In Line Behind a Billion People: How Scarcity Will Define China's Ascent by Damien Ma, William Adams

[gilda_elise]

Nearly everything you know about China is wrong! Yes, within a decade, China will have the world's largest economy. But that is the least important thing to know about China. In this enlightening book, two of the world's leading China experts turn the conventional wisdom on its head, showing why China's economic growth will constrain rather than empower it. Pioneering political analyst Damien Ma and global economist Bill Adams reveal why, having 35 years of ferocious economic growth, China's future will be shaped by the same fundamental reality that has shaped it for millennia: "scarcity." Ma and Adams drill deep into Chinese society, illuminating "all" the scarcities that will limit its power and progress. Beyond scarcities of natural resources and public goods, they illuminate China's persistent poverties of individual freedoms, cultural appeal, and ideological legitimacy -- and the corrosive loss of values and beliefs amongst a growing middle class shackled by a parochial and inflexible political system. Everyone knows "the 21st century is China's to lose" -- but, as with so many things that "everyone knows," that's just wrong. Ma and Adams get beyond cheerleading and fearmongering to tell the complex truth about China today. This is a truth you need to hear -- whether you're an investor, business decision-maker, policymaker, or citizen.

I didn’t know a great deal about the situation in China, so I found the book to be a fairly in-depth, and well written critique of China’s present and possible future. I was especially intrigued by the information presented on China’s one-child policy and its unexpected ramifications, such as young couples beings saddled with the care of both sets of parents, a financial burden few can afford. Unfortunately, that’s about the only time the book focused on the issue of population, which was odd when considering its title.

I was also struck by how critical the book was. Many of the problems brought up are also problems in the US (income inequality, income inertia, schools in wealthier areas getting more money while those in poorer areas go without.) The authors name China “not deliberately cruel, but indifferent, enormously stratified, and self-interested,” without seeing its parallel here.



Mount TBR 2017 Book Links

Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. The Lost Girls
2. Hillbilly Elegy
3. Our Revolution
4. Requiem for Athens
5. Dark Angels
6. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
7. The Last Kingdom
8. The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and a 50 Year Search
9. And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East
10. Now Face to Face
11. Our Endless Numbered Days
12.Dean and Me: (A Love Story)
13. This Changes Everything
14. Richard III and the Murder in the Tower
15. The Apocalypse
16. The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration, 1966-1999
17. The Snow Child
18. Stonehenge
19. Royal Blood: King Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes
20. To the Bright Edge of the World
21. How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends
22. The Hollow Man
23. The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction
24. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
25. In Line Behind a Billion People: How Scarcity Will Define China's Ascent in the Next Decade

Comments

[gaeln.livejournal.com]

What is the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2017? I googled it, scanned the links and decided I'd rather have you explain it to me if you don't mind :)

Which one book of these 25 would you rec? I know that can be hard but if you could, that'd be swell :)

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

The Mount TBR (to be read) challenge is a way for people to clear out books they've had for months or years. All you have to do is sign up, pick how many books you want to try to read for the year, and get going. :-) Once, you've read a book, you post the link to your blog where you've reviewed the book (not a necessary step,) your name, the name of the book and your email address (which doesn't show up.)

Here's the link to the challenge Headquarters. (https://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2017/01/2017-mount-tbr-headquarter.html)

just one? How about two? *g* If you're looking for a nonfiction book, I'd go with Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. My recommendation for a fiction book would be The Snow Child.

[gaeln.livejournal.com]

The TBR Challenge looks interesting since I do a 50-book-a-year anyway.

And thanks for the 2 recommendations
I wil definitely look into both of them :)

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I think you'll find that it's lots of fun. And I'll look forward to reading your reviews. :-)

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

When we were in China, we were fortunate enough to have a guide who talked to us about China's true history. He talked about being sent to farm labor camps because Mao was hell bent on paying the USSR back with interest and what a toll it took on the country.

I don't think life is any better or worse there than other places. We were surprised at how similar life was there to life here. You get up, go to work, do the best you can to support your family and care for them.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

That's the impression I got from the book, though I don't think that was the authors' intention. Yes, China has problems, but they don't sound so very different from our own.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Funny how that works, isn't it? :D

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I think the one-child policy is fascinating, not just for the effects on society as a whole but on how millions of children have turned out: lonely, indulged, pressured, unwilling to compromise; or self-assured individuals - totally grounded, confident and basking, unchallenged, in the love of their parents? I suppose, though, if every family has one child it becomes the norm.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

The one-child policy helped in some ways, hurt in others. But, as you say, the children could go either way, just as only children do all over the world. The harm, or help, seemed to be more to society as a whole, rather than to individuals.

[tinny]

Oh, interesting. I always like books about China. You don't seem to find it very exceptional, but I think I'll look if I can find it, anyway.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

My main complaint about the book was that the authors appeared rather biased. But as a book just to learn about China, I think it was quite informative. And I didn't dislike the book, so there's that. *g*