Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail

by Ray Dalio

It is easy to see the important role that period has played in shaping Chinese leaders’ perspectives—e.g., why Mao saw capitalism as a system in which companies pursued profits through imperialism (i.e., through the control and exploitation of countries, just as the British and other capitalist powers did to China), enriching the greedy elites while exploiting workers. Mao’s view of capitalism differs from my own because his experience with it was so different, though both of our views of it are true. Capitalism has provided me and most others I know, including immigrants from all over the world, with enormous opportunities. The America I came of age in was the land of opportunity, in which one could learn, contribute, and be rewarded fairly and without boundaries. This experience of seeing through another’s eyes was another reminder for me of how important radical open-mindedness and thoughtful disagreement are to finding out what is true. It led me to study Marxism a bit, so I could understand why it made sense to Mao and others as a philosophy. My inclination up until then was to think of it as at best impractical and at worst a potentially evil threat, yet I was ignorant about what Marx had actually said.