I think that article painfully shows what happened. The technology example given was developed by research funded well over 50-60 years ago.

We lived in a very very different world back then. Universities and institutions were well funded, free on how to spend their royal funds and attracted the best and brightest young minds.

The neoliberal wave that engulfed Europe in the '90s killed all that. Now they had to continuously beg for titbits, zero freedom on how to spend it and the dream of every bright kid was to work and get rich quick on the stock exchange.

With their "Thousand Talents Plan" the Chinese government is doing exactly what we did smartly back in the '50 and '60. So I agree with Ray Dalio, my bets too are on China leading our future world. And yes I know only too well that they consider all us whites second-rate citizens, Gweilo's. So now we too will feel what that is like.