I have to laugh at all this admiration that Thomas Friedman has for China. You put him and Krugman together and you've got a real dynamic duo there. Let's see. Krugman believes that the Gilded Age in American history was really bad. Income taxes didn't exist and there was rampant income inequality. It was horrible, horrible! (gasp) But here's Thomas Friedman singing the praises of China. But guess what? Of all the countries in the world, China comes closest to the Gilded Age model, not to Krugman's model. Maybe Friedman likes China because the leaders are Communists, but their public policy is capitalist though. So, is this a contradiction here? Or does Krugman disagree with Friedman in a rather profound way? But they don't mention each other. So, maybe they aren't aware of the discrepancy.
Krugman advocates government's spending of a lot of money. But according to the CIA factbook, China's government spends a little of 1 trillion dollars out of a 9 trillion dollar economy. The US spends more than twice as much. Yet China grows, and the US stagnates. Now, which model works best? But, I would guess that Friedman wouldn't be against China's spending much more. He likes big projects. I think he admires high speed rail.
But Friedman believes in global warming. So, what about China's massive use of coal? This is the baddest fossil fuel of them all. Friedman must be okay with that. Or he's ignoring it.
I think China is serious about wealth generation. Krugman isn't. Neither is Friedman. They love that government control and power. That's the appeal of China.
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