It's true to some degree here in the US as well. Look at Donny's approval ratings. They started to lessen as the government shutdown went onwards and when the market was not doing well in December and have only recently recovered. if you look at all the past president's approval ratings, they tend to take a hit when the economy is not doing well.
I think that the assesment that the Chinese people have traded libery for prosperity is right, but is part of a larger mechanism. Many countries have this bargin in place. Ceasar pillaged his way through Gaul and Germania and was loved by his people (though there is a LOT more to Cesar) and Octavian largely continued this. Trajan did the same in Dacia and just plain gave out money to the plebian class. G. W. Bush just gave everyone a check too and his approval ratings went up.
Empires tend to be extractive by nature, funneling 'wealth' from the frontiers to the capitals. As a species, technology has largely allowed us to open up new frontiers like never before and extract a lot of weath from those areas (deeper oil, sparser gold, digital information, better nitrogen fixation leading to more grain per square meter, etc).
Have we run out of low-hanging fruit here on Earth now? I think not, technology/knowledge isn't like that, it's more fractal. But I do think that the easy stuff, the gold just lying there on the ground, isn't here anymore, and the entropy of our economy is starting to pile up.
Things will be just as good as today, largely, but we've got to understand that we're finite now. It won't get better at the same acceleration we've seen for 200 years.
I think that the assesment that the Chinese people have traded libery for prosperity is right, but is part of a larger mechanism. Many countries have this bargin in place. Ceasar pillaged his way through Gaul and Germania and was loved by his people (though there is a LOT more to Cesar) and Octavian largely continued this. Trajan did the same in Dacia and just plain gave out money to the plebian class. G. W. Bush just gave everyone a check too and his approval ratings went up.
Empires tend to be extractive by nature, funneling 'wealth' from the frontiers to the capitals. As a species, technology has largely allowed us to open up new frontiers like never before and extract a lot of weath from those areas (deeper oil, sparser gold, digital information, better nitrogen fixation leading to more grain per square meter, etc).
Have we run out of low-hanging fruit here on Earth now? I think not, technology/knowledge isn't like that, it's more fractal. But I do think that the easy stuff, the gold just lying there on the ground, isn't here anymore, and the entropy of our economy is starting to pile up.
Things will be just as good as today, largely, but we've got to understand that we're finite now. It won't get better at the same acceleration we've seen for 200 years.