Aaaaand I was 100% WRONG About China

[sbarrera]

(10-25-2022, 11:39 PM)nguyenivy Wrote: Since we're discussing how the world developed post-WW2, how do we arrive at the European countries having what Americans like to call 'socialism' but just seems common sense like fair labour laws including paid time off/vacation, universal health coverage, good public transportation, and the US is stuck not having much of this?

Zeihan's answer is simple: the U.S. has so much capital because of its geographic advantages that it can afford a more entrepreneurial mode of capitalism. Credit comes easy and its citizens have a high degree of geographic mobility, so it's more feasible to have an open system where opportunity is provided, but no guaranteed outcome. This results in very high wealth overall, but also high inequality and a huge impoverished/imperiled class. In Europe there are more constraints on capital, countries are small and boxed in by other countries with different cultures and languages, so in order to have prosperity, government needs to step in with more control. This results in a more expensive, restrictive mode of capitalism, but one which is more equal.