Eamonn Fingleton: From here, whither America?

[Rajiv]

Eamonn Fingleton Answers an Important Question: from here, whither America?

six-part interview, Eamonn Fingleton talks about the power shift from America to the Far East

What Eamonn Fingleton Is Saying

There are a few important points that Eamonn Fingleton keeps hammering away on, in the hope that they'll eventually sink in:

• The convergence myth is just that: a myth. Neither China nor Japan is converging with the Western model. In fact, there are indications that the opposite is happening. Think about it this way, do Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, or China have any plausable incentive to emulate the West, as represented by the United States?
  
  For the last 30 years or so these economies have seen exponential growth, while, during the same period, the United States has gone from being the world's largest creditor nation to being the world's largest debtor nation (actually, that happened during the Reagan Administration--1980 to 1988); and the country with the strongest, most technologically advanced manufacturers to one dependent on Japan for advanced materials and electronic components that are indispensible for the viability of both its industrial sector and national defense...what's to emulate?
• Nations that follow the East Asian economic system, such as Japan, South Korea, and China, are committed neo-mercantilists. The salient features of their economic systems are not culturally determined, but rather are the conscious design of their respective governments. Rather than being stymied by the authoritarian nature of their governments, their economies have thrived due to the ability of the authorities to control certain key elements of them. For example, East Asia's high savings rates have nothing to do with culture, they are an example of successfully implemented government policy.
• East Asia's neo-Confucian societies approach the Truth differently than Western societies do. That is not to say that East Asians are dishonest, in fact, in certain contexts East Asians are generally more honest than their Western counterparts. But, the Western and East Asian truth ethics are not the same, and they are often at variance.
  
  Eamonn Fingleton explains, "In many other contexts however, telling the literal truth is considered highly inappropriate. Why? Because to do so would violate another ethic, the ethic of loyalty. A person's debt of loyalty to his or her parents, work unit, boss, company, and nation counts as a superior ethic, and where it might be compromised by telling the truth, it takes precedence."

Part -1 3 min

Part -2 3 min

Part - 3 5 min

Part - 4 4 min

Part - 5 6 min

Part -6 3 min

[Rajiv]

More Eamonn Fingleton

More Eamonn Fingleton 33 min