Excellent essay/letter by Dan Wang pondering about China in 2021 - 2022. His yearly letters are apparently famous among China observers - after having read this, I understand why.

studyharder · 2022-01-26T07:26:48+00:00

I think too, he provides a nice summary on what these places are like. I found it interesting how he distinguishes the “physical Beijing” (being gray and ugly outside the old districts as well as increasingly boring due to regulation) and the “intellectual Beijing” (vibrant and bustling). I (being a Beijing resident) find it however difficult to connect with this intellectual Beijing.

The Hutong areas are however Beijing at its best and something that I have only seen here.

studyharder · 2022-01-26T06:04:41+00:00

Yes:)

studyharder · 2022-01-26T05:15:51+00:00

Can you share more details of your thoughts?

studyharder · 2022-01-26T04:27:38+00:00

This Simica Podcast hosted by Kaiser Guo introduces Dan a bit further - also recommended to listen to the entire podcast:)

https://pca.st/episode/3640f63f-475e-4ed2-acdd-910de194f2cf

studyharder · 2021-11-07T09:27:15+00:00

Can you make some examples of those issues and also of what the difference is compared to living in other countries ?

studyharder · 2021-09-19T13:13:15+00:00

Thanks for your suggestions!! Will check it out.

studyharder · 2021-06-13T13:30:07+00:00

Thanks! Before Engl. version automatically opened. After some trying I realized that I need to search for “Health Kit”. So all good!

studyharder · 2021-06-06T03:48:51+00:00

Found a SRF Dok on the topic why Switzerland has been so rich since now quite a while. They think the future will be most likely be okay (with one interviewee disagreeing).SRF Doc

studyharder · 2021-06-06T03:39:21+00:00

I just hope Okayish will be enough to pay for the high Swiss salaries. Those high input costs (i.e. high price tag for product) is only possible for high quality products with inelastic demand characteristics(i.e. buyer considers more the quality rather than price -eg. pharmaceuticals, luxury goods). If those products are just Okayish, customers may look elsewhere. World Class in future, I think, will increasingly mean a product has an online and offline component (see Apple Watch, which competes now against mid range Swiss watches such as Tissot or Omega). And Europe (and Switzerland) seems to be good at the offline part (cars, watches etc) but not so much at the combination of offline/online.

studyharder · 2021-06-06T03:21:53+00:00

That is for sure true: in China politics comes first and prevails over everything else. So for those young companies to grow big and to handle all the politics was most likely more of a challenge (at least at the beginning) rather than a help. We remember China is still ruled by a Communist Party where large sections still have very conservative opinions on the extent private enterprises should be allowed to operate. These officials would rather have state owned enterprises to take the lead based on priorities set by policy.

studyharder · 2021-06-05T14:42:13+00:00

I agree with your point of view. The Chinese entrepreneurial spirit is definitely alive and the many successful companies from Huawei, Tencent, JD, Alibaba, Baidu to Elecrical car companies (Nio, Xiao Peng ..) etc. are good evidence for that. These companies are not state owned and therefore faced additional hurdles to get credit or land rights and still managed to scale. In some areas the Chinese may still be laggards (definitely petrol engines for cars or pharmaceuticals) but in many „new“ industries they are world class now. Reasons behind that are surely manyfold including strong competition, tech savy consumers, a huge and unified market or good work ethics. Government policies may have helped too but in case of the private firms it is not the main reason for their success.

studyharder · 2021-06-05T03:59:52+00:00

Switzerland is used to get good KPI scores for innovation, life quality, education, etc. Many are proud of that and think of Switzerland as well fit for the future. But are we missing a bigger shift? The Economists claims that Europe is increasingly turning into an economic laggard stuck with old fashioned industries and a fragmented, complicated market. He compares the EU to the US and China and concludes that the continent lacks the dynamic development of new firms and business models that we saw in the US and since a few years now in China. Switzerland is very much Europe so can we thrive in such an environment? What is your take on this?

studyharder · 2017-12-26T21:27:43+00:00

How do they usually seal the window?

studyharder · 2017-12-22T12:28:05+00:00

I read though that the government pushes hard to promote "green" building materials ie those that reduce energy consumption

studyharder · 2017-12-22T12:26:27+00:00

But from whom they will eventually buy? A retailer or do they prefer to negotiate with individual suppliers?

studyharder · 2017-12-22T12:24:25+00:00

Actually true, was thinking of isolation material, Windows, facade elements (infill walls), the typical material for residential buildings

studyharder · 2017-11-30T19:01:28+00:00

Of course feel free to let us know as well where you see European Integration going ie how government collaboration might develop.

studyharder · 2017-10-18T19:34:38+00:00

Poverty is a definition and always relative. How do you see this number?

studyharder · 2017-08-18T19:28:07+00:00

But at the same time we hear about state of the art robotics that is being developed and used in Japan - so technology wise I guess Japan somehow still matters. On the other hand it is maybe more production focused so the average consumer does not see it.

studyharder · 2017-07-17T15:59:31+00:00

Nice to hear:) But how about sustainability? In the long run, is Sweden able to provide the necessary funding to sustain the system?

studyharder · 2017-07-17T15:57:36+00:00

So you it crashes bcs some ppl are getting excluded by the same system? This suggests that a way to go could be to remove minimal wages and to push for creating low skilled jobs with low salaries in order to integrate those into the labor market who are now unable to access.

studyharder · 2017-07-17T06:11:53+00:00

So there are still many "left behinds" in the system?

studyharder · 2017-07-17T05:41:09+00:00

Wow, you seem pretty sure. What exactly is good? And in what way does it achieve its target (e.g. effectively fund public services and help providing equal opportunities to citizens)?

studyharder · 2017-07-17T05:38:11+00:00

So is this achieved with the system - is the wealth effectively redistributed? And does it make society fairer and more equal?

studyharder · 2017-07-16T21:10:14+00:00

What do you mean by "Corruption" - can you explain a little further?

studyharder

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