Quotes of the Day

New Kid on the Block
Re your cover story, "Can China Save the World?" [Aug. 10]: Throughout years of turmoil and political instability, the Chinese have often suffered the prejudice and discrimination of Westerners. However, in recent times, China has opened up, transforming an impoverished country into a miracle of history. With a booming economy, a huge population, remarkably high economic growth and with more affluent Chinese willing to spend big bucks on luxury goods, no wonder investors from everywhere are pouring much of their resources into the Chinese market and trying hard to woo many Chinese consumers and companies to their own homelands. China has a emerged as a global superpower, and this century may very well be a Chinese century. Chern Nee Chua,
Singapore

Let's be clear, China's phenomenal economic performance is still in many places just a statistic. It's over 1 billion people still lag significantly behind their Western counterparts in the prosperity stakes. The Chinese workforce is diligent and frugal, which contributes to this economic development. The question is, For how long can 10% growth be sustainable? Andrew Bond,
Chiang Mai, Thailand

Given its population size, the day China's per capita GDP is on par with that of the U.S. will be the day that this world collapses, due to depleted natural resources and accelerated global warming. These nations must take active steps toward reducing the effects of their commendable growth within the next 20 years or so. What's the point in getting rich if there is no world left to sustain your life, let alone enjoying your new gains? Yes, China can indeed help save the world: by not walking the same mistaken path that the supposed First World nations have been blindly stumbling along ever since the industrial revolution. Tawit Chitsomboon,
Nakornratchasima, Thailand

Obama's Health-Care Drama
Your story on the battle over health care was timely [Aug. 10]. Unfortunately, the President's plan misses a fundamental point. Our flawed legal system is largely responsible for the way doctors defensively practice medicine and the pharmaceutical and insurance companies and hospitals gouge consumers unlike anywhere else in the world. Nowhere else are there as many malpractice suits as in the U.S. Shame on the lawyers who load the judicial system with phony lawsuits. Without appropriate malpractice reform, nothing will improve. Sudhir K. Bhaskar,
Orlando, Fla., U.S.

It is clear that our health-care system needs improvement, but many average Americans do not trust the government to do the job. A large part of the reason may be that what Congress designs for us is guaranteed to be, as with Social Security and retirement plans, vastly inferior to what they create for — and bestow upon — themselves. Kenneth Solnit,
Cupertino, Calif., U.S.

Health-insurance companies have been spending $1.5 million a day to convince Congress that a public option should not be part of health-care reform. And that is only the money that is being spent on lobbying. Millions more is spent on advertising. Where does that money come from? It comes from our premiums. Every million dollars spent to destroy the public option and to mold health-care legislation so that it favors insurance companies is a million dollars that is not being spent on patients. Karen Wagner,
Rolling Meadows, Ill., U.S.

Shouldn't those who leech off our current health-care system with preventable illnesses caused by nongenetic obesity, smoking and alcohol abuse have to pay more than those of us who understand the painfully simple concepts of good health and prevention? Thaddeus Labhart,
Burns, Ore., U.S.

Opening the Racial Floodgates
I take offense to Tanehisi Coates' article "When Race Matters" [Aug. 10]. Why is everyone overlooking the fact that Henry Louis Gates Jr. immediately started mouthing off and playing the race card? A cop's job is tough enough. Why couldn't he have simply answered the officer's questions and said, "Thanks for looking out for us"? Jimmy Doich,
Raleigh, N.C., U.S.

Though many Americans were extremely disappointed by the President's backtracking on his original remarks regarding the actions of the Cambridge police, in reality, to arrest a man in his own house is, in fact, stupid — particularly if he is only angry and is nonthreatening. We as a country are in turmoil; we could barely allow our distinguished representatives to openly participate in intelligent, pointed dialogue about the incident. We need to continue a broader discussion of the race and class issues that still plague our society. Alison McDonald,
Pasadena, Calif., U.S.