Great Wall of America (China)

FEER ^ | By Murray Hiebert/WASHINGTON with Ben Dolven/SHANGHAI

[batter]

Everybody say hello to:
faulkner signed up 2002-08-18.
Formerly know as latourette then AIG. Any guesses on next month's screen name?.....how about JiangleBells.

[faulkner]

I focus on economics because it's the most important influence in history and the underlying foundation of everything else that goes on, including geopolitics. The primary purpose of the whole Cold War geopolitical affair was, after all, to spread capitalism and the capitalist way of life across the globe. Democracy is merely the means by which Western capitalists "make the world safe for capitalism" (although global capitalists have come to realize only recently from the examples of democratic Brazil, Argentina, Russia, India, Indonesia, and elsewhere that Third World republics aren't the fertile ground of capitalism that their pro-democracy theories told them they would be). Democracy works well in countries that already have majority-middle class populations but is a joke in Third World countries with majority-poor populations and, thus, majority-socialist politicians who oppose any kind of pro-capitalist economic reforms in favor of big-government welfare states (like in India).

[faulkner]

Japan's per-capita GDP in the 1950's was no higher than Latin America's at the time. But through exports, Japan grew rich. Other E. Asians followed the same strategy to get rich and, as a result, you had the "E. Asian economic miracle" over the past half-century, where E. Asian Third Worlders transformed into First Worlders over just a few decades. It's fantasy to try to argue that this transformation didn't take place and the E. Asians were well-off to begin with.

[faulkner]

Indian governments have an average lifespan of 2 years or so. What you seem to really desire is for India to have a pro-capitalist government that can rule continuously and uninterrupted for the next several decades or so, but what you have then is "one-party" rule, which is exactly what India needs to develop its economy consistently. China already has that, but with India it's a constant struggle for the pro-capitalists because India is a majority-poor republic.

[faulkner]

Today's Third World republics are economic and political basketcases that require one IMF bailout after another. Reality speaks for itself.

[faulkner]

America's political system serves the interests of America's economic system, not vice versa. After all, America's political system gets its funding from taxing the economic system. If the economic system dies, the political system dies. Government isn't the end-all goal of America but is there to serve the economic system and create an environment where individual Americans' livelihoods can continue to prosper.

[faulkner]

We won't wish China luck in bringing back the Middle Kingdom; nobody wants it.

Coke, GE, Intel, Microsoft, Boeing, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, etc. want it and so do their shareholders and 401K investors. America's market is saturated. There's only so many Cokes that an average American can drink. American capitalism requires new markets. And