“But in May 2015, Beijing went public with a 10-year plan to dominate high-value, high-technology sectors – with the unspoken goal of destroying America’s economic supremacy.” Those are the words of protectionist Florida Senator Marco Rubio from an opinion piece published in the Washington Post. On their own they require a pause.
As history and basic logic indicate over and over again, central plans by governments fail over and over again. Populated by people lacking the skill to prosper in the private sector, governments are similarly populated by individuals constrained by the known, as in individuals who can’t see beyond the present of commerce. Which means that even if governments could execute economic plans (they can’t) as Rubio rather naively imagines, they would be centrally planning for the economy of yesterday, not of the future.
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