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Comment by aeternum | Hacker News Reader

What can the US do?

China's population is a huge advantage right now, China has figured out how to create a mostly participatory economy so they have 10x the number of brains engaged vs. the US.

Each US citizen must be 10x more productive just to tie. If the US gov were smart, we would make it significantly easier for those with skills to immigrate, but unfortunately we seem to be set on doing the opposite.

On top of that, China is making smart educational choices like making basic comp-sci required. The US educational system is using decades old curriculum or just cancelling classes altogether.

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Demographic collapse, irresponsible extractive industry, and in fact many citizens are excluded from the most dynamic parts of the country by the Hukou system.

China is a really interesting place that has had an incredible meteoric rise, but there are problems.

Extractive industries and the Hukou system are a huge issue, but they can be fixed.

The Demographic collapse is wildly overstated. China has a workforce surplus and will have one for a long time, so there is no medium-term demographic issue. Instead, underproductive rural farmers will be proletarianized and turned into workers engaged in the economy.

This is a transition that was planned a really, really long time ago. The reason for the One Child policy being continued past the food insecurity times is moreso because there were too many farmers. And even today China has many more farmers than needed.

But considering how the Chinese government brutally oppresses its own people, those advantages aren't worth much.

When/if the CCP is overthrown and a democratically elected government takes its place, then maybe China will become the new world leader.

That's a narrative that most democratic countries want to be true, but that does not necessarily make it true.

A strict autocratic government is quicker at making decisions and may actually be ideal assuming it optimizes for the long-term best interest of the country and does not become corrupt. Only time will tell if the CCP is able to do this.

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