and China or South Korea is doing them. 1) Literal moonshot. Heard of Chang'e 4 which landed on 2019-01-03 yet? 2) Fiber optic. Ever wondered why South Korea is land of MMORPG? 3) Particle accelerator. Heard of CEPC yet? 4) Every student at university. Check South Korea.
China (and South Korea) is doing them and tens more. Yes, some of it will fail, it's natural. But there are lots of "the next thing to do", it's not "less obvious" than what came before.
- simonh 8y agoI suspect those examples were chosen from conscious knowledge.
- rossdavidh 8y agoYeah, they weren't chosen randomly. Also, China and South Korea seem to be taking very different paths. While there are always similarities between any two country's governments, there are a lot of differences there. South Korea has competitive elections, where incumbents are not uncommonly voted out of office, and China does not. South Korea is fundamentally a market economy (with lots of government involvement), and China is much closer to a command economy (with lots of market elements). Neither one is at an extreme on the market-vs-command spectrum, but they are in very different parts of that spectrum.
- chillacy 8y agoSouth Korea did a large chunk of its economic growth as a military dictatorship. Only recently has it become a democracy.