A Response to Andy Stern’s, “China’s Superior Economic Model”
Chinese Monopoly
Andy Stern recently wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about how China’s economic system may be the saving grace for America’s failing model. He commends the PRC’s efforts in job creation, shames “failing free market extremism,” and China’s economy’s astounding growth rate. While I can sympathize with Stern’s amelioration to China’s economy, a desperate solution to America’s recession-turning-depression, his claims are based more in blind hope than in implementation.
A majority of China’s policies do not improve the life of the poor. In fact, 16% of China still lives on less than $1.25 a day (World Bank). Even when adjusted for buying power, this income can not provide food, water, and shelter. Comparatively, .04% of Americans are in extreme poverty. Granted, in 1981, two years after China opened up, China’s extreme poverty rate was 85%. Though China has seen dramatic improvements, income disparity and inequality to access to education has grown exponentially. This is not an America I want to live in. Before abandoning the constitution in the hopes of saving our country, American litigators should, at minimum, base their model on a market that has proved successful in the contemporary global economy. As Dan Mitchell points out in his blog, “International Liberty,” the most prosperous economies are those with a free market.
If America adopted China’s economic model, the government would become involved in every single industry. This is a system ripe for abuse: think about allegations against China’s press censorship and the PRC’s ability to enforce a police state. While this system may work abroad, this model is so against American freedoms that, at the point of implementation, it would never be accepted. I would grieve for our country that once was a city on a hill.
Instead of using China as a model of perfection, America should attempt to free its economy. End any thoughts of a trade war with China. Cease all government subsidies. Allow for American job creation through off-shore drilling. China’s growth has been monumental, but it has a long way to go. There is no reason for the United States to model its economic policy after a nation with only a third of America’s GDP (Reuters).
hi!!!