[knownastron]

> but completely ignore the changes we have seen in China in the last 20 years (I would argue is part of the "democratising" of wealth).

To argue from Thiel’s perspective, I believe he sees the US as the leader in “zero to one” technologies and China as mostly “1 to n” technologies. Therefore, he focuses on pushing/keeping the US on this frontier, that’s also where he has the most influence.

I don’t think he would say there have absolutely been no breakthrough technological improvements, just not enough. I would imagine if you asked him if the advances in solar power was a great achievement he would say yes. But he would also say we still spend too much time and money building the next mobile app that marginally improves on the status quo.

I also don’t see him as a historian of technological progress, carefully documenting the wins and the losses in his writing and speeches. He’s trying to push a narrative which I think is broadly true but obviously has the pitfalls of any subjective opinion.