Lane- China- Using my comparison of governments as one big corporation (China) or a group of smaller ones (US)might be visioned by using Home Depot and the independent hardware store. This is a comparison that I am very much aware because I opened my hardware store the same year that HD opened their's, both in Atlanta. Over the years HD has taken most if not all of the new growth in the industry. Over the years I, the independent hardware store, have had to adjust my business by being on the defensive and looking for niche products and services that are not HD's main stays. HD's strength has been their single mandate from the founders. The independents weaknesses has been the inconsistencies that they bring to the market by not a having a single vision of what they want to be.
That's where I see that China has an advantage going ahead. It really doesn't take that single genious to make it work. The US did all the gound work, all China needs to do is copy our strengths and try to control our weaknesses.
With the exception of different forms of government, China could probably be compared to where we may have been in our growth cycle at the turn of the last century. If you think about it we did not access all of our rights back then. Only after our "rights" were liberalized did we get Social security, organized labor and tort abuse, etc. China has the advantage to see our past shortcomings, the consequences, and the ability to shorten the learning curve while ramping their growth.
Looking ahead I see the US become more of a socialist state and China more embracing capitalism. The US moving more towards socialism due to our aging and more diverse population. Diverse in that immigration is increasing. Problem is that immigration stats show recent immigrants are less educated and poorer than immigrants of past generations. This will even put more burden on our social safety net.
I truly believe that China is a country to watch very closely. I also think that there should be some very good investment options tied to their future growth.
Joe
