[Vision2020] US and China

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Wednesday 24 September 2008 12:27:14 Bill London wrote:
> Given the massive growth and increasing power of the US government through
> Homeland Security and corporate bailout packages, and given the support of
> both political parties for this continuing accumulation of power and
> control, I wonder what real difference exists between the political system
> in the US and the political system in China. can anyone explain it to me?
> BL

My best overall answer is that I don't really know. However, my two strongest 
impressions are that 1) in China, the military establishment still really is 
in charge of the overall power and commercial structure, whereas in the US 
that is not the case, and 2) in the US, if the American electorate really 
does want to get up off of its collective cushioned couch and elect 
replacement executive and legislative branches, it has the constitutional 
rights and statutory authorities in place to do so. I don't believe the 
Chinese people are yet in a collective legal position to vote themselves a 
replacement leadership.

I do think you are quite right to be concerned about ever increasing executive 
power concentrations without practical checks and more intensive auditing by 
outside-the-beltway citizens.

On the other hand, I am concerned that some executive agencies are not doing 
their jobs as well as they could, to our collective detriment. Part of the 
problem is that the current incumbents are not philosophically inclined to 
sharpen and intensify their efforts. Another part of the problem is that 
their technology, of all things in this technological age, is, at the moment, 
not up to the tasks required of the level of competent governance we expect.

For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) computer systems 
have been given substandard audit and evaluation results for several years in 
a row now by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The practical result 
of this is that not all of the appropriate securities analysis data that 
could be collected and analyzed is being collected and analyzed, to our 
collective disadvantage before and during a major financial markets crisis.

If you would like more information about this, Google is your friend.

What does this have to do with the US and China? Simply that China is 
aggressively making the efforts, spending the cash, and achieving the results 
necessary to bring itself as a country into the twenty-first century as a 
technologically competent society. My increasing perception is that the US 
has done itself no favors by addicting substantial portions of itself to 
continuous personal entertainment devices to the detriment of our advanced 
personal educations and the accomplishments possible therefrom.

Declining educational outcomes results, increasing percentages of foreign 
students in American graduate programs, industrial manufacturing and the 
economic as well as product outputs therefrom being outsourced, increasing 
military activity and decreasing ethical and moral standing, and now, not 
only a weakening dollar, but an atherosclerotic financial system showing 
symptoms of serious difficulty all combine to suggest that an obese, aging, 
decreasingly secular and increasingly mentally lethargic America is in danger 
of losing its competitive edge and its world pre-eminence.

China appears young, vigorous, aggressive, and results-oriented. Soon they'll 
be on the moon. Until recently, who would have thought that, outside of a 
science fiction novel? Well, this is not fiction, ladies and gentlemen. We 
need young, intelligent, moral, aggressive, and results-oriented leadership 
for the United State of America. Without it, we may need to learn Spanish to 
speak with the neighbors, and Mandarin to speak with the loan officer.


Ken