29 October 2012 - overtaking 1

For the first half of the Cold War, Americans felt overtaken by the Soviet Union and rushed to keep up. The feeling faded with the moon landings, but shortly Americans began to feel overtaken by Japan. Pleased by cheap electronics and good cars they didn’t worry much about keeping up, but even so no overtaking occurred. Now Americans feel overtaken by China, a nation that may actually be able to do it if only it can pull off the routine American trick of reinventing itself to face new challenges.