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It all depends on the cost of living where s/he lives (they can't even afford to buy a house in Berkeley, for example), whether s/he has kids, etc. Some may be able to afford a luxury car, but I've never seen one with such a car, and I used to work in academia. They have their kids' college educations to save for, retirement, etc.
My point to Rus was that he shouldn't exaggerate the lifestyle of his counterparts in the West, as many in Russia tend to do. Most Westerners don't need luxury cars. They're happy with a good apartment or house, a nice vacation once/year, a good retirement, an ordinary car for themselves and one for their spouse (in N America, where public transit isn't as good as in Europe), a house or apartment full of appliances. It's not a lavish lifestyle, and people don't really aspire to that.
Ok, I think there's a lot of things that get mixed up here.
You're talking about what people need or want.
He - I believe - was talking about they can afford. Specifically, trained scientists.
A person with a PhD can earn very little, of course. Or a whole lot of money.
Assuming an average tenured professor salary is at least around $100k, being able to lease a luxury car ($40-50k MSRP) in most of the country should not be an issue. Doesn't mean that every one will be doing that.
Yes the housing prices are completely outrageous in places like Boston or San Fran. OTOH in the Midwest or South or West they are pretty reasonable. The cars cost the same everywhere.
The bottom line, we're not taking of whether or not a highly degreed professional will be driving the latest model BMW. We are talking about being able to afford a solid middle class lifestyle with a little cherry on top. I'd say this is the case for most.
Ruth4Truth
I think the conditions for the people of such a degree in the states and Europe better.
Engineer is considered respectful. A lot of smart scientists leave Russia. I think "not a good life"
I see what you mean. Yes, they can live a better life in the West; more consumer goods, more abundant groceries, generally more affordable restaurants, and so on.
Do you think. will be war between US and Russia? may be Chine too?
It's definitely possible. Just what the extent of it would be is unknown and it may well involve China. Both China and Russia are seen as the bad guys in the west when it comes to the military dimension. China and Russia are working on many ventures and both know that neither can stand against the US/west alone.
The biggest threat to world peace is the US military industrial complex. It is a very large part of our economy and has incredible political power in America, Europe, the far east and the ME. With the sanctions against Russia Europe had no choice but to go along knowing that it would in fact hurt their economies and damage relations they had built with Russia possibly irreversibly. Only now are some of the bigger powers of Europe beginning to grumble.
The real scary part is that what is that grumbling going to do? Absolutely nothing. Germany and France can say no to the NATO military. Eastern EU countries cannot. They're forced to become pawns in this global power game. Here in the west the powers that be do not profit from peace. The insanity of Americas exceptionalism and the belief in manifest destiny of the American way delude many people into bad decisions. Just look at recent history.
Real war between Russia and the USA is impossible. The politicians of the two states use the idea of such war to increase military expenses. And, of course, to improve the political rating.
The Americans know this effect well. Let's remember the movie "Born on the fourth July" and the propaganda about communist threat.
It's definitely possible. Just what the extent of it would be is unknown and it may well involve China. Both China and Russia are seen as the bad guys in the west when it comes to the military dimension. China and Russia are working on many ventures and both know that neither can stand against the US/west alone.
The biggest threat to world peace is the US military industrial complex. It is a very large part of our economy and has incredible political power in America, Europe, the far east and the ME. With the sanctions against Russia Europe had no choice but to go along knowing that it would in fact hurt their economies and damage relations they had built with Russia possibly irreversibly. Only now are some of the bigger powers of Europe beginning to grumble.
The real scary part is that what is that grumbling going to do? Absolutely nothing. Germany and France can say no to the NATO military. Eastern EU countries cannot. They're forced to become pawns in this global power game. Here in the west the powers that be do not profit from peace. The insanity of Americas exceptionalism and the belief in manifest destiny of the American way delude many people into bad decisions. Just look at recent history.
Many people misunderstand what China is.
It has never been a militaristic country, it quite honestly had a very poor military performance for most of it's history. The last relatively major conflict the Chinese were involved in was the war with Vietnam in 1979 and they got their butt handed to them by the Vietnamese despite the huge disparity in size. In the 1930s, they were conquered by the IJA even though it was a fairly weak fighting force, all of Japan's great victories early in the war with Western allies were achieved by the IJN. The Chinese are not fighters, they are traders and producers.
Modern China's very economic existence depends on being able to trade and produce.
And their biggest markets are the Western countries and Asian countries, their biggest exports go to the EU, followed by the US, followed by ASEAN.
Russia is not even a blimp on the trade radar for them.
With all the sabre rattling going on recently, China will never severe its ties with the West or Asia - they may just as well commit economic suicide. This is what it is, sabre rattling. They will resolve their differences in negotiations, or face economic collapse.
Russia for them is just a tool, yet another negotiating card. The scale is just too different, and the goals are very different.
And Europe is welcome to start spending more on it's own defense, and lift some of the burden of trying to be a world's policeman off the US. There will be more wars when we go back to a multipolar world, not less.
The last relatively major conflict the Chinese were involved in was the war with Vietnam in 1979 and they got their butt handed to them by the Vietnamese despite the huge disparity in size.
Yes, they did get beat up but the goals they set out to achieve were met and the Viet Namese behaved themselves since. Their problem was the same as the Soviets in Finland and more recently the Ukrops in East Ukraine. They provided the defenders with a target rich environment due to lack of coordination, confusion, poor training and execution on a tactical level. They lost the battle but they won the war you might say.
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Modern China's very economic existence depends on being able to trade and produce.
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With all the sabre rattling going on recently, China will never severe its ties with the West or Asia - they may just as well commit economic suicide. This is what it is, sabre rattling. They will resolve their differences in negotiations, or face economic collapse.
How easy it is to forget that in fact the US is only 350+ million people with the vast majority rapidly becoming unable to afford even Chinese manufactured goods in the amounts we saw only a few years ago. The markets in other places are becoming more relevant and in the future will grow even more. America becomes less relevant every day.
Don't bet on it. China merely seeks to avoid conflict at the present time but in the near future that may change.
China would side with the US before going to war with it. The US is way to strong of a economic power and military power. russia China could do without
Cali. I think you are dead wrong in that..Russia is indispensable to China for many reasons not the least of which they have a common threat to one another's security in the form of US aggression the world over. China needs Russia's cooperation in energy and natural resources along with their cooperation in many technical fields. Thanks to Russia the US cannot strangle China by sea and therefore the US has little power to impede Chinese progress in the real world. You may wish very hard otherwise but that's reality.
It's obvious you and Umma only have a spotty and shallow knowledge of the situation. Do some research.
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