Posted on 03/01/2008 6:50:39 PM PST by SeekAndFind
"It is not yet true, as it has long been of the United States, that if China were to sneeze, the world would catch pneumonia," comments Times Literary Supplement reviewer Rosemary Righter. But "China's potential capacity to upset the international applecart already exercises financial analysts and other crystal-ball gazers."
It is certainly instructive to see how "the next superpower" responds to the dangers of inflation. While Ben Bernanke continues to cut interest rates to spur easy credit and artificial economic growth – and to make his political masters look good – China raised interest rates six times last year.
The late free market economist Milton Friedman, whose books are wildly popular in the Republic of China, would have probably sided with the actions of the People's Bank. If Chairman Ben were a friend of the American people, rather than pal (and chief counterfeiter) to politicians, he'd raise interest rates and tighten credit too.
China may be experiencing economic jitters, but it is still "running giant surpluses" and, as a crop of new books confirms, is "on the brink of becoming the world's leading trading nation." The Chinese are ditching Mao for Milton, as Americans trust Oprah to pick their literature and leaders. Indeed China is changing. It is "out of the red" in more ways than one. The U.S. is changing too: It's in the red and getting redder.
American Sinophobes are fond of saying that the strength of the Chinese economy is derived from that government's exploitation of its people. But this is to err on the side of social determinism – something Americans are increasingly prone to. It's to imply that unless individuals enjoy a certain political system – ours – they'll never transcend their circumstances. History teaches otherwise. People are driven toward self-actualization no matter what.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
We should have kept the communists poor for as long as possible.
Well at least we have cheap poison candy and dog food and gasoline.
No trade with slave labor states.
Regards
what does everyone expect?
Does China have welfare, EITC, medicare, medicaid, social security and 20+ million illegal aliens?
Damn, looks like the more I work, the more I will be taxed by Chairman Osama next year because I’m a greedy capitalist.
Oh well...talk to my Glock.
And comparing the US and China by saying that "China is getting more capitalistic while the US is getting less capitalistic" is the same as saying: "Dakota Fanning is getting taller and Shaqille O'Neal is getting shorter."
Trivially true, but not a meaningful indicator.
Yes.
EITC,
Yes.
medicare,
Yes.
medicaid,
Yes.
social security
Yes.
and 20+ million illegal aliens?
Neither the US nor China have more than 20 million illegal immigrants. But China, like the US, does have a significant illegal immigration problem.
But China, like the US, does have a significant illegal immigration problem.
:::::::
But I would be a rather large sum, that China’s methods, and willingness to use those methods, to control illegals, would be and is far more effective than our PC, vote-getting, open border methodology. Far more effective.
I think most people would agree that exercising control over all inhabitants of a territory is far more efficient in a totalitarian regime wherein no one has any rights or any recourse against the state's agents.
I would rather have freedom and Mexicans than no freedom and no Mexicans.
Of course, I like both freedom and Mexicans. So that's me.
Illegal immigration and wildly irresponsible government spending as our most serious problems.
America's 17 million missing 18-35 year olds would have constituted an enormous labor resource and an enormous source of income taxes for government programs.
Instead America unofficially imports millions of young, unskilled laborers and spends billions and billions on housing, feeding and caring for millions of elderly people who have no, or too few, children to support them in their old age.
America turned its back on life, and now we are paying the cost of the most selfish generation ever to burden the earth.
Interesting....a friend of mine has a sister who is in China helping the Chinese learn how to set up medical insurance programs....
Wrong China is Capitalizing Socialism.. the way Europe and Canada does..
Capitalism creates wealth, socialism uses wealth up..
Great Post!!! Thanks!
Scary Fact:
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, courtesy of the Republican Party, cost American companies upwards of $1.2 trillion. The capital flight it initiated caused the London Stock Exchange to become the new hub for capital markets. Given America’s habit of forcing its habits on others, SOX struck fear into quite a few Liberal Democratic hearts in the House of Lords. Lord Teverson worried about the “increasing danger of regulatory creep from American regulators that threatens [Britain’s] own light-touch approach to financial regulation.”
LOL
Ya mean the kids are giving their dads on the CP Central Committee a hard time?
Is there any independently supported reason not to believe this? E.g, another news article from a more-or-less trusted source.
This article is a year old. Have things improved that much recently?
It’s the balance of trade, stupid!
(you’re not stupid ... but our so-called “free trade” policy sure is)
Eew, they were going in the right direction turning their Social Security system into a private account based system, but long term this is a wrong turn for the PRC to go into an insurance based health system... better than socialized, sure, but the way our insurance system is so broken, I wouldn’t want to be someone in China trying to receive medical care in the next fifty years, esp if it turns out like ours is now.
oh wait, their communist, so still might not be bad for us if it bankrupts them...
but financially speaking not a good idea—managed care= mangled care.
Yes, I don't doubt the change. "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics," I think it's called officially. I remember all the horror stories beginning in the late 1940's.
IMO, "capitalistic change" is Deng's version of Lenin's New Economic Plan (NEP). Lenin knew that he could not build the Soviet economy fast enough -- or at all - to prevent another revolution. So he permitted a little economic freedom. Nepmen soon became a major portion of the economy. The ideologues were terrified, end of NEP.
Deng, et al studied NEP and Deng personally grilled Armand Hammer who as a young man was there in Russia at the time.
The Chi-coms believe that they can manage it. It's like wading across a stream. Each step must be carefully executed.
But if the state "withers away".. freedom and democracy in China? What is their social contract? I've always wondered since all the crowing about the wonder of China today.
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