China is hugely interventionist in their entire economy. The government picks winners and losers all the time. The central government lays out 5 year and longer plans, and diverts common resources to tackle selected projects. Per Austrians, they hugely missallocate capital. They lack robust freedom of speech, association, democracy, no 2'nd Amendment, poor property rights protection, are run by corrupt thugs, lack an independent judicary, lack robust freedom of religion, and the list goes on. Everything which any Libertarian Think Tank in the USA would assure you are ESSENTIAL for an economy to thrive.
The generation you grew up in could read Ayn and look at the Eastern Block and China and find vindication for Libertarian claims about what makes things work. The generation growing up now sees a very different world. Its not so surprising they come to different conclusions.
Liberty and freedoms are indeed very precious, but it pays to know why they are valuable. Its not because they make robust economies. Many people are clueless that this is the case. Including lots of Libertarian Think Tanks. I used to collect links to papers written by some of the latter clueless class pontificating on why China would never overtake the USA in the Great American Century, starting back when others were projecting 2050 as the cross over. Then it became 2040, 2030, and IIRC its now thought to be about 2020, although I suspect its already happened if you did the accounting correctly. |
