Posted on 02/24/2005 12:35:22 PM PST by Alex Marko
True, but if China and the US wind up in a trade war or war over Taiwan, the Chinese will need to burn the house to heat the house. The Chinese may be big, but they are not strong or wealthy. They would sink back into the Red Bog of the 1950's or plead to Japan for help.
With all due respect.... not true. CHina's banking system is at a negative 14%. Their current cash position is essentially hand to mouth and nearly totally reliant on foreign revenue. To put it bluntly they are living and operating with a busted banking system spending all their revenue and then some.
In time they can work their way outta the situation (the US was in the same spot in the 19th Century) however their situation is far more fragile that it appears on the surface.
Very good post!
Most charitably, the European philosophy of government - shortly to be permanently installed under the EU constitution - is paternalistic. At worst, it is arrogant and authoritarian.
But whatever it is, it no longer has a belief in real democracy of the kind that Americans recognise - government of the people, by the people and for the people - at its heart.
Worth thinking about.
I wish it were true that the sort of paternalistic, authoritarian government that the EU seems to be attempting to create is, in fact, less dangerous than "democracy." It isn't. Fascist Italy was such a government, and so was Nazi Germany. The trains, however, ran on time.
What Americans mean we they say democracy is in fact republicanism with its recognized individual rights,whereas the French Revolution was true democracy with the mob terrorizing any and everyone,until it turned on its own leaders, and eventually decayed to anarchy. So of course people were glad for a strong dictator to restore order. There are a lot of similarities between Napolean's Europe and Hitler's Europe. Maybe that's why the French were so quick to collaborate.
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