JohnRoberts said:
An ill informed electorate is always a problem, and worse when they don't really want to know.
Is "socialism" a trigger word for the citizens of Venezuela who have gone from one of the wealthiest nations in South America to one of the poorest, thanks to a government nationalizing major industries and sucking them dry. Despite massive oil reserves Venezuela is pumping a fraction of former oil capacity due to mismanagement. Likewise how is socialism doing for the Cubans? They have equality there, everybody is poor.
Strangely, the health of the Cubans is better than the health of the US population. And that despite having had trouble importing some medicine. Also, inequality is far smaller than in the USA.
Venezuela is in such bad state because the hawks in the US govt always meddled in the politics of that country. Just like every other country in the rest of the world. Even my country. Lookup "Westland New Post" and "Gladio" if you care.
In case you haven't noticed, most modern nations try to stay out of the politics of other nations.
There are centuries of historical evidence about the failures and deaths attributed to communism.
Yes, there are. But they're not because of communism itself, but of what became of nations that tried to implement it. And then the question is "How much foreign meddling was involved?"
How much time have you spent in China (admittedly I only went to mainland China once for business, but I have studied China for decades) ?
So you can only have an opinion on a country you have visited?
I've never been to China. But I've worked in Korea, Japan and Saudi-Arabia. Does that qualify me to have an opinion?
The anti-China sentiment used to be stronger a couple decades ago when they first took over the mantle from Japan as poster boy for winning US manufacturing jobs with lower prices.
Obviously, you're talking about the anti-China sentiment in the USA. There never was one in Europe, even when some countries in Asia took over production from European countries.
Of course, it is far better to have that kind of sentiment, so your own companies can sell you stuff "made in the USA", that comes from Mexico, China, Korea or Japan?
These days consumers barely notice, while it didn't stop them from buying the cheaper products even back decades ago. I have even heard religious criticisms of China for not being "christian" whatever that means.
I have watched China closely since they got Hong Kong back from the British (when 100 year lease expired), to see if they can pull off the authoritarian central government managed economy that several large communist nations have tried and failed to do successfully. China is trying to capture the magic of HK's wealth creating capitalism, while maintaining an authoritarian communist government. Of course communism and capitalism are ultimately inconsistent, but the authoritarian Chinese government has created a great deal of wealth so far with this hybrid approach, and this new wealth is required to keep the citizens getting fatter, happier, and quiet.
Of course China is no longer an "undeveloped nation" so does not deserve special treatment in trade (awarded most favored nation status decades ago to help them grow their economy). The systematic disrespect for intellectual property will not be tolerated by world trading partners much longer (google Huawei).
You're blind, John, just like the rest of the USA. In the rest of the world, intellectual property is being rearranged.
I'll give you one example: Elsevier. It's a publisher that got very wealthy from publishing research papers and overcharging both sides (the authors and the readers). A century ago, it was kind of logical you needed to pay to get your paper published. The cost of typesetting, printing, paper, distribution.
These days, nobody wants paper. Other researchers who want to read your paper, need an electronic document. And any researcher can produce a pdf. So there's no need anymore for publishers. Especially since most of this research is funded by the taxpayer.
And that's what the Chinese understand very well. It's impossible to keep a secret in most cases, so why not let everyone share your knowledge? If you don't do that, your knowledge goes to waste.
The entire thing of trademarking and intellectual ownership has eaten itself. In the case of trademarking, this is perfectly obvious. A giant like Apple needs to take the small snackbar that happens to be called "Der Apfel" in Luxemburg to court, because that's what (US) law tells them too.
As a reaction, the EU no longer allows McDo the "Big Mac" trademark, because a lot of people all over the world can see that it is ridiculous. When will all words in our language be held hostage by a trademark company?
It's different for tech design, cause that can be expensive and take a long time. Companies need to be able to make money from their designs.
But there are too many cases of companies patenting stuff they can't design, to prevent their competitors from starting to design it. Again, Apple is a clear example and so is IBM. But there are far worse examples. Like companies that don't design anything. They just own patents. If we let these proceed, pretty soon, every startup will need to pay these TM/patent sharks large sums of money before even thinking about designing anything new.
Human rights does not get much ink but China has their own muslim issues (google Chinese uighars).
Don't get me started on that one. From Muslim persecution to traffic lights that monitor all citizens and also give tickets for crossing while the light is red. The Chinese are doin' it. There's even an example of a well-known Chinese model getting lots of tickets because here face was in an ad on a bus.
One thing they have learned from observing US society, is that people are controlled through their credit rating. So, they've created a social app that scores "bad" words. Talk about Tien-an-men and you credit goes down. Ingenious, isn't it?
Likewise, there's an app that shows bad creditors around you. A good way to make sure people pay.
I think one reason why the general Chinese population takes this kind of mind-control is because their standard of living is still getting better by the minute. Problems will appear once the curve flattens out. I'm also pretty sure the communist party understands that. They seem to understand that environment is a part of the quality of living too.
I prefer to get my news without government censorship, or self-censorship to avoid confrontation with oppressive authoritarian government. That is interesting theory...
So do I, John. But there's not much chance of us getting that, is there?
I remember, back when the war started in Iraq, National Geographic was showing an awful lot of documentaries about guns, warplanes and warships, just before the news went public. Not a coincidence, I'd think?
Back before my right knee failed me I still played pick-up basketball one night a week well into my 60s. We saw almost zero violence except for the isolated bad apple, who would probably start a fight at the supermarket :
(and the occasional knucklehead hopped up on steroids to bulk up muscle mass). How many parties are there in most communist nations?
Just one. As I said, one party is even worse.
I also wrote before, the US should take a deep look at the lead in everyone's environment. Lead poisoning causes people to go insanely violent in over half of the cases. The violence usually turns up a few decades after the initial poisoning...
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