You're not going to like what comes after Pax Americana. (Welcome to the jungle.)

Noahpinion blog ^ | 7 Oct 2023 | Noah Smith

[aquila48]

They are paid more than what they were ekeing out starving on their little plots of land.

It’s because they are willing to work for less than our entitled “labor force” with our minimum wages and benefits that they have been able to rise up so fast in the economic scale. And though they make less, things are much less expensive there. As a consequence, their PPP GDP is higher than ours, and as they’re productivity increases so do their wages. In fact it’s getting to the point that manufacturers are starting to move to Vietnam for cheaper labor.

Go to China and see the street packed with cars (including Mercedes Teslas, BMW, etc) , beautiful malls, restaurants filled with well dressed people, and ask them if their lives are better now than 20 years ago.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Urban China does alright, but compare China to Korea, not the U.S. China has roughly the same GDP as the U.S. but more than four times the population. Rural China counts, too.

[aquila48]

Urban China used to be worse than rural that's why so many people lived in rural towns rather than big cities.

With the advent of capitalism under Deng Xiaoping and the growth of manufacturing and foreign investments there was a huge migration from farms to cities (like it happened here a century ago) as people were looking to improve their standard of living.

And now that the big coastal cities have reached their limit, industry and businesses are moving inland and rural area where there still is cheap labor and land.

Big cities in the interior you never heard of like Chongqing, Xian, Wuhan (that one you probably heard of).

Did you know that Chongqing is the biggest city in China? Bigger than Shanghai or Peking?

China has accomplished nothing short of a miracle in just 30 years or so. Korea, japan, Taiwan, got a much earlier start with capitalism, but eastern China has more than caught with them, and the interior will soon enough. I give China tremendous credit especially given the huge population they had to feed and move up. They are our most formidable competitor and downplaying their achievements is to our detriment.

If you haven't been there, I heartily recommend it, as education, if nothing else.

Here's what Chongqing looks like...

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Couldn’t read the article, that blogger had too much of it blocked off with popups.

Bummer. I run Adblock, NoScript and Privacy Badger all at once, so I never see that garbage. Last month was using a friend's unprotected iPad so I know how bad it can be.

[NorthMountain]

We should never have let ourselves get into this position.

Abolish the EPA.

[ansel12]

You didn’t see his own popup blocking part of his text?

[steve86]

Yeah, the preceding comments were classic.

[steve86]

I saw that and it was the only solicitation present using Brave browser. And it has a “continue reading” link. No big deal.

[ansel12]

I just move on now, the same as when I click on a product to possibly buy it, if they cover that page I just move on.