“Breakneck” by Dan Wang

China focuses on an “Engineering state” while the US is a “Lawyer state”
Lawyers have spread throughout the US economy, even pushing out economists
Law focuses on procedures over outcome
China provides very few social services
Because planning is already done, funding can be deployed really quickly
Smartphones create so many spare components that new things can be fashioned cheaply and easily
China’s tech advances have surged
It is difficult to maintain know-how without running people through the process
Forced technology transfers actually hurt local firms because they don’t develop the experience of researching
The US likes to claim invention but usually seeds manufacturing to others
China took infrequent, imprecise census making it difficult to manage the population
The shortages that led up the One Child Policy were caused by socialism, not population
The rich are leaving China because of the government whiplash
Engineering state is better at stockpiling
China is trying to be more like Germany than the US
DOGE should focus on reducing processes instead of personnel
The US needs to re-embrace its engineering roots
“Developing [nation]” is a term to embrace with pride

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