Do We Compete With China?

The short answer is "much less than many seem to think." But that short answer isn't long enough, even for the ones who should know better. Like the 10,000 Harvard Business School alumni of which 71% were 'very worried' about US competitiveness in the world economy, according to a survey.

They should know better, although ironically the fact that some of the best educated people in the US get this wrong does warrant some worries about US competitiveness, perhaps.

And there was an otherwise excellent NYT article about the Apple iPod that on superficial reading might also suggest that the US can't compete with the likes of China. So we'll try to give a somewhat longer answer.

Corporations compete with one another, countries (largely) benefit from each others growth. If you unsure, ask yourself which country you would prefer as a main trading partner, China, Germany, or Sudan?

In principle,