Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There is also another potent force that Beijing is worried about...……..the Chinese people themselves.
Living in China during Mao was a horrid affair with despotic rule, mindless ideology, and grinding poverty. The Chinese were prisoners in a desperately poor country. Today the standard of living is obviously much higher and hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty Xi's Achilles Heel.
Due to Beijing grotesque human rights violations, despotic rule, disregard for the rule of law, and corruption, the Chinese people are still living in a prison. The cell now has a TV, microwave, a full bathroom, lots of clothes, and they even give out day passes but your movements are still restricted, you can't talk back to the guards, and you can only read and talk about what the prison allows.
Someday the prisoners are not going to be content to stay in their pretty little cell and will want out and Beijing will implode.
It's going to happen very fast. The decline in working-age population is already causing havoc, forcing wages to spiral upwards. Given that China is a commodity economy that made its bones selling cheap labor, this isn't very comforting.
Yeah, but China also creates intellectual property. The country has a population of 1.3 billion. That makes for millions of really smart people capable of creating IP. I've been working with Chinese R&D groups for the last decade+. They're as good as anywhere else in the world these days. If they don't screw it up, they should be able to make the transition to an affluent post-industrial economy. A pretty big "if" since China doesn't have a strong constitution that protects property rights. In 2019, it's hard to prevent capital flight since you can make capital vanish with a few mouse clicks. China could become the dominant world economic power or it could implode. I don't think anyone can predict that. A debt-fueled collapse followed by political instability could push them back to the dark ages. I've watched every manufacturer with Chinese ODM and contract manufacturing create a Trump trade war "Plan B" to move it all to other countries. China isn't doing anything that couldn't be replaced elsewhere in a couple of painful years.
It's so sad to see my country, the USA, being bashed by inhabitants of impoverished third world countries. I wish their people would stop coming to the USA if they hate us so much.
Its just a landmass for ****s sake. Its not yours or mine. A piece of land we eat and **** on. An ATM machine at best.
China is also starting to open up to immigration (how rich countries offset demographic decline) and create via investment and diplomacy, satellite states in Africa, Asia and now expanding in Latin America much to the dismay of the Us who sees how its backyard (latin america) slips away.
E.
Yeah - many of the tens of millions of surplus Chinese peasant men, left with a severe shortage (due to gender-selective abortion) of eligible girlfriends, are importing impoverished Southeast Asian mail-order brides.
Last edited by slowlane3; 03-04-2019 at 04:31 PM..
An (Australian?) describes the shoddy/ poor workmanship of new buildings all over Shenzhen (China's booming mega-city near Hong Kong), and why he would never invest in Chinese real estate.
Quebecopec, the US was not number one in 1920. In 1920 Britain was number one, France was also pretty well off, and believe it or not several latin American countries like Argentina, and Cuba were pretty much like Switzerland today.
In the 1920's the US was a prosperous country going through a huge economic boom, but its wealth was rather very local and not powerful enough to rule over the mighty Britain which back then was still sitting on the top of the world.
Then they had an economic collapse in the 30's that plunged the US to pretty much third world status, up until the 40's when WWII happened.
The Us positioned itself as the world power after WWII. WWII is perhaps the best thing that could have ever happened to the US!
Then, the Us was truly number one between 1945 and 1980's. Ever since then the US started its slow decline.
The concept of socialized healthcare, which Canadians love to rub on Americans faces so much it's an AMERICAN INVENTION AND CONCEPT. Also the concept of affordable education, another noble mid century American concept.
This all came to an end thanks to republicans such as Nixon and Reagan who pretty much believed this was communism.
Nixon dismantled the progress America had done towards socialized healthcare. Prior to 1973, it was ilegal for healthcare corporations to become rich off of patients demanding health. In the 60's the US had the best healthcare system on the planet, privatized but regulated, so you had choices and you knew you would not have to sell your home to get treatment because it was affordable.
Republicans have also done terrible things to the US education system privatizing it and creating this monumental chaos.
But not just republicans, the Clintons pretty much helped the American manufacturing Monster collapse, all in the name of CAPITALISM and how corporations would Benefit from cheaper labor in China leaving millions of Americans unemployed.
The Us is going through a marked collapse thanks to corporate greed and lobbies in DC corruptiing America's leaders.
Another thing worth mentioning is the US is experiencing negative population growth, if it werent for the mexicans, the US would have declining populations….. but now Mexicans stopped having babies and are becoming wealthier…. as a result less mexicans are going to the Us to work. It's only a matter of time until America starts to follow the population decline trend. It is already happening in many counties across the US.
The US was the worlds biggest economy in 1920, sure the British empire was at its zenith, it had serious financial problems due to the World war previously. The European nations heavily borrowed money from the US during the war. Plus the US was the only Western nation that was in prosperity then. Even before the Great War, the US was the biggest economy.
China was the worlds biggest economy before in the 19th century and it will again within a generation time.
Any country that is improving the welfare of its citizens = Oh god, they're challenging our supremacy! USA! USA! USA!
Don't be ridiculous. Just because you're pointing out the very real structural problems with the Chinese economy doesn't equate to jingoism. The numbers are there, plain as the nose on your face.
Need a glimpse of China's future? Look at Japan, which hit its high water mark in the late 80s and has been in steady decline since. And the Japanese actually had market forces in play to keep their worst impulses in check.
Not to mention that Japan's development actually was on par/surpassed the West in those days and has sustained it since. China is not even close. China's future is looking more like ... well, China's past, lol.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
