Posted on 01/20/2011 12:22:00 PM PST by bestintxas
One of the great ironies revealed by the global recession that began in 2008 is that Communist Party–ruled China may be doing a better job managing capitalism's crisis than the democratically elected U.S. government. Beijing's stimulus spending was larger, infinitely more effective at overcoming the slowdown and directed at laying the infrastructural tracks for further economic expansion.
As Western democracies shuffle wheezily forward, China's economy roars along at a steady clip, having lifted some half a billion people out of poverty over the past three decades and rapidly created the world's largest middle class to provide an engine for long-term domestic consumer demand. Sure, there's massive social inequality, but there always is in a capitalist system. (Income inequality rates in the U.S. are some of the worst in the industrialized world, and more Americans are falling into poverty than are being raised out of it. The number of Americans officially designated as living in poverty in 2009 — 43 million — was the highest in the 51 years that records have been kept.) (See TIME's photo-essay "The Rise of Hu Jintao.")
Beijing is also doing a far more effective job than Washington of tooling its economy to meet future challenges — at least according to historian Francis Fukuyama, erstwhile neoconservative intellectual heavyweight. "President Hu Jintao's rare state visit to Washington this week comes at a time when many Chinese see their weathering of the financial crisis as a vindication of their own system, and the beginning of an era in which U.S.-style liberal ideas will no longer be dominant,"
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
When the government and Army is the 49% owner of most of the factories, is it really capitalism??
Where’s the barf alert?
As Ann Coulter is fond of accurately pointing out, liberals love despots.
Case in point is Thomas Friedman with his love of the Communist Chinese government ability to “do things”.
They always think they will be part of the ruling class, and won’t have to worry about being trampled by the foot of the government, that is, they expect to be that foot.
I have always found it illustrative to see what happens when the tyrants they clamor for gain power, and they suddenly find they are being rounded up like everyone else.
“Wait! Why are you treating me like this? But...but...I agree with everything you guys want to do!”
Oh please. Our poor is better off than the average in many of those countries.
Dumbasses need to read some Sowell...
Centralized control of production and prices will
NEVER beat millions of people making individual decisions
and influencing production and distribution through pricing signals.
No EPA!
No Minimum Salary!
No Mimimum Work Age!
No Social Security!
No OSHA!
Not exactly a level playing field.
Move to China, dummy, and see how you like it.
The difference is how corruption is handled. The Chinese had a similar Enron-style scandal and executed all but a few of the guilty and the rest got life. Then of course the Chinese don’t hate business and interfere with small businesses run as cash only and they don’t hate people who make money. The government is pragamtic and realist and uninterested in social engineering and experimentatino, understanding the damage that it does, especially after Mao.
Excellent point; the Russian intellectuals who thought they would be the rulers were the first ones shot.
Excellent point; the Russian intellectuals who thought they would be the rulers were the first ones shot.
re: “Sure, there’s massive social inequality, but there always is in a capitalist system.”
Yeah, right. How about wonderful China’s massive “freedom” inequality such as that silly “freedom of speech” or “freedom of religion”. Or, how about the inequality in private property ownership? How about the inequality of being run over by tanks or shipped off to a labor camp for opposing the government? Yeah, it’s so much better there.
re: “Income inequality rates in the U.S. are some of the worst in the industrialized world, and more Americans are falling into poverty than are being raised out of it. The number of Americans officially designated as living in poverty in 2009 — 43 million — was the highest in the 51 years that records have been kept.”
Uhh, . . . when you redefine poverty year after year, sure you can increase our “poverty level”. The writer of this article is a true-blue socialist/communist.
Questions for CNN:
1. Has the population of the US increased at all in those 51 years (i.e. how has the PERCENTAGE changed over that time)? Are we including illegals in these figures?
2. Is someone in the US still considered to be in poverty if they receive food stamps, welfare, free housing, free bus passes, etc?
3. What's the minimum wage in China?
4. What's the impact of labor unions on the situation in China?
I think this guy got it right:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2660455/posts
China: The First Mature Fascist State
A. The salesgirls only make $300 a month
and
B. they save every penny and
C. cause they are not allowed to have any credits card in China.and
D. They live in factory dorms
E. They eat factory food.
They get charged for D. and E.
F.so maybe they are left with 100 bucks a month.
This is 99% slave labor, pure Communist slave capitalism for the commie govt and their cronies.
It`s much worse for the factory workers.
They don``t got no medical coverage neither.
Not many lawyers either.......
Don’t forget: No trial lawyers!
The “Third Reich” was VERY efficient. But many of the things they were efficient at were “less than good”. Which is why democracy is better in the long run, even if less efficient.
I have a book called “you can’t do business with Hitler”, written in 1940 by the US business attache in berlin. Basically the premise is no fair/free trade between a state run business and free enterprise. The state wins. The deck is stacked, so don’t do business with state run economies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.