Asia 'set to eclipse' US by 2030

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

You missed the point.

Nope, I replied to the words you wrote that I quoted.
If your argument would be how govenment decisions get enforced quickly in authoritarian regimes, you should have written that - given you wrote it now:

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

Understand that obedient robots do wonders for the country's "strength". People in china trust the government's decisions, this means that if the country has effective leadership, it can do a LOT more than western nations.

Slaves comply and things get done fast without checks and balances. Your point is? How are top-down decisions more efficient? Just look how effective the planned economy was. Not even talking about long term-costs of dumb decisions, because no other side was heard. For example an interesting point to consider would be enviromental costs, which are not calculated in short-time thinking.
There is a big difference between getting things done quickly and getting things done efficiently.

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

In the great leap forward, even the most idiotic decisions had millions of people doing it willingly. this just shows, that if the nation's leadership wants to execute a policy, it WILL BE DONE, no ifs or buts.

I think several million people who kicked the bucket during the Great Leap would disagree. Or do you want to argue that all those "only" died of starvation and nobody was killed because they disagreed with the govenment?
And how many people were prosecuted again during the Culture Revolution? Guess those are the minor damages when enforcing obedience. Though I agree: killing and imprisoning opposition is effective in creating obedience through fear.

And do you really want to argue about the advantages of blind obedience to the government, no-questions-asked national pride and millions of willing followers with a guy whose parents were born in the 3rd Reich?

On the economic side:
I would like to see proof how a worker who has pride in his nation is more efficient than a worker who has pride in his company, or a self-employed guy who has pride in the product he creates.