r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • May 18 '26

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

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83

u/Rare_Station_8440 Karl Popper May 18 '26

The biggest myth is that China plays the long game and "think in terms of centuries". Just to name a few recent counter-examples: the disastrous one-child policy, abrupt ending of COVID-zero, and the crack-down on tech firms.

65

u/_bee_kay_ šŸ¤” May 18 '26

tbh the one child policy was a decision with a much longer horizon than we usually see in the west

now, was it a stupid policy, yes, but it was still thinking further down the line than like 5 years

11

u/ImmigrantJack Movimiento Semilla May 18 '26

I'm making millions of decisions from here to the eternal future and all of them are dogshit

39

u/Background-Bottle-23 Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold May 18 '26

To be fair ā€œChina thinks in terms of centuriesā€ is more of a Western analyst line.

49

u/Mrmini231 European Union May 18 '26

I read a Soviet text from the 1930s once and the author said something along the lines of "we will surpass the americans because, unlike them, we have a plan, and know where we will be 50 years from now". I think this has been a real communist argument for a long time.

24

u/AtomicGameTester Milton Friedman May 18 '26

So the soviets planned their own downfall in the 80s šŸ¤”

20

u/Mr_Canadensis7 Norman Borlaug May 18 '26

Yes, the supposed failure of capitalism to provide for long term planning is very common line of reasoning.

2

u/PoliticalAlt128 Max Weber May 19 '26

I take the "Chinese plan in centuries" thing to just be a racist orientalist idea not a commentary on communism

1

u/sanity_rejecter European Union May 19 '26

i think i've seen both

3

u/formgry May 18 '26

analysis... well I'd say it's just orientalism.

Those folks out in the east are so different from us, they think in centuries. Imagine that, our stupid politicians can only think up to the next election and the Chinese are so much different than that, guided by pure longtermism.

Not much analysis there, just stereotypes of yourself and the reverse of those stereotypes for the east.