The Decline of The West?

11:59 PM

What's the second largest operating system? Android is the first. It's not by Microsoft or Apple or by an American company. It's HarmonyOS by Huawei, used on all their phones, tablets, and other devices. I've never even heard of it until today, and it blew my mind. I'm not sure what this means for the West if the East starts coming out on top in every field, and it's starting to look like they are.

The reason why I haven't heard of it, is because it's not available here in the U.S. There's so many sanctions, blacklists, and limits on Chinese companies bringing their products here, that they aren't sold here. Even though pretty much everything in the U.S. is already made in China anyway, the U.S. is fine with importing Chinese goods as long as it has U.S. branding. Even if the phones like iPhones are assembled in China, they're fine with bringing that in still, because Apple is an American brand, and they're just hiring China to make the item for them.

Years ago, like 9 years ago, a Vietnamese friend told me that the Chinese intentionally suppress their prices and currency as a strategy to dominate the world market. I had no idea what he meant at the time, because I could fly to China and other Asian countries with U.S. Dollars, and buy anything I wanted to with the superior U.S. currency, because everything else was cheap in comparison. Having read more and experienced more about business, and China, and the global markets, I understand what he means now.

The U.S. and the West actually can't even make what China is making, because everything there is cheap. If we were to make the same phones in the U.S. for example, it would probably cost 10 times more than how China does it. Maybe even more than 10 times more expensive, it could be 100 times more expensive to produce the same phone in the U.S. It's mainly because U.S. employees are just so much more expensive, and unfortunately, compared to Asian Confucianism societies, Westerners are also less cohesive as a group and less disciplined. I am American and I've fully assimilated to American culture, I don't know any Chinese, yet these observations should be obvious.

I read an article on Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) making 3 fabrication plants for their microchips in Arizona, and there were TSMC American employees who went to Taiwan. They went there to observe the process so they could be trained to implement the same process in the U.S. One of the quotes from the people who went there was, "if there's a problem in the Taiwan factory at midnight, it gets fixed at 2 AM. If there's a problem in a U.S. factory at midnight, it gets fixed at 11 AM." That's the difference between the cultures. Americans value freedom and do whatever they want to, they value sleep and will go to work when the work day starts, the Taiwanese and other Confucian Asians work on fixing any problem for the benefit of society as soon as it comes up.

The Confucian Asians really value hard work. There's a common quote in Chinese that says "10 years to sharpen an axe." Which just means even if it's something simple and almost meaningless like sharpening an axe, it's fine to dedicate 10 years of your life to sharpening it, as long as it benefits society. Americans would rather not do that. I know I wouldn't. I think the American mindset wins here for living a good life, but for the productive life, the Confucian mindset wins.

I do wonder what would happen when the world finally realizes that China is the dominant power. Because it already is today, the world just doesn't recognize it yet. I read an article on when the U.S. was trying to help Ukraine, they were only able to send them ammunition for two days before they ran out, and the U.S. could not get anymore ammo. The U.S. spends more on war than anyone else, yet we're not able to produce ammo quickly enough. We rely on South Korea for the ammo in fact, because we can get it there for half the price, plus faster and more of it, compared to making it domestically.

China is already bypassing the U.S. and is just selling to other countries like Brazil. They're not even concerned about the U.S. or the West anymore. If they won't trade with China and impose all these restrictions on them, then they'll trade with nations who will.

Anyway, I'm very sleepy. Today has been a pretty normal day. I went out for a walk and walked for a bit over an hour. I weighed 173 pounds again this morning, so maybe my No Cow bar and edamame strategy are working, but I weighed myself again tonight and was at 176 (with all the food and water in my guts of course), so maybe it's not working. The only way to tell is to keep this going on for a while.

Anyway, yeah. I'm just so sleepy, I'd keep writing but I'm tired. Anyway, that was my day today.