Why is China smashing its tech industry? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why is China smashing its tech industry?

#151

Post by dragonwriter » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 6:14 PM UTC

triceratops wrote: post #148

mc32 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix provides on-demand all you can view content. It doesn’t require any “cooling period” before the next episode. You don’t have to engage with family, friends or work. You can stream all day and live in fantasyland.

TV has been like that since the advent of cable.

> TV has been like that since the advent of cable.

No, it hasn't. It has been somewhat since the much more recent introduction of “on demand” programming to cable, but that was basically just the introduction of streaming into cable in response to streaming services.

Re: Why is China smashing its tech industry?

#152

Post by triceratops » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 6:15 PM UTC

74d-fe6-2c6 wrote: post #81

triceratops wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook, sure. Why Netflix? TV and movies have always been around. The US owes its status as a cultural superpower to Hollywood. Too much TV and movie-watching isn't good for a nation, sure, but you could make that argument about any pastime.

Communication has also been always around. The problem is the abundance - same with fat and sugar and cocaine. A little is fine, a lot is bad.

Entertainment on TV has been abundant for nearly 50 years, ever since the advent of cable.

Re: Why is China smashing its tech industry?

#153

Post by dash2 » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 6:15 PM UTC

caeril wrote: post #11

> China may simply see things differently. It’s possible that the Chinese government has decided that the profits of companies like Alibaba and Tencent come more from rents than from actual value added Excellent observation, and I hope, for China's sake, that this is the reason. The United States is likely in for a long-term rude awakening when it finally realizes that an economy predicated on negative-value-add acti…

Freemarket choices of what to spend money on can certainly have problems. It'd be bold to assume that the dictator's choices will be better for their people, though. The USSR spent its money on tanks: https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/markharrison/entry/the_soviet_ec.... Will China be different? Or sometimes, are tanks the right choice? Let's hope not.

Re: Why is China smashing its tech industry?

#154

Post by whydoibother » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 6:15 PM UTC

s1artibartfast wrote: post #111

dotcommand wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For the rest of Asia, they'd do well to militarize; for Japan and Australia to consider getting nuclear weapons or hosting them, The idea that we'd ever let Japan have a nuke is ludicrous. Do you really think we'd let a country we nuked twice have such weapons? There is a reason why we are still occupying Japan 75+ years after ww2. And no, it isn't to "protect" japan. > and for India to rapidly increase stockpiles.…

Japan and the US are close allies based on common interests: Japan is one of the few countries that hates China more than the USA. The people of Japan and the US have very favorable opinions of each other[1]. Of the two, Japan has more favorable views of the USA than the other way around. The US would love to station nukes in Japan, but this would cross a red line for China. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2015/04…

"Japan and the US are close allies based on common interests:"

Doing imperialism and committing war crimes?

"Japan is one of the few countries that hates China more than the USA."

Yeah, they made that obvious in WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre

Re: Why is China smashing its tech industry?

#155

Post by jcranmer » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 6:16 PM UTC

9999px wrote: post #124

mensetmanusman wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might have been true, but then Xi changed the law to be ruler for life.

He can be voted out at any time. Western democracies don't even have democratic recall outside of the neutered impeachment process. GTF outta here with your completely ignorant takes on Chinese politics, you clearly have never been there nor read much about it. Term limits are horrible for the working class in the U.S. Constant political turnover means groups like ALEC basically run our legislating process. Killing t…

> Western democracies don't even have democratic recall outside of the neutered impeachment process.

Paging California. Paging California. Which is now in the process of its second recall of a governor.

Re: Why is China smashing its tech industry?

#156

Post by triceratops » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 6:18 PM UTC

jefftechentin wrote: post #135

triceratops wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook, sure. Why Netflix? TV and movies have always been around. The US owes its status as a cultural superpower to Hollywood. Too much TV and movie-watching isn't good for a nation, sure, but you could make that argument about any pastime.

Not sure how valid but I think a case from this hypothesized Chinese Government perspective can be made even without criticizing Netflix itself. When Hollywood was built in the 1920's it was not exactly the backbone of the economy. The article argues that the Chinese Government sees value in the economy beyond GDP goes up and cash flows good. Technology and manufacturing are important to national security. The articl…

> “we must recognize the fundamental importance of the real economy… and never deindustrialize.”

