[ExI] note from a foaf in japan

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Keith Henson
...

>...You might include Haiti.  Re China:

>..."But these advantages cumulated in China over millennia perhaps explain
why it is no real surprise that China, despite nearly a generation of
extreme forms of Communism between 1949 and 1978, emerged unchanged as a
society individualist and capitalist to its core. The effects of the
thousands of years of operation of a society under the selective pressures
of the Malthusian regime could not be uprooted by utopian dreamers."
(Clark)...Keith
_______________________________________________



Watch and wait, the best is yet to come.  Remember what happened to your
whole outlook on life the minute you got your drivers' license?  Your
attitude on so many things turned at least a radian.  You suddenly had
wings.  You were FREE!  For many of us, there was an immediate reward for
learning a particular skill: coaxing junky old cars into being marginally
road-worthy.  There was an immediate reward for laboring at some menial job.
One hour of such labor could be exchanged for five gallons of fuel.  A small
car or motorcycle could travel to previously unimaginable distances on the
proceeds from that one hour of manual labor.  FREEDOM!

Imagine happens when a Chinese gigaprole suddenly have a gas pedal under
their right foot and an open road in front of them.  They will have money,
they will have dreams, they will have energy, they will have a faaaar
different attitude from the older generation who were raised on communism
and poverty.

I remember being 16.  China will be like a scaled-up version of that, with
people of all ages turning 16 simultaneously, 50 million proles a year
wanting to buy their first car, and operating it with widely varying degrees
of competence.

Oy, this will be terrifying fun.

spike