Comment by resters

Excellent points. You've perfectly described the brutal, interest-rate-driven VC cycle -- capital floods in, risk gets mispriced, and the market eventually corrects with Darwinian force. That's the "blunt instrument" in action.

Meanwhile in China, the approach is fundamentally different. Capital isn't just cheap; it's strategically directed by the state with goals beyond financial return. The aim is "new quality productive forces" -- slow-burn, systemic growth that reinforces social stability and industrial upgrade, not a boom-bust race for unicorns.

The current AI boom is our real-time experiment to see if this is the "better way." The U.S. model, as you note, is driven by massive private investment (over $109B in 2024) and is prone to hype cycles. China's model is state-planned, focusing on the "AI Plus" integration of technology across its industrial base, despite investing less ($9.3B) and facing constraints like advanced semiconductor access.

We're watching two competing logics: one seeking market-defining breakthroughs through volatile, capital-intensive competition, and another pursuing broad-based, stability-oriented technological integration. The results of this test will show which system better transforms capital into lasting, system-wide advantage.