It would be quite interesting to see a cleaving between us in the “West” and those who follow China’s model.

I can see the disadvantage of the saccharine part of our economy and the advantages of focusing on nuts and bolts.

It’s the difference between letting people decide what’s right for them and having a more planned society. Obviously planned societies have been a recurring theme in history, most notably socialism and its chronological counterpart national socialism. Neither made good faith efforts and both resulted in millions of deaths. But we also experienced unnecessary deaths from unregulated parts of the economy, though not as many deaths and at least it involved more free will.