Billionaire Prophecies

There was a fascinating interview with Chinese property billionaire Zhang Zin today on CNN's GPS, Fareed Zakaria's programme. Zhang Zin is the CEO of SOHO China, a very successful property empire. In it, she predicts that China can't continue as the outsourcing capital of the world for a number of reasons. She predicts an inevitable crisis soon, although perhaps one with beneficial consequences long-term for the reform of the current bizarre state-directed capitalism that currently holds sway:

'The crisis enables the reform, and I see the crisis growing.'

The obsessive focus on money-making and robotic use of employees that was allegedly at the root of the spate of Foxconn suicides was also a focus of Zhang Zin's remarks. She commented that people were '..only allowed to make money, nothing else.. that's not enough for human beings.'

Her analysis chimes with a recent article of Bill Waddell's over at evolvingexcellence.com, and contrasts with that of western billionaires like Apple's Steve Jobs. He remarked on the Foxconn Shenzhen tragedies like this:

"You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it's pretty nice."

Somewhat ironically, it would appear that some American billionaires have a lot to learn about freedom from their Chinese counterparts...