In a democracy, politicians rent the country. In China, the leaders own it.
People care more about their property if they have a long term interest in it.
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
You may be right. On the other hand, there are plenty of autocracies that show no sign of outperforming the west.
It all comes down to respect of property rights. Democracies respect property rights to a limited but non-zero extent. Chinese leaders now respect private property more than most Western democracies.
"As long as the problem of landownership is not solved, conflicts on unfair land seizure cannot be avoided. Since land is in the hand of the government, a developer can bribe an official and make the official claim that the land is seized for public use," said Liu Xiaobo, a leading political dissident. "If the developer could get the approval from the official, he is legally entitled to seize the land."
Link to the book:
http://www.amazon.com/End-History-Last-Man/dp/0743284550/
I disagreed with parts of the book but it stimulated the way I think about such subjects.
This may be true, but you're also classifying human beings as property with this statement. What happens when 1 billion people realize they're mere puppets of their leaders. Benevolent or not, Man typically rebels against his owner.
I also think the entire comparison of China to a large business is fascinating. A corporations primary duty is to generate wealth for its shareholders. Who are China's shareholders? The typical worker living off $1000 a year, or the far wealthier upper class? Running businesses like a business is great, but I have my doubts on how the strategies translate to running a country.
Some heuristics to determine China's shareholders: who receives the government's income in cash or cash equivalents? Who decides who belongs in the politburo?
"do you-the-asset-itself appear on a balance sheet? "
Er, yes, on the IRS equivalent (DGI)
"Is your tax rate 100%?"
Nope, about 60% (they don't want me to starve, they just want to relieve me of my "excess" wealth).
About my "owners", why, it's the Government itself, it's about 8% of the working population but about 50% of the population depends indirectly on it, so it has the voting power to perpetuate itself.
(1) I'm not an uncritical Ayn Rand reader, her ideas are too extreme and her characters were almost a parody, but I do agree with some parts