China surpassed the USA

[KUSA]

The Chinese figured out that communism doesn't work so they resorted to capitalism. Now the USA is number 2 in the world economy.
finance.yahoo.com/news/china-just-overtook-us-worlds-090801574.html

[bladevalant546]

Lol they resorted to a socialist/capitalistic hybrid. It was bound to happen when you let corporatists wage slave everyone in this country. Alas, it is natural flow of time countries riset and fall.

[Anomalocaris]

The Chinese figured out that communism doesn't work so they resorted to capitalism. Now the USA is number 2 in the world economy.
finance.yahoo.com/news/china-just-overtook-us-worlds-090801574.html

Considering they have 4.5 times as many people as we do, and their people seem quite industrious and rather clever, I think the shocking thing is not that their economy is now finally bigger than ours, but that ours had somehow managed to remain bigger than theirs for this long.

Alas, it is natural flow of time countries riset and fall.

United States has not fallen. Size of economy is not everything. There is also the sophistication, agility and efficiency of the economy, which the US still remains considerably ahead. It would likely still be several decades before they come close. There is also the trmemdous geographic advantage enjoyed by the US. The United states is not tightly surrounded by other powerful countries deeply interested in our downfall. China is. There is no feasible way for China to match America's trendous geographic advantage.

[Jackalope]

Let's compare apples with apples, shall we?

2013 per capita GDP (China): $6,807
2013 per capita GDP (USA): $53,143

Source: World Bank Group

[Minimalist]

United States has not fallen.

We're working on it.

[Anomalocaris]

United States has not fallen.

We're working on it.

A dead oak can remain standing for centuries.

[professor]

The Chinese outpost (of the company I work for) had a failure of a machine (our design) and we were discussing the failure, we get some parts to evaluate, but that is about it.
With something like this, you never know what the truth is.

The Chinese culture, my buddy who worked a lot in the far East says,
is- the nail that stands out get hammered.
Meaning- you do not take chances.
One wrong move and you are out.
In general, this is the polar opposite of what goes on in the US.
Innovation is trumpeted.
Successful creativity is the goal here and you are not sent to outer darkness without a drastic reason.

We had a guy from China to train.
A couple of us play with the Honda Clone motors for go-karts, when we asked what they would cost "Luke" in China, he said they cost about 2 times what we pay for them.

He is an engineer, he said, nobody has tools at home or in a garage like we do here.
Luke did say all our food is too sweet, including Oriental food he had here too.

So my perception is the culture is conductive to showing them exactly what they need to do (like in an assembly line) and everything is cool.
But to step out of that zone is difficult.
Communism has not been kind to the China people's creativity.

[freedeepthink]

The Chinese figured out that communism doesn't work so they resorted to capitalism. Now the USA is number 2 in the world economy.
finance.yahoo.com/news/china-just-overtook-us-worlds-090801574.html

Considering they have 4.5 times as many people as we do, and their people seem quite industrious and rather clever, I think the shocking thing is not that their economy is now finally bigger than ours, but that ours had somehow managed to remain bigger than theirs for this long.

Alas, it is natural flow of time countries riset and fall.

United States has not fallen. Size of economy is not everything. There is also the sophistication, agility and efficiency of the economy, which the US still remains considerably ahead. It would likely still be several decades before they come close. There is also the trmemdous geographic advantage enjoyed by the US. The United states is not tightly surrounded by other powerful countries deeply interested in our downfall. China is. There is no feasible way for China to match America's trendous geographic advantage.

I hope you are right. Optimistic in my opinion, but I like it.

[Drich]

The Chinese figured out that communism doesn't work so they resorted to capitalism. Now the USA is number 2 in the world economy.
finance.yahoo.com/news/china-just-overtook-us-worlds-090801574.html

The Chinese will quickly learn the meaning of the phrase 'mo munny, mo prolems.'

[Anomalocaris]

Considering they have 4.5 times as many people as we do, and their people seem quite industrious and rather clever, I think the shocking thing is not that their economy is now finally bigger than ours, but that ours had somehow managed to remain bigger than theirs for this long.


United States has not fallen. Size of economy is not everything. There is also the sophistication, agility and efficiency of the economy, which the US still remains considerably ahead. It would likely still be several decades before they come close. There is also the trmemdous geographic advantage enjoyed by the US. The United states is not tightly surrounded by other powerful countries deeply interested in our downfall. China is. There is no feasible way for China to match America's trendous geographic advantage.

I hope you are right. Optimistic in my opinion, but I like it.

Right now, China has a big population advantage over the U.S. As a result, with a less developed economy they can surpass us simply by utilizing an enormous rural population which previous did not contribute to the modern industrial economy. This is the reason behind the huge shift - some say the largest migration of humanity in all history - of agrarian rural Chinese into industrial cities. But manpower is not an inexhaustible resource even in China, and most demographers seem to think china will run out of rural labor in the next ten years. Already labor is scarce in China and pressure to increase wages is intense. Once China runs of more labor, any additional productivity growth will have to come purely from improvements in efficiency, and increased return on capital investment.

That would be a game changer. When that happens China could no longer outgrow the U.S. by utilizing a resource China has in abundance but the US does not have - enormous pool of cheat labor. China would have to grow using the same technique developed countries use - improving efficiency, productivity, and return on capital. The U.S. is rather good at this. China does not have a track record of outstanding performance in this area.

So the unique engine that powered the Chinese economy hitherto, which the U.S. can't match, and which enable Chinese economy to power past American economy in size, is rapidly running out of fuel. Soon the Chinese economy will need a different type of engine. This new type of engine is where the U.S. has demonstrated exceptional proficiency, and where China has had an indifferent, one might say mediocre, track record.