How can Canada stay ahead of China and India ?

[YouVantOption]

... Since when were we a "world power"?

We were never ahead of China and India as a "world power". India, maybe... but China's in the UN security council, the big Five.

I think what you meant was "economic power"... In that case, Japan is the problem. China and India are raising fast, but Japan's already there (note that Japan isn't a "world power" per-se).

Membership in the U.N. security council is not exactly a measurement I would use, although i do suspect you mean permanent members, which has been noted are all atomic powers, and we won't go there.

Yes, India and China have billions of cheap labourers, but as the middle class expands, the labour will become cheaper. Will anyone be able to keep up in the meantime? I doubt it - empires come and go, they always have; the U.S. is clearly met its Waterloo in iraq, and they are fading.

Should we survive in any meaningful way into the next century (if we don't blow ourselves up, poison ourselves, or continue to fuck up the einvironment in other ways that lead to us havint to be able to tread water for expanded periods ot time), India and China will be cock of the walk for a period of time.

 

[YouVantOption]

The article said skyscrappers in China are rising like mushrooms.

Two things driving that - The 2008 Olympics and unfettered economic growth sustained by a huge population willing to work for peanuts, almost literally.

This isn't news, when I was there six years ago it was impossible to count the construction cranes from my hotelroom windows, they were so numerous. The Gazette is always late to dinner, just normally not this late.

 

[JustBob]

3rd thing: Although China recently passed it's first private property law, this does not apply to land. All land in China belongs to the state. Makes it rather easy to say "piss off folks, we have a skyscraper to build here, or a dam, or..."

 

[John_Cage]

3rd thing: Although China recently passed it's first private property law, this does not apply to land. All land in China belongs to the state. Makes it rather easy to say "piss off folks, we have a skyscraper to build here, or a dam, or..."

Which is questionable to their economy... Sure, you get the skyscrapper, but your laws are so bad that people leave the country (the only people who leave and the professionals, the farmers can't afford to leave). Is losing people not hurting their "power"?