Communism and Capitalism

In the early 1920's, a college student by the name of Mao Zedong had ideas of a utopian society in China where no social classes existed and everyone had equal wealth. Mao felt that these communistic ideas of Karl Marx could become a reality in China. Mao's dreams became quite popular all across China. Afterall, if you have nothing to lose (which was the case with many Chinese in the early 1900's), this idea of communism sounds very appealing.

However, Karl Marx advocated communism in Europe (in the 1800's) where there was already a substantial economic base. Marx never intended for communism to spring up in China. One of the major problems with creating this imaginary utopian society in China was that there was not enough wealth to spread around. Since Mao's death in 1976, various leaders in China have opened the door to industry and trade in hopes of building up the economic base in China-- perhaps leading to ultimate democracy or perhaps leading back into communism. Again, the future of China is very much in question.

China is opening the door to more and more capitalism. "To be rich is glorious!" once said Deng Xiaoping (who succeeded Mao Zedong). China has a population of 1.3 billion people. They have a middle class that is larger than the entire United States. The middle class in China is starting to want more cars, more T.V.'s, more computers, etc. China's economy is booming. They need more oil and more natural resources. It is predicted that in 25 years (2031), China will consume more oil than is currently produced on earth. As earthlings, we will need to come up with alternatives to oil. We can sit back and wait for the Chinese to come up with their own ideas. Or the United States can come up with new ideas and sell the ideas to 1.3 billion Chinese. I prefer the latter. But either way, alternatives to oil need to come about.

Click Here to read an op-ed piece from the New York Times regarding China and the U.S. auto industry. Read at least the first few papragraphs. It only takes about 5 minutes to read the whole thing. It will make you think.

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