1. In China, copying is better than innovating. If you copy, you have no risk, because you will make money by undercutting your competition. If you actually innovate, there's a lot of risk, and the potential upside just won't justify the risks. So techies are useless (except for reverse engineering foreign tech - and cutting costs). Now that the US and Japan are possibly cheaper after accounting for better productivity (guess those techies aren't worthless) and stabler conditions, this will change.
2. China is capital constrained. You can't start a business because getting money is too bloody hard. Sure, you can get a bank loan, but the banks only loan to SOEs. So bosses get a lot more money than plebs. Once again, this is changing, but not as fast.
[+] [-] wisty|15 years ago|reply
1. In China, copying is better than innovating. If you copy, you have no risk, because you will make money by undercutting your competition. If you actually innovate, there's a lot of risk, and the potential upside just won't justify the risks. So techies are useless (except for reverse engineering foreign tech - and cutting costs). Now that the US and Japan are possibly cheaper after accounting for better productivity (guess those techies aren't worthless) and stabler conditions, this will change.
2. China is capital constrained. You can't start a business because getting money is too bloody hard. Sure, you can get a bank loan, but the banks only loan to SOEs. So bosses get a lot more money than plebs. Once again, this is changing, but not as fast.
[+] [-] emeltzer|15 years ago|reply