Pioneers vs. the Aristocracy

This is an addendum to my previous post asking, Where are the Pioneers?

Here is a photo from rural China.


It looks like the set of an updated Western. A Chinese Gary Cooper is probably driving a beaten up pickup through the streets right now.

Consider the comparison of 1880s America to 1880s France and England. How did that work out? Now consider the comparison of modern American and modern China.

Globalization makes the rich poorer and the poor richer as opportunities flow into what used to be an economic wilderness. If we want to compete with the folks who are seeing these opportunities for the first time, it would behoove us to spend more time re-learning the work ethic and morality of our pioneers and less time finding reasons to hate them.

1880s France and England deluded themselves into thinking they were our superiors. The aristocracy always does.