worth a few minutes of your time

[everysurfer]

It’s the worst of both worlds- totalitarian statism with unchecked capitalism benefiting only a tiny elite

So you know better, but still defend tRump in EVERYTHING he does.

 

[Woke AF]

Chinese gave up communism a while ago. Their ideology is money, and they are using authoritarianism to assemble stability to make it. They have been very active in Africa with public works projects to make more money, not spreading ideology.
Communism is dead and good riddance.

It’s the worst of both worlds- totalitarian statism with unchecked capitalism benefiting only a tiny elite

Not so different than Kings, Emperors, Khans... human nature might be slightly faster with it's evolution than biology. How long did it take for us to lose out tails.

Let's add to the bad men list w/ CEO's and SJW's to make most of us peons happy.

 

[Billy Ocean]

It’s the worst of both worlds- totalitarian statism with unchecked capitalism benefiting only a tiny elite

So you know better, but still defend tRump in EVERYTHING he does.

Middle class is doing better under trump than any time in the last 20 yrs

 

[obslop]

good point re: communism. i'll need to educate myself more. whatever you want to call they are the pure nigtmare envisioned in 1984.

 

[JDJ]

I re-read 1984 a few years ago. Hadn't read it since high school. Scary.

A quote from the book reminds me of this post about tianenmen square: "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.”

 

[obslop]

I re-read 1984 a few years ago. Hadn't read it since high school. Scary.

A quote from the book reminds me of this post about tianenmen square: "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.”

bingo. it's literally true in regard to the chinese govt.

people with that mindset are not content to stay within their borders; they will want to expand and absorb other nations.

maybe china is the single greatest threat to democracy in the world today.

 

[Woke AF]

I re-read 1984 a few years ago. Hadn't read it since high school. Scary.

A quote from the book reminds me of this post about tianenmen square: "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.”

bingo. it's literally true in regard to the chinese govt.

people with that mindset are not content to stay within their borders; they will want to expand and absorb other nations.

maybe china is the single greatest threat to democracy in the world today.

I wouldn't say China is the greatest threat. I doubt they would ever be able to physically invade Europe or the US, and install a gov. We are our greatest threat. When we adopt a repressive gov to compete with them or try to dominate them or any other perceived threat.
Nobody wins but those at the top. Same as it ever was.

 

[2surf]

Chinese gave up communism a while ago. Their ideology is money, and they are using authoritarianism to assemble stability to make it. They have been very active in Africa with public works projects to make more money, not spreading ideology.
Communism is dead and good riddance.

Does it matter that China has about 1.3 billion citizens living in poverty.

 

[Woke AF]

Chinese gave up communism a while ago. Their ideology is money, and they are using authoritarianism to assemble stability to make it. They have been very active in Africa with public works projects to make more money, not spreading ideology.
Communism is dead and good riddance.

Does it matter that China has about 1.3 billion citizens living in poverty.

Probably a lot to the 1.3 B.
I wonder what % that is to their population and how that compares to us?
But I don't wonder enough to google it-

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

Chinese gave up communism a while ago. Their ideology is money, and they are using authoritarianism to assemble stability to make it. They have been very active in Africa with public works projects to make more money, not spreading ideology.
Communism is dead and good riddance.

Does it matter that China has about 1.3 billion citizens living in poverty.

Probably a lot to the 1.3 B.
I wonder what % that is to their population and how that compares to us?
But I don't wonder enough to google it-

1.3B basically is their population. Probably depends on what measure of poverty you use. China itself claims 16.6 million; it would be fewer if they used the World Bank's definition, and higher if they used the US Census Bureau scale.

Source in general is sub-standard, but most countries self-report this stuff and China is painting a worse picture of themselves voluntarily with the measure of poverty they use vs. the World Bank.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d414d3541444d33457a6333566d54/index.html

The latest data released on February 15 by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics show that there are currently 16.6 million people living below the official poverty line, a standard that was officially defined in 2011 as a per capita annual income of 2,300 yuan at 2010 constant prices (340 U.S. dollars at the 2010 market exchange rate).

Taking account of inflation, 2,300 yuan in 2010 would have been equivalent to a nominal income of around 3,000 yuan in 2017. China's definition of the poverty line is higher than the global standard of 1.9 U.S. dollars a day (at 2011 prices) in purchasing parity terms (PPP), adopted by the World Bank in 2015.

 

[Sharkbiscuit]

We are our greatest threat.

I agree with this. Appetite for Authoritarianism is on the rise, left and right. IMHO the Military-Industrial Complex is always for big government, as is the Religious Right. The business community wants the courts to serve them and to have zero regulations.

Biggest issue to me is millennials left and right seem less into democracy and the messyness it involves.

Nobody wants to admit they're statists because they're advocating for the authoritarianism that they want. They're for small government. Where the DoD blows $700T per year, and they want to cut the Department of Energy because they don't know how much of the DoE's budget is involved in securing nuclear weaponry and developing engines for submarines. Focus on the Family is for small government. Where gay people can't get married, women can't have abortions, the textbooks teach Genesis alongside evolution. The Chamber of Commerce is for small government and no regulations. Until someone steals their IP or tries to compete for market share, at which point they want the courts to bend over backwards for them. The millennial left...just vomit-inducing statists in general.

 

[Billy Ocean]

As soon as China thinks they’re clear to do so, they will roll Taiwan, Japan and all of Southeast Asia

 

[Woke AF]

Chinese gave up communism a while ago. Their ideology is money, and they are using authoritarianism to assemble stability to make it. They have been very active in Africa with public works projects to make more money, not spreading ideology.
Communism is dead and good riddance.

Does it matter that China has about 1.3 billion citizens living in poverty.

China seems to be doing pretty well compared to where they were:

The Chinese effect on global poverty trends
All of the evidence above suggests that the population living in extreme poverty has fallen very substantially in the last 200 years across the world. As we have noted, on aggregate, the global population in extreme poverty went from 80% in 1820 to 10% in the latest estimates.

This remarkable achievement was largely, though not exclusively, due to the important historical improvements of living conditions in China. The following chart shows this by plotting poverty rates in the world, with and without China. We see that the reduction of global poverty has been substantial even when we do not take into account the poverty reduction in China. In 1981 almost one third (29%) of the non-Chinese world population was living in extreme poverty. By 2013, this share had fallen to 12%.

https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty

intersting website

 

[Woke AF]

where the real threats are where we think they are:

 

[Mr Doof]

As soon as China thinks they’re clear to do so, they will roll Taiwan, Japan and all of Southeast Asia

I don't think S. Korea, Japan, and Thailand will "go" quietly. They are not Tibet.

 

[Duffy LaCoronilla]

 

[Autoprax]

.

I don't think S. Korea, Japan, and Thailand will "go" quietly. They are not Tibet.

Vietnam.

Philpines.

 

[Billy Ocean]

Unlike USA, PRC dont GAF about roasting indigenous peoples

 

[Ifallalot]

As soon as China thinks they’re clear to do so, they will roll Taiwan, Japan and all of Southeast Asia

Japan has a long, long history of refusing to be rolled by the mainland, and being successful in that refusal

 

[Autoprax]

This is going to my China's big test.

They got all those young men to throw at that problem which is good.