Can Western Dominance be saved?
For over five hundred years, Western economic power has ruled over the world, but Niall Ferguson argues that the strong work ethics and brilliant innovations that made the West so great might now be just a thing of the past.
With the West clamoring for less work time and the East happily filling in the void - along with making new breakthroughs here and there, can the West sack up and give then a run for their money?
Or is Eastern dominance inevitable?
Have good one WSO.
I think western dominance is more than work ethic. It is free ideas, ingenuity, creativity, freedom, moderation, etc. As countries become more well off they become more "western". The reason it is western is because the US and Europe were rich and more "advanced" before the rest of the world.
Think of it like this. 2000 years ago you had Roman civilization. Hundreds of years ago you have Spanish, British, etc at the height of civilization. The USA built off this and we have obtained an even higher point. All European countries in the Jewish/Christian religions.
Now you are seeing non western nations grow off what we built. In the past 50 years China and Indian have grown faster than the USA or Britain ever did. This is in part because they are spring boarding off what the USA built. In due time they will demand freedoms and become more "western".
So, yes, the USA is a mature country and will probably decline a little. But we probably should decline a little. We use way more resources than any other country. We are the richest nation. A little softening of the edges is due.
GDP per capita is really the best measure.
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_pcap_cd&idim=coun…
Hopefully the whole world can come up to the USA's standard.
I agree with your last line. I hope someday the entire world does have the standard of living that the Americans currently enjoy. I also agree that the wealth of most Western nations is because of their openness to ideas, ingenuity, work ethic etc. There can be little dispute over that.
However, claiming that being wealthy essentially means being western isn't entirely true. Many regions of the world were rich and not western. Since the dawn of civilization till the Industrial revolution started (mid 18th century) India and China were the richest countries in the world. In fact, in 1 AD India accounted for 33% of the world's GDP. I am not sure how that would fare on a per-capita basis, but it's still no mean feat!
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_by_past_GDP_%28PPP%29 http://www.economist.com/node/16834943?story_id=16834943&fsrc=rss )
OP: Obviously, the Industrial Revolution changed all that and brought about mammoth changes in productivity and innovation. In the last century, America's contributions have been enormous and have dwarfed any other period of economic or cultural renaissance. However, please be cognizant of the fact, that the economic history of all nations must come full cycle. America's ability to lead the world would depend on it's response to a rising Asia. India and China have not historically been militaristic or expansionist but rather commercial. If you look at it from the Chinese point of view, they are probably feeling boxed in! South Korea and Japan on one side, Taiwan on the other and India/CIS cozying up to the US.
Dominance is a vague term. Thirty-Forty years from now, the Asian economies would have invariably overtaken the West. However, they would be speaking English, their largest corporations would be similar to their Western counterparts, their Governance systems would be akin to what the West has. Cultural influences are much more stronger than military. The fact that most young people in India/ China aspire to own the same things (and brands) as their Western counterparts bears testament to that. Each side adopts the best practices, and that is what made the last century so productive. As long as sharing of ideas between cultures continues, the concept of dominance could be relegated to the history books.
Yeah, I agree with ANT and think that it is too simplistic to simply gauge the Western philosophy from a purely economic and work results framework. Too much is lost from the idealistic, creative, "meat and potatoes" component of life that makes this country so great, if you value it merely in terms of productivity and wealth. We will continue to be a model of, if not the ideal society, then certainly the best of the known alternatives for the sheer ability to have the opportunity to pursue what you wish to pursue and for having a government, who for all its shortcomings, provides a more than comfortable quality of life for the majority of its citizens.
I disagree guys. The notion that as all countries modernize they also westernize is an illusion. The East is fundamentally different from the West in both history and culture; so trying to equate the two is just wrong. In other words, you can't define the current rise in the East through a Western perspective.
Look, I'm not saying that I favor the decline in the West for a rise in the East (after all, I'm American) or that Western ideals should not be pursued by the 'rest', I'm just saying that the East is rising rapidly and it would be a mistake to downplay its significance. Yes, we live in a nation where the majority of our citizens have a comfortable quality of life and where we are free to pursue whatever we wish; however, we have become extremely complacent (take education, for instance).
Success stimulates sloth.
I think we need to get off our high horses and start changing how we fundamentally view ourselves in relation to the rest of the world if we want to remain competitive in the latter half of the 21st century.
How is it not true that as developing countries advance they dont westernize? just because they different histories doesnt mean they are steering the same path that western countries did centuries ago. If anything its their histories that kept them from advancing to this point earlier. Ferguson has a great documentary on Channel 4 about this and one thing he points out is that china was the first to explore across the world, however, they didnt want anything to do with trade and it opened it up for the british/dutch.
I do agree with you that the West has become complacent, just like any great empire across history. People get into a static perspective and think that since they are at the top they can just slack off, retire early, protest if their 100k salary for 9 months of work gets slashed etc. However, times change.
Nothing lasts forever.
As long as we're going as far back as the Roman Empire we can talk about the Dark Ages where there was no growth (economic and cultural) for centuries and something like 1/3 of the entire population was decimated by a disease while the Orient was inventing things like paper, compass, clocks, et cetera.
All these "Western" ideas only really began two centuries ago with the French revolution and the industrialization. I don't think the ideas of freedom are inherently Western to begin with.
Check It
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_pcap_cd&idim=coun…
I define western as secular democracy and largely capitalistic. The specific culture will shape this.
It is basic Maslow. As you get more wealthy and move up the pyramid you want more intangible things. People want freedom, they want to marry whom they want, they want clean food and water, safety and security. The USA and Europe have provided these (more so the USA because of our geographic isolation). You can see it in China and India right now.
No, and there's a simple answer why: China has historically been inwardly focused once its resource needs have been satiated. They have no experience with and no interest in building outside relationships beyond a very rudimentary level, and this takes generations to build up. They have no interest in conquering anyone simply because they do not consider non-Chinese worth conquering.....
India is just too disorganized. Japan, to put it diplomatically, is facing internal issues. Pakistan....no. Korea....no.
Western dominance isn't going anywhere unless we F*** up the system, and we've got too much at stake and too much history backing our current status for me to seriously worry. If shit hits the fan, I'm OUT, no problems there. Western culture, and by this I mean America dragging Europe's sorry ass behind it, isn't going anywhere.
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