The only nice thing that can be said about the Western worldview is that it works: it lifts people out of poverty, sickness and misery into a state of health, wealth, general longevity and happiness. Not only in the West, but in countries that trade with the West. Yes, it takes time, and yes, some people get hurt in the process, and yes, mistakes are made -- but generally by those people who feel obliged to interfere with market forces, rather than those who support them.

If Reg, or the Chinese government, or anyone else can come up with a system that works any better then I for one will welcome our new enlightened overlords. Till then I plan to keep enjoying the benefits of Western neoliberalism.

Thank you Cody.

It is interesting to speculate upon whether the Chinese culture of unregulated self interest and their "one Child policy" can continue prosperity. They are an interesting race with an interesting culture.

Mean Chinese IQ's are three points higher than whites, but the Asians seem to be unable to produce really towering intellects such as Galileo, Newton, Rutherford, Keppler, or Da Vinci. It is believed that the Asian education system which stresses rote learning may be responsible for this.

The Judeo Christian ethics which can be a problem for those seeking advancement by self interest, does have a real benefit to commerce in North European Christian countries which are the least corrupt in the world. The Chinese have always suffered from official corruption and a total lack of ethics from their leaders. That has always been a problem for anyone who does business with them., This is being discovered by western businessmen today.

Anyone setting up a leading brand name factory in China risks having (unknown to the management) "clone" factories set up by Chinese who routinely counterfeit goods and sell lower quality identical goods. The concept of intellectual property rights is something the Chinese consider a joke. If you want to buy an illegal Austrian Glock or an illegal Czech CZ 75, you can bet that the illegal arms dealer you are dealing with has taken the "made in China" label off them.

This problem of official corruption in China is so acute, that the Chinese today do not put money in banks. They use bank deposit boxes or they keep their money at home. If they flaunted their wealth in China, you can bet that some thieving general or bureaucrat would take it off them.

The killing of female infants is causing a sex imbalance that is becoming acute. China may well become the first homosexual superpower since Sparta, and one with a Nazi racial ideology, a Nazi system of government which encourages capitalism while advocating socialism, and no moral compass other than self interest.

We live in interesting times.

why are there so many Chinese students applying to get into Harvard?

why are there so few patents going to (mainland) Chinese but still plenty to the U.S.?

Why are there so many copycats in China of original fashions and movies, so little regard or respect, nay, even understanding of the concept of 'intellectual property'?

Conformity and committee think does not produce originality but a false sense of harmony and a suspicion and hostility of individual enterprise.

You only need to see what's been happening to Ai Weiwei.