China vs. Unites States

Having spent two weeks in China recently I found some things profoundly different than I expected. Our two weeks were spent in Beijing, Nanchang and Guangzhou.

If you expect China to have lots of people wearing uniforms, riding bicycles and no cars, you would be disappointed. There are an increasing number of cars (especially Buicks), lots of motorized scooters and buses. You might also be surprised to see the large numbers of people riding their scooters with no helmets, many without working lights and forget the child safety seat, little kids are tied onto the back in a milk crate and sometimes asleep. Imagine the scene of an entire family of four riding through the busy intersection on one scooter and none wearing a helmet. Here in America we're worried that two tie-downs on the child safety seat aren't enough.

China didn't seem to have the great abundance of refrigeration that we enjoy here in America either. Therefore, many foods were delivered fresh to the store each day. I don't know that this made them any better, just an observation. It was also very common to see fancy new highrises where the clothes were hung on the balcony to dry. Don't try that here, lest the condo association have you hung from the balcony. The amount of western architecture starting to pop up there was a big surprise; whole condo communities that looked like they could have been in any U.S. city on a river.

Just as anywhere else in the world, there were trashy places and pristine ones.

While there is a great deal of polution in China, I couldn't help but wonder if China were becoming more like America used to be and America more like China used to be. Consider that we have so many government regulations and impositions that we're afraid to punish our children for fear that some do-gooder will take them away. We don't take responsibility for our actions; any accident must have a responsible party (other than ourselves) and we certainly don't want to manufacture anything in America; the only jobs worthy of our time must be high paying and not require us to break a sweat. Even if we were willing to manufacture a product here, the government dissuades businesses from operating here.

Do NOT misunderstand me, I love America and believe we are the greatest nation on earth. We feed more people, protect and defend more people and rescue more populations than any other country on the planet. I just believe the time has come for us to resume our greatness.