How are they getting these high rates of growth? Is it just that they're starting at a low rate, or they actually have a thriving capitalist system? The advantage that China presents for the imitators is twofold. Once they say, well, look, we don't need really maybe democracy and all these rules of law - then people can organize something which would look like an election, but basically will never be overthrown. And last point, you know, we think of China as having similar trade-offs in its political role to what has existed in the U.S. In other words, these are the primary goods: economic freedom and social freedom. We should not allow such
Economist and author Branko Milanovic of the Graduate Center, CUNY, talks about his book, Capitalism, Alone, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. They discuss inequality, the challenge of corruption in the Chinese system, and Milanovic's claim that in American capitalism, the texture of daily life is increasingly affected by the sharing economy and other opportunities.