I want to commend Yascha Mounk’s most recent Substack to your attention. In it he interviews Dan Wang and they contract the United States as a lawyers’ state with China as engineeers’ state. As just one example consider this. Since 1980 every Democratic Party presidential candidate has been a lawyer. Over the same period every Chinese president has been an engineer.
Here’s another thing to consider. Are the problems that have so greatly delayed and increased the cost of the high-speed rail system in California engineering problems or legal problems?
I don’t agree with everything that both of them say in the piece. Their view of U. S. manufacturing is very much from 50,000 feet. The only thing I have to contribute is that what is happening in the U. S. is very much what I have predicted and said for more than two decades. Production engineering necessarily follows production. Ultimately, design engineering follows production engineering. I also think that Mr. Wang is presenting an overly rosy view of China. Although the percent has declined sharply over the last couple of decades according to the world Bank 22% of China’s workers are farmers. I believe that China and, particularly, the Chinese Communist Party have a large number of engineers. But China is still not a country of engineers. It’s a country that has been run by Soviet-style engineers for several decades.
Read the whole thing (or at least as much as you can).
The economy you think China has and its managers disappeared with Deng’s revolution almost 50 years ago. China has a mixed economy, although enough of a command economy still exists that the CPC can still force certain outcomes. For example, at its last meeting, the CPC announced that investment banks would redirect investment away from real estate and into manufacturing. The banks are mostly independent companies.
Kevin Walmsley (Inside China Business), who lives in China and runs businesses there says that the Chinese government sets a basic goal for the economy, sees to it that investors and regulations support the goals, and lets the companies that want to meet them the have at it. No winners are chosen, and the fight is Wild West Capitalism.
In contrast, the US announces wishes, does nothing about the investment banks or regulations, and tries to pick winners from among the existing failures.
The US regulatory environment is especially chaotic, contradictory, and self defeating. We have numerous independent (actually rogue) agencies and judges at all levels, federal, state, and local, who actively sabotage the US’ stated goals. The chip fiasco is only one example. Intel has backed out of its Ohio project, and TSMC is carefully limiting its commitment. The chip project has failed.
Since Deng’s ascension to power, China has enjoyed the best governance on Earth, and over the same period the US has suffered under one of the worst. China’s government is decidedly authoritarian, but its Ruling Class clearly is working to enhance the life styles of all Chinese, and they have succeeded.
Meanwhile, the parasites that feed on us have failed to produce any benefits for us.
Interesting piece but now should note that China is not really a country of law so there isn’t as much call for lawyers. The good part about engineers is that when they are doing something good they will do a good job of it. On the flip side, if they decide to do something bad or wrong they will be convinced they cant be wrong and will also do that really well. Having an enlightened, benevolent despot works great, until is doesnt. At any rate our lawyers have way too much influence and China ought to have more of a rule of law rather than the party, even if it means they need more lawyers.
Steve