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I mean, the simple answer is that people in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China are all poorer than the US and EU. Japan had decades to catch up and failed t

I mean, the simple answer is that people in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China are all poorer than the US and EU. Japan had decades to catch up and failed to do so. The laissez-faire approach gave people happy, low-stress, and materially rich lives. Now, we're in a new era where national industrial capacity will at times take precedence over quality of life, and we have to make tradeoffs. But frankly it wasn't obvious that would happen again — China's policies over the past decade made it a reality.

philwelch 1y ago
Taiwan and South Korea are both richer than the EU on aggregate measured by GDP (PPP) per capita. So are Singapore and Hong Kong, but it’s not fair to compare city-states. Even in nominal terms, Taiwan and SK are right in the middle of the EU member states between Slovenia and Czechia.
JDEW 1y ago
> The laissez-faire approach gave people happy, low-stress, and materially rich lives. The usual schtick conveniently ignoring the absolute marauding of resources from non-western countries and the effective slave labor extracted from Asia.
- bpodgursky 1y ago
  You can't wax poetic about the merits about turning your own workforce into "slave labor" (the entire OP point), and then complain about countries buying things produced by the slave labor.
tokioyoyo 1y ago
I genuinely think an average person in Japan has "richer" life than a person in NA. No real data points, just vibes. I lived in NA, EU and Japan. It is so relative that, I haven't been able to take GDP per capita statistics seriously. The most awful thing for an average, is the work ethics. But that has been rapidly changing in the last 5 years, I think.
nl 1y ago
Japan, Taiwan and SK aren’t noticeably poorer than EU or the US: https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-per-capita/ https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-per-capita/
DrNosferatu 1y ago
You have no idea what you’re talking about: The social safety net and access to basic resources like housing and education in Asian democracies, makes the average citizen there much, much, better well off than the average citizen in the geographical “West”. PS: China is completely different - makes no sense throwing it in the comparison.

philwelch 1y ago

Taiwan and South Korea are both richer than the EU on aggregate measured by GDP (PPP) per capita. So are Singapore and Hong Kong, but it’s not fair to compare city-states. Even in nominal terms, Taiwan and SK are right in the middle of the EU member states between Slovenia and Czechia.

JDEW 1y ago

> The laissez-faire approach gave people happy, low-stress, and materially rich lives. The usual schtick conveniently ignoring the absolute marauding of resources from non-western countries and the effective slave labor extracted from Asia.

bpodgursky 1y ago
You can't wax poetic about the merits about turning your own workforce into "slave labor" (the entire OP point), and then complain about countries buying things produced by the slave labor.

tokioyoyo 1y ago

I genuinely think an average person in Japan has "richer" life than a person in NA. No real data points, just vibes. I lived in NA, EU and Japan. It is so relative that, I haven't been able to take GDP per capita statistics seriously. The most awful thing for an average, is the work ethics. But that has been rapidly changing in the last 5 years, I think.

nl 1y ago

Japan, Taiwan and SK aren’t noticeably poorer than EU or the US: https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-per-capita/ https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-per-capita/

DrNosferatu 1y ago

You have no idea what you’re talking about: The social safety net and access to basic resources like housing and education in Asian democracies, makes the average citizen there much, much, better well off than the average citizen in the geographical “West”. PS: China is completely different - makes no sense throwing it in the comparison.