Charlie Munger: "China has ONE Problem" | DJ 2017 【C:C.M Ep.267】

 

[Transcript]

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I wonder what’s your new findings of China?

 

CHARLIE MUNGER: What I like about China is that they have some companies that are very strong and still selling at low prices. And the Chinese are formidable workers and they make wonderful employees. There’s a lot of strength in that system.

 

And the Chinese government really tries to help its businesses, it is not behave like the government of India which I don’t think runs it’s country right at all. And so, that’s what I like about China.

 

Of course I have to admire taking a billion and half people in a state of poverty up that fast. That was never done in the history of the world. And I admire the… you go to China and all the bullet trains go right to the heart of the city and all that. What they’ve done is just an incredible achievement.

 

And they’ve done it not by borrowing money from Europe the way we did when we came up. They have taken a poor nation with a lot of poverty and what they did is save half their income when they were poor and drive their nation way up with a lot of deferred gratification. So it was unbelievably admirable and unbelievably effective. So I admire that part of the Chinese picture.

 

China has one problem. The problem with the Chinese people is they like to gamble and they actually believe in luck. Now that is stupid. (Laughter)

 

What you don’t want to believe in luck, you want to believe in odds. And China there’s some reason in the culture, too many people believe in luck and gamble. And that’s a national defect.

 

(Source: https://youtu.be/BLctqhNClqY)

 

[YAPSS Takeaway]

"What you don’t want to believe in luck, you want to believe in odds." ~Charlie Munger