On The Jews And Chinese

The Jews are purported to be unusually successful. Perhaps disproportionately so. They are industrious and thrifty, which are sometimes attributed to their unusual success. Yet, it seems that the Chinese share such values, and are never reported to be quite as successful. By success I mean things like becoming rich, holding fine professions, being awarded Nobel prizes (excluding Obama, if he were Jew). At risk of sounding racist, I think there is (on average, perhaps, though I have no precise idea of where the true average lies) one key difference between the two peoples: their attitudes towards education.

For a Jew, education is an end in itself. It is valued by its own virtue and seen as something worthy to be sought. Self-improvement, intellectual inquiry, formal education are all seen as family treasures. Even the religion-culture encourages intellectual discussions as to the nature of the religion itself. There is also a willingness to take risk, to try out an opportunity when it presents itself. Combine this with the business savvy from generations of commercial enterprise, and you have a winning formula.

Chinese, on the other hand, are also a trading people. They work hard and are thrifty. However, education is a means towards an end. And that end is economic gain. If it comes to the crunch, between obtaining more formal education/self improvement/performing intellectual inquiry and getting the butt out there to earn money, it seems that earning money wins hands down. The culture itself is not largely in favor of intellectual inquiry. The business savvy of past generations counts for little, because it has become allowed to stagnate. There is little motivation for risk-taking, because that would adversely affect stability and in all likelihood damage the income stream.

True, exceptions do exist, whereby there are unsuccessful Jews and highly successful Chinese. However, blind chance would have it that the Chinese and their incredible population would have likely churned out some incredible successes. Yet, by proportion, this is not so. In the presence of a Jewish attitude towards learning in general, the learned person is by far more likely to be able to spot opportunities in the first place, followed by the willingness to take risk. That is an approach that can lead to success. For a Chinese, however, even if the opportunity is spotted, chances are that it would not be attempted unless it's a sure-win situation (which tends to wind up as a scam, instead).