Over at Scholar’s Stage there’s a very good post with the mildly hyperbolic title: ‘Everything Is Worse in China.’ That essay focused on conservative lamentations about American society, and made the case that almost all those issues are worse in the PRC. I noticed an oblique interconnection with something
You mention real estate is perhaps not the most efficient use of Chinese savings, but don't state why. I've heard this elsewhere but never heard a good alternative. China is already the world's factory, and the largest consumer of nearly every commodity. It has the largest car market in the world, etc, etc. It doesn't seem like the 'real' economy is choked of funding. From what I read, China still has a lot of work to do to catch up in a few select industries (microprocessors, industrial agriculture), but even there the bottleneck is likely human talent/knowledge, not capital. So at the end of the day, whatever gets more housing units built is probably a wise use of funds. Imagine if America 'overbuilt' before today's regulatory and cost bloat set in.
Great piece! I think you might want to use the word "furnish" where you use the word "burnish." One means give, the other means polish.
You mention real estate is perhaps not the most efficient use of Chinese savings, but don't state why. I've heard this elsewhere but never heard a good alternative. China is already the world's factory, and the largest consumer of nearly every commodity. It has the largest car market in the world, etc, etc. It doesn't seem like the 'real' economy is choked of funding. From what I read, China still has a lot of work to do to catch up in a few select industries (microprocessors, industrial agriculture), but even there the bottleneck is likely human talent/knowledge, not capital. So at the end of the day, whatever gets more housing units built is probably a wise use of funds. Imagine if America 'overbuilt' before today's regulatory and cost bloat set in.