The real dilemma is - will pressing this issue hard have positive or negative effects on the future US strategic position? It's not just the GDP percentage which is on the line, you can't isolate it from the rest of the relationship.
I'll use an analogy from my personal life. A friend is consistently late to meet ups. It bothers me, since I'm losing time by showing up on time. It's clearly not fair. When I bring it up, he apologizes, but ultimately his lack of punctuality never changes. Now I could go hard on him - give him ultimatums, send reminders before the meetup etc. The question is - will I be able to change him and get him punctual? Is it possible I will seriously harm or even destroy the relationship by continually pressing this apparent weakness of his?
> You can show up later than him. Disrespect his time the same way he disrespects yours. That would be "fair".
Right, it would be "fair", but would it do something good for our relationship? Perhaps it's worth a try once, but should I just keep trying to one-up (be later than) him every time?
> Or, try not to work with him anymore.
I think it comes down to this in the end - is the relationship worth it for you even with some faults? To me, it is, so I choose to overlook the faults.
