In Line Behind a Billion People: How Scarcity will Define China’s Ascent in the Next Decade

8. Values: What would Confucius do?

In the spring of 1964, a New Yorker named Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was randomly raped and stabbed to death by a roaming lunatic. Although specific facts of the event remain controversial, it was clear that witnesses were present as the gruesome murder unfolded in front of Genovese’s home, but all chose inaction. A devastating New York Times investigative report published two weeks after the tragedy claimed that as many as 38 bystanders did absolutely nothing to help Genovese.¹ The case, and the media circus surrounding it, inflamed public passions over a growing American social apathy, sparking a sociological dissection of the Genovese syndrome and debate of public morality.

Forty-seven years later on the ...