It is a zero-sum game.
It does not matter if the US keeps growing at 2% a year till 2030 becuase if China manages 8% a year up to 2030, then China will be around twice as rich.
2x the wealth would translate into a vastly more powerful military than the US would be able to afford.
Why do people not see the fact that the US is in decline due to the fact that China is fast catching up with it?
Here is what a 'zero sum' situation really is...Pay attention, even though it is not that difficult to grasp...
If you and your neighbor at work make $50,000/yr at the same company, and your boss reduce your salary to $30,000/yr to give your neighbor a raise to $70,000/yr, that is a 'zero-sum' situation. There is a fixed amount of money to allocate among the few. Either everyone get pay the same, or some get pay higher at the expense of others.
If you make $50,000/yr at your company and your neighbor got a raise
AT HIS COMPANY to $70,000/yr, that does not mean his company raided your salary of $20,000 in order to give him that raise. This is
NOT a 'zero-sum' situation.
Here is a good basic explanation on
INTERNAL economics...And from a woman who is smarter than you at that...
Ask Marilyn - Sunday's Column - November 20, 2011 | Parade.com
Economic growth refers to escalating productive transactions from the use of natural resources, technology development, labor, etc. It doesnt correspond to population growth. A growing economy is one in which more and more of these buy-and-sell activities occur, regardless of the number of people involved. In other words, an economy can grow with a stable population. Economic growth is what raises our standard of living. An economy can be perfectly sound without an expanding output of goods and services, but the quality of everyday life wont increase rapidly, if at all.
I cannot highlight anything because everything Vos Savant said is important and relevant to our arguments.
The US is abundant in natural resources for energy, from coal to dino juice to nuclear to solar and even wind. The US have four times land fit for agriculture over China despite the fact that both countries are nearly identical in bordered land.
Chinese Geography: Readings and Maps | Asia for Educators | Columbia University
...it can be seen that China has only a slightly larger land area, 3.69 million square miles compared to the 3.68 million square miles of the United States. However, while approximately 40% of the U.S. land can be cultivated, only 11% of China's land is arable.
China has three times the population and because of the one-child policy and culturally ingrained misogyny, there is now a serious gender imbalance to the point where there are males only villages. In the US, we call that condition a 'monastery'.
What this mean is that as long as there is a free market economic system that assured
INTERNAL changes to resources from manpower to natural, the US economy will at least stabilize with little or no changes to quality of life, neither increases nor decreases, with little or no external influences. In such a loosely controlled system, there are inevitable rise and fall of the entire economic system, but that cycling aid economic growth. Even the Chinese realized this despite the Chinese government attempt to have a tight rein on China's economy because there are discrete sectors in the Chinese economy that dips while others rise. No different than US.
What this also mean is that Chinese economic growth is not from 'raiding' the American economy in terms of denying the US economy of our resources, human and natural. If the American economy declines, it is because of mismanagement or of the natural cycling of a capitalist free market system. Even the Chinese realized this.
But not you.