Re: The Two Superpowers Editorial. First of all, I love these glimpses into the workings of your mind and the connections you make in diverse ideas. I agree with your premise, that America should be more accepting of China’s rise, and I’ve often felt that we are too combative with other nations to the detriment of our competitiveness with other nations, which I blame on the “Highlander” movies and the whole “There can be only one” motif. We have the advantage of being, already, what other nations aspire to be: a fully realized capitalist system with the reserve currency of the world and, instead of living in the perpetual fear of the rise of other states, should look at how their policies and practices benefit them, are better adapted to the times and move toward a more competitive stance in those areas. We should look at them as the laboratories of capitalism doing the fresh research for us. As I see it, China’s lesson to us is the rapidity of a government’s decision-making greatly benefits the business climate-so long as it is done in a pro-business way. Our lesson to China is, without a reserve currency, they will forever have to marginalize their currency (in a growth economy) to keep inflation tolerable. But I think they realize that, don’t you? It does neatly tie all their actions together. Competition always bring out the best, and exposes the weakness, in the opponents and as long as the game is fair, both parties benefit. Healthy rivalry should be embraced at the personal and societal levels to make the fastest progress. Which is really the point, after all. All the Best, TVA
