How did we convert from horse and buggy to automobiles

[tomclarke]

Simon,

i am not sure how it balances, the systems are so different. Japan is a very rule-following country. China does not yet have rule of law. A disadvantage for a capitalist system because the playing rules are not fixed and depend on which officials you can bribe. But there is still massive endeavour which is subject (overall) to market discipline. money rules.

The central government might appear to have very great power in China but practically it has much less, because the country is just too big to control centrally, and there is no way to stop local governments from getting round central rules. And entrepeneurs have great power locally (in some cases they are the local government).

best wishes, Tom

[Aero]

Aero,

I'm not thinking Communist economy. I'm thinking directed economy. Think Japan and MITI.

And what I'm telling you is the the Chinese economy is now directed more by the market forces of capitalism than most Americans seem to imagine.

How does it compare to Japan?

Japan is a developed country, China is a developing country.

But one thing for sure, the Chinese "dislike" the Japanese, a grudge held over from World War II, and by the same token, the Chinese people like and respect Americans for the help we provided in the same war. At the level of the common Chinese citizen, America's reputation has not been sullied so much by the "Ugly American" syndrome as it has been in other parts of the world. I'd guess this is a result of our lack of interaction over the last half of the 20-th century.