Joe Biden: "China is Eating Our Lunch"
by John Lawrence
There are many reasons for this. #1) China is a basically unified nation. The US is a divided nation. #2) China has consistent policies over the long term. The US is subject to a radical change of government every 2 years. #3) China puts the best and brightest in high government positions. The US is prone to elect celebrities and entertainers with little or no experience or expertise. #4) The Chinese government has strong centralized control. The US is fragmented into a multiplicity of different states and districts with states contradicting the central government because they think states' rights are paramount. There are 4 different districts for state assemblyman, state senator, national House representative and national Senator. Central government and state governments are at odds with each other with no entity having overriding authority.
This fragmentation of authority in the US affects many things including the response to pandemics and global warming. Americans can not even agree on the wearing of masks during a pandemic much less whether global warming is real or a hoax. Republicans fan the flames of these divisions encouraging their followers to believe lies and falsehoods. Americans can not even agree on the truth. China has no such problems. If the central government says that the Chinese people should wear masks, by God, they surely will or else face dire consequences. Americans have a freedom fetish. They think they are free to do whatever the hell they please regardless of the consequences to others. Americans will choose to get vaccinated or not based on their own whims when not getting vaccinated could prolong the pandemic or even make it worse.
Gun ownership is another American fetish which is destroying the country while China maintains strict standards of gun control. In the People's Republic of China, access by the general public to firearms is subject to some of the strictest control measures in the world. With the exception of individuals with hunting permits and some ethnic minorities, civilian firearm ownership is restricted to non-individual entities. In this regard China is like much of the developed world whose governments do not give their citizens free access to guns. The Constitution's Second Amendment is literally killing Americans on a daily basis. Mass shootings are proliferating and even children are able to get their hands on weapons of war.
William Nordhaus in The Spirit of Green writes: "One of the American disadvantages in fighting pandemics is its federal structure. Many of the most important decisions and legal authority on public health reside at the state and local levels while the federal government has resources, expertise, and central command. The CDC organizes and authorizes testing but has tiny fiscal resources; states and localities have authority for shutdowns and quarantines but are uncoordinated, have little expertise, and are perennially fiscally stressed."
Lack of coordination, fragmentation and outright hostility to doing what experts and authority figures say is the right course means that Americans are working at odds with each other. Each entity is rowing in a different direction. Some states mandate mask wearing while others pass laws outlawing mask wearing. Americans assert their right not to wear a mask and not to get vaccinated when medical experts tell them that those things will minimize the negative outcomes for themselves and their neighbors. Less variants will materialize which at some point may overcome the effect of vaccines to control them if they follow simple public health recommendations.
Americans think that their Constitutionally derived freedom gives them the right not to follow any authority figure no matter how well intentioned, expert and unbiased even though their actions may cause harm to themselves and others. China would never condone placing self interest over the interest of the community. China is full steam ahead with everyone rowing in the same direction. Americans are at odds with each other flying off into different directions simultaneously. The American ship of state is rudderless.