Monday, January 31, 2005
Bill Gates Coded Praise of China
This creeped me out. In a meeting at the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates talked about why China's new form of capitalism is so sucessful
'He characterised the Chinese model in terms of "willingness to work hard and not having quite the same medical overhead or legal overhead".'
-That implies that the sort of worker's rights and benefits that most of the civilized world has accepted as essential, are what prevents Western capitalism from succeeding.
'Gates continued by heaping praise on the current generation of Chinese leaders.
"They're smart," he said with emphasis.
"They have this mericratic way of picking people for these government posts where you rotate into the university and really think about state allocation of resources and the welfare of the country and then you rotate back into some bureaucratic position."'
-Is meritocratic a new euphemism for party-run dictatorship?
Am I oversensitive about this, or is Bill Gates implying that, for the US to compete in the new global economy, we need to drop all these prissy regulations about safe workplaces and limited work weeks?
'He characterised the Chinese model in terms of "willingness to work hard and not having quite the same medical overhead or legal overhead".'
-That implies that the sort of worker's rights and benefits that most of the civilized world has accepted as essential, are what prevents Western capitalism from succeeding.
'Gates continued by heaping praise on the current generation of Chinese leaders.
"They're smart," he said with emphasis.
"They have this mericratic way of picking people for these government posts where you rotate into the university and really think about state allocation of resources and the welfare of the country and then you rotate back into some bureaucratic position."'
-Is meritocratic a new euphemism for party-run dictatorship?
Am I oversensitive about this, or is Bill Gates implying that, for the US to compete in the new global economy, we need to drop all these prissy regulations about safe workplaces and limited work weeks?
