Comment by siavosh
2 months ago
I agree. The center of capitalism may have shifted to China, but they'll have to deal with (are already) dealing with the same problems and it'll probably happen even faster for them. Instability in the system is only overshadowed by the growing instability in peoples lives. I think most people feel this and the discourse has fundamentally shifted in the west, but these are tectonic and unpredictable forces.
A parting thought: from a geo-political perspective, I understand the purpose of essays like this but like I said I think its losing the forrest for the trees and at great risk.
Consider PRC has 90%+ home ownership rate and declining population, i.e. almost every person in PRC is functionally going to inherit a house, likely multiple, the floor for stability is going to be much higher. This is not west where high % of population is one paycheck away from eviction. Worst case scenario for PRC youth is to have roof over head. Worst case scenario for PRC elderly is they die 100s of times more materially affluent than any past Chinese. VS west deals with onerous social safety nets that's increasingly unsustainable, old gen will lose benefits while new gens finance and live worse off then old gens... because everything is financialized, something CCP very keen to guard against... because it regulates capitalism. IMO very different scale instability to govern for.