This is a valid point, and I tend to agree with it. However I see entertainment as part of the "real" economy. It's an incredibly old industry, provides real value to nearly every human being, creates high-, medium-, and low-skilled employment across a wide variety of disciplines, can allow your culture to punch above its weight, and produces art that endures across generations and centuries (for example, Shakespeare).

Re: Why is China smashing its tech industry?

#157

Post by mc32 » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 6:19 PM UTC

senko wrote: post #143

mc32 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With books you have to actually read. It’s an active thing. Vegging out on the couch or bed even, is passive. Often you don’t even have to think because it’s mostly action with lots of repetition and little mystery.

You're moving the goalposts. Whether reading is better than watching is an interesting debate unrelated to the topic at hand. I'd happily veggie out on a couch with a favorite book series and live in fantasyland for days (alas, real world interferes...).

I don’t think so. Of course we can read pulp. Evenso, I doubt people would read as much pulp as they’d watch all you can stream programming.

Given the option of gorging on books or gorging on Netflix over a long weekend dawn till dusk, I bet most people would choose Netflix. If you randomly divided the people into those two groups and made them read and the others watch, more readers would wash out than watchers.

Re: Why is China smashing its tech industry?

#158

Post by Apocryphon » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 6:19 PM UTC

jeswin wrote: post #91

cyberpunk wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on why you think it seems inevitable? From my armchair, I can't see a benefit to China for kicking off a superpower war; they're already pulling ahead in STEM, their economy is fairly safe and not really that dependant on exports, quality of life is improving massively, infra is improving.. ?

I don't mean imminent war, but that it's headed there. From articles in Chinese news sites, it seems Xi wants to attach reunification to his legacy. The thing with dictatorships is that ultimately it will depend on what one person wants to achieve. Xi is of course not going to risk a war that he won't win easily. So there's enough time for the rest of the world to reverse the wholesale shift of industrial capacity in…

At this point, China could probably achieve reunification, even just de facto reunification, through economic control. No need for open combat, which would threaten economic stability.

Re: Why is China smashing its tech industry?

#159

Post by orky56 » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 6:20 PM UTC

clydethefrog wrote: post #41

toss1 wrote: post #16

The Western financial elites thought they were exploiting cheap Chinese labor by promoting outsourcing of manufacturing - it would make for far greater profits. Meanwhile the Chinese were exploiting the West's myopic focus on quarterly profits to gain access to and experience in fabricating and designing the top western technology. The scale of this strategic blunder by the Western societies will be considered of his…

Taking a quick look at the YC S21 offering that is posted here - it seems all this capital is still mostly based on software that stimulates more consuming.

Startup seeks to raise funding or generate profits as quickly as possible -> VCs invest and hope for 50x return within 10 years -> Liquidity event may take startup public where they focus on quarterly profit

This is a system of private funding that generates maximum profits within a 5-10 year horizon while China and its public funding and actions is focusing on generating foundational returns and innovation that will last well beyond that 10 year horizon. The US approach of subsidies for loss leaders and laissez faire when it comes to regulation is kicking the can and optimized to pump out millionares/billionaires that can provide outsized returns to people in the market (employees/founders/congress/entrepreneurs) but less for people on the sideline.

Re: Why is China smashing its tech industry?

#160

Post by triceratops » Mon, Aug 02, 2021, 6:22 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #151

triceratops wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TV has been like that since the advent of cable.

> TV has been like that since the advent of cable. No, it hasn't. It has been somewhat since the much more recent introduction of “on demand” programming to cable, but that was basically just the introduction of streaming into cable in response to streaming services.

Sorry, I meant once cable rolled around, there's always been something to watch on TV. It may not have been interesting to normal people, but to an addict that's not going to matter. There was also the option of buying or renting a ton of movies or DVDs and watching them one after the other. This honestly reeks of a moral panic to me.

I think "on-demand" is a blessing. We are no longer tied to broadcaster schedules, have to remember to "program the DVR", writers don't have to write a cliffhanger every 12 minutes for an ad break.