Utilitarian government systems and rights-based approaches both have their blind spots and downsides. America’s openness to immigration and emphasis on individual rights has long helped it attract some of the brightest minds from around the world—people like Enrico Fermi, Albert Einstein, and many leading AI scientists today. China’s top-down approach to economic upgrades—and the eagerness of low-level officials to embrace each new central government mandate—can also lead to waste and debt if the target industries are not chosen well. But in this particular instance—building a society and
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