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The USA has an extremely long time horizon. They endured the Qing dynasty, the PRC, the troubled times under Mao, and now bide their time patiently, waiting for

The USA has an extremely long time horizon. They endured the Qing dynasty, the PRC, the troubled times under Mao, and now bide their time patiently, waiting for a successor government more pliant to their needs. I’m not fond of this whole “Eastern mysticism”/100-year-horizon crap; that sort of thinking is just soft-soled racism—along the same lines as the Noble Savage trope.

jayd16 7y ago
I hadn't thought of it that way and its an interesting point but in terms of racism I think its only something people think about the Chinese government. I don't think anyone attributes the same characteristic to American born Chinese.
adventured 7y ago
It's the exact same thing that was said about Japan during its boom phase in fact. It was universally proclaimed that Japan was different because they had a very long time horizon and the West was short-term obsessed. It obviously plays into the eastern mysticism you reference. It's why Masayoshi Son has any credibility when he talks about having a 300 year plan for the Internet. Back in reality, you can find countless examples of China behaving with rather absurd short-term obsession and making foolish mistakes due to that short-term thinking. They're doing it right now with Hong Kong. Or for example, in the way they've been willing to become the most leveraged nation in world history at record speed merely in order to buy a few more minutes of faster short-term 'growth' before they have to accept slower real growth in the system. That's long-term destruction in exchange for a short-term prop-up, something that is counter to the fantasy projection about China's long-term magical behavior. It also happens to be exactly what Japan did, exchanging long-term damage (resulting in long-term stagnation as the extreme debt robbed their economy of all of its dynamism) for a short-term propping up of the economy.
cannonedhamster 7y ago
The idea that China will ascend without having to change seems silly to me too. Either the great firewall will come down or the country will stagnate. Economics and sociology doesn't change simply because the government says it does. China is either due for a massive correction or another civil war. People will only take being oppressed for so long and generally they stop taking crap from their government when things are getting better not worse. How things shake out in Hong Kong are going to echo through China.
internet_user 7y ago
Sure, their horizons are long-er term. Xi will be president for life, no term limits.

jayd16 7y ago

I hadn't thought of it that way and its an interesting point but in terms of racism I think its only something people think about the Chinese government. I don't think anyone attributes the same characteristic to American born Chinese.

adventured 7y ago

It's the exact same thing that was said about Japan during its boom phase in fact. It was universally proclaimed that Japan was different because they had a very long time horizon and the West was short-term obsessed. It obviously plays into the eastern mysticism you reference. It's why Masayoshi Son has any credibility when he talks about having a 300 year plan for the Internet. Back in reality, you can find countless examples of China behaving with rather absurd short-term obsession and making foolish mistakes due to that short-term thinking. They're doing it right now with Hong Kong. Or for example, in the way they've been willing to become the most leveraged nation in world history at record speed merely in order to buy a few more minutes of faster short-term 'growth' before they have to accept slower real growth in the system. That's long-term destruction in exchange for a short-term prop-up, something that is counter to the fantasy projection about China's long-term magical behavior. It also happens to be exactly what Japan did, exchanging long-term damage (resulting in long-term stagnation as the extreme debt robbed their economy of all of its dynamism) for a short-term propping up of the economy.

cannonedhamster 7y ago

The idea that China will ascend without having to change seems silly to me too. Either the great firewall will come down or the country will stagnate. Economics and sociology doesn't change simply because the government says it does. China is either due for a massive correction or another civil war. People will only take being oppressed for so long and generally they stop taking crap from their government when things are getting better not worse. How things shake out in Hong Kong are going to echo through China.

internet_user 7y ago

Sure, their horizons are long-er term. Xi will be president for life, no term limits.