the defining trait of chinese vs us culture revolves around God. a God culture creates rules and obligations that even the leaders are beholden to. you can sue anyone b/c everyone has to follow the rules
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why though? why is borrowing money with promise of interest so much better than taxing for money? because it exponentially grows the power of hooman coordination
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a strong central gov that can snap and collect taxes is like a fat landlord. with such easy money there’s no pressure to innovate or shake things up.
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if the emperor sells bonds however, there is an implicit pressure to do something with that money. win wars, innovate, trade, whatever. it can’t be wasted.
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in a Godless culture the emperor IS the interpreter for Heaven. no one is going to buy a bond from an emperor and go “hey man, you gotta pay me interest.”
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in chinese traditional culture, the concept of government bonds sacrilege!! the mandate of heaven is NOT something to be questioned.
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the bond based culture on the other hand has cemented its protocols of coordination into its culture. even asshole enemies will work together as long as they can trust each other to honor debts. this make war logistics easier but also greatly increases pace of innovation
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chinese swords stood no chance when a bunch of barbarians could point their guns in the same direction despite hating each other internally. they were bound by the animating camaraderie of greed and armed with innovation.
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in a us court system, if a debtor owes a creditor they must sell their house and honor the legal contract. the same case in a modern chinese court would have the debt reduced by half because kicking a poor guy outa his house is inhumane
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this seems nicer on the surface but it weakens the protocol that allows strangers to work together. instead of strong steel it is flexible bamboo.
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chinese people tend not to trust each other outside their personal circles because there is no higher power that is universally believed in like the debt/credit protocol. anyone outside the guanxi circle can stab u in the back and not feel bad
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strange isn’t it? the same mechanism that prevents someone from being kicked of their house is also what creates large scale social distrust. a flexible protocol is no different than the whimsy of a philosopher king
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the only thing that can allow for large scale coordination under such mutual suspicion... is the animating power of greed.
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End of conversation
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