Each generation starts close together in youth, but over time, the gap widens.

Every generation faces opportunities to change the course of their lives, all wrapped within broader trends and under overarching systems.

In this process, some will certainly sink into despair, grow lost, and have their attention captured by all sorts of noisy distractions; yet others will remain calm, focus on historical trajectories, and become the resource owners of the next generation.

For many years past, China and the US together formed the twin engines of the world — production (China as the world's factory) and consumption (the US as the top consumer market).

You can't go back to the past, because both sides want to break away from the old model and no longer depend on each other.

From our perspective, what matters most is the venture capital from wealthy older generations and mass consumer spending. We don't lack productive capacity; what we lack is figuring out how to turn that productive capacity into consumption (expanding domestic demand), just as the US struggles with inflation (reshoring manufacturing).

Each has its own part to fill in.