Re:How to Build 300k Airplanes in Five Years
by eru on Sunday May 26, 2024 @09:54AM
(#40482210)
> (the US is also not as some natural limit by any stretch of the imagination - it's got absolutely colossal societal issues)
Yes, but empirically the US sits close to the global technological frontier.
> The big Chinese cities are also pooling talent from the vast provinces. While in a city state you're mostly stuck with the talent that's born there
Why would that be? People can move to Singapore, just as much as they can move to any other city. The only thing keeping them out are immigration rules that Singapore herself sets. In fact, Singapore has lots and lots of immigrants. I am one of them.
> For instance on paper the US is very wealthy, but I think this is mostly due to the strength of the currency. An "average" electrical engineer in Taiwan can expect to earn 30K USD a year. That's how much someone without a highschool diploma can make in the USA working in fastfood.
Well, and the currency is strong because there's a lot of demand for it.
> (you have a limited version of that with the Malay and Malaysian Chinese underclass in Singapore).
Not really. If you want to point at an underclass here, looking at our foreign domestic workers (ie maids) and the migrant construction labourers would be much more apt. These days, if you have a Singaporean passport, you only really have yourself to blame.
(People with a Malaysian passport also still have it somewhere easier getting a visa to work in Singapore.)
> Would be curious to hear your thoughts.
I think Singaporeans like to complain, and they don't appreciate their own achievements. Did you know that Sound Blaster / Creative Labs is from Singapore?
The Chinese mainland is an enormous market. Market size is a big factor that helps with growth. That's (part of) how the UK industrialised in the first place, and it's also part of why the US got as rich as they are. (Nowadays the UK isn't exactly a big country, but at the time they represented one of the bigger unified markets. Eg across the channel France, even though it was politically united, was plagued by internal tariffs.)
Yes, but empirically the US sits close to the global technological frontier.
> The big Chinese cities are also pooling talent from the vast provinces. While in a city state you're mostly stuck with the talent that's born there
Why would that be? People can move to Singapore, just as much as they can move to any other city. The only thing keeping them out are immigration rules that Singapore herself sets. In fact, Singapore has lots and lots of immigrants. I am one of them.
> For instance on paper the US is very wealthy, but I think this is mostly due to the strength of the currency. An "average" electrical engineer in Taiwan can expect to earn 30K USD a year. That's how much someone without a highschool diploma can make in the USA working in fastfood.
Well, and the currency is strong because there's a lot of demand for it.
> (you have a limited version of that with the Malay and Malaysian Chinese underclass in Singapore).
Not really. If you want to point at an underclass here, looking at our foreign domestic workers (ie maids) and the migrant construction labourers would be much more apt. These days, if you have a Singaporean passport, you only really have yourself to blame.
(People with a Malaysian passport also still have it somewhere easier getting a visa to work in Singapore.)
> Would be curious to hear your thoughts.
I think Singaporeans like to complain, and they don't appreciate their own achievements. Did you know that Sound Blaster / Creative Labs is from Singapore?
The Chinese mainland is an enormous market. Market size is a big factor that helps with growth. That's (part of) how the UK industrialised in the first place, and it's also part of why the US got as rich as they are. (Nowadays the UK isn't exactly a big country, but at the time they represented one of the bigger unified markets. Eg across the channel France, even though it was politically united, was plagued by internal tariffs.)