Posted on 07/10/2002 9:27:58 AM PDT by Jeff Head
China wants to become the world's biggest economy because that's where the power comes from, so it's highly unlikely they'd shoot themselves in the foot by abandoning capitalism anytime soon. Why work so hard to get rich through capitalism only to then re-adopt communism and become poor and weak once more? They want to get rich and stay rich, so capitalism is the new long-term religion of China now.
In actuality, you have it the opposite of the way it actually is. Today's Third World democracies, dominated by majority-poor populatons, are the ones today who are resisting capitalist reforms and privatization efforts (India, Russia, Indonesia, etc.). It's ironic but while "communist" China is trying to privatize and adopt free-market reforms, the Third World democracies' politicians drag their feet on economic reforms and privatization for fear that their majority-poor populations will vote them out of office.
In addition, you have ignored the sentiment that economic pressures most assuredly can lead to war ... World War II in the Pacific is the perfect example. If we are not carefully, history may indeed repeat itself.
But that's Okay. I am glad for you to voice your feelings and concerns in this regard. It allows more people to read this thread and come to their own conclusions. I have faith that the more American citizens who understand how utterly dependent we are becoming, the more they will desirte and begin to do something about it.
You see, before the "lust" for bargains, trinkets and toys ... we had an even more instiable "lust" for indpendence and liberty. That second is much older and much deeper rooted. It will carry the day ultimately. acth and see if it doesn't ... don't bet gainst it.
Those so called "democracies" you speak of are emulating the wrong thing if they are emulating democracy ... and it is also wy they fail IMHO.
But, that's another story.
Gotta go.
I just approved LightningSource's submission for the Adone Reader version of Volume II last night. It's headed to the street and Amazon should have it up in the next10-14 days!
Will hopefully get a printed proof to approve early next week. Once it gets the nod, then the printed book will show up there in a similar time frame.
That's the latest update as of this AM, 7/12.
FRegards
BUMP
IMHO, China MUST be taken seriously:
BTW, in the second Novel, after a successful ambush of the 7th Fleet as we are fully engaged in the Mid East and in Korea, they do set their sites on Japan absoultely, and the Phillipines, and Malayis, and so forth.
Chances are, you and most other Americans have probably bought Chinese-made products at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot, etc. Thus, it's you yourself and the millions of other Americans who have created the "problem" of China's becoming rich in the first place. But instead placing blame where it squarely belongs, on bargain-addicted US consumers' own shoulders, you ridiculously flail out and blame China for a problem you yourself created. Stop being intellectually dishonest. America itself is making China rich.
...and about the American public in general in thinking that such a situation either must or will continue.</
Economics and capitalism obey their own logic and follow their own course regardless of what Americans think. For the past 7 or so years, I've heard Americans call for boycotts of Chinese-made goods, but amazingly in those same 7 years, Wal-Mart has risen to the #1 spot in the Fortune 500 and is America's biggest private employer now as well.
In addition, you have ignored the sentiment that economic pressures most assuredly can lead to war ... World War II in the Pacific is the perfect example. If we are not carefully, history may indeed repeat itself.
Economic pressures in what areas exactly? America's going to start manufacturing toys big-time and compete with China on toys so they're going to start World War III over toys? This won't happen because, as I said before, Americans generally prefer not to work at sweatshops producing toys and other trinkets for 12 hours a day. You yourself haven't actually told me yet you want to work in a sweatshop and compete against Chinese workers. The economic relationship between China and America today is complementary and mutually beneficial in a classical sense: America gets the cheap goods it needs to maintain its world's-highest standard of living and China grows rich in the process. Americans may not like China but they certainly like saving money by bargain-shopping.
But that's Okay. I am glad for you to voice your feelings and concerns in this regard. It allows more people to read this thread and come to their own conclusions. I have faith that the more American citizens who understand how utterly dependent we are becoming, the more they will desirte and begin to do something about it.
America's economy right now is in bad shape. Cutting off trade with China now or in the future would only make America's economy considerably worse by causing higher prices for everything, which means higher inflation, further weakening of the dollar, and an even weaker US stock market. As I said before, having China around to produce cheap goods for Americans is the biggest "tax cut" Americans have these days and for decades to come.
You see, before the "lust" for bargains, trinkets and toys ... we had an even more instiable "lust" for indpendence and liberty. That second is much older and much deeper rooted. It will carry the day ultimately. acth and see if it doesn't ... don't bet gainst it.
The US Founders didn't just establish America's freedoms "for freedom's sake" but so that Americans could do something with that freedom, whatever it is that would promote their happiness. In America, "pursuit of happiness" is most often manifested as the pursuit of an improved economic well-being for oneself and one's family. A major way in which Americans' economic well-being is vastly improved is by their daily ability to purchase low-cost goods from China.
Freedom doesn't mean much unless one can actually utilize that freedom to improve one's economic well-being in a meaningful way. China's low-cost products today are what largely allow Americans to realize the blessings of their freedoms.
Democracy works the same way in both First World and Third World democracies. They rule by the legislative process which often leads to legislative gridlock by opposing political parties in both First World and Third World democracies. But whereas First World countries can afford the inherent, gridlock-plagued slowness of the legislative process because they're already rich, legislative gridlock in Third World countries is a disaster because it delays much-needed economic reforms for decades on end (India).
Republic and Democracy are different in a LOT of ways besides semantics ... its why the word Democracy is not found in the Constitution and its why the founders spoke out so strongly against its institution.
Anyhow, like I said before, I appreciate your voicing such views because it allows other lurkers and people frequenting such threads to think about what is most important to them.
As George Washington said,
No country upon Earth ever had it more in its power to attain blessings. Much to be regretted would it be were we to depart from the road which Providence has pointed us to so plainly. I cannot believe it will ever come to pass. The Great Governor of the Universe has led us too long and too far to forsake us in the midst of it. We may now and then get bewildered, but I hope and trust that there is good sense and virtue enough left to recover the last path,"We are a bit bewildered right now ... but will recover that path ... and it is not a path where material pursuits are the end my friend, it is one wholly dependent on what we do here with much more fundamental principle. A service economy is an economy of servants and at some point the awareness will set in and we as a people will "recover the right path".
I trust in it. I strive for it ... and like at Klamath Falls, I expect we will see it, though we may have to pass through adversity to attain it.
BTW, thanks for the BUMP.
When one is "free," that naturally begs the question, "Free to do what?" For most Americans, the "what" is "pursue material success/the American Dream."
Trying to understand America's freedoms just as ends in and of themselves misses the whole point of America. America is called the "land of opportunity" because Americans are free not just for the sake of being free but to allow them to take advantage of the economic opportunities they think will make them prosper.
I never said Republic and Democracy were the same thing. I said that in common everyday usage, the word, "democracy," is understood to mean a "republic" because as I said before no pure/direct democracy exists on the face of the Earth and all of today's "democracies" are actually republics. And, yes, Third World republics are failing due to chronic legislative gridlock delaying the economic reforms they desperately need.
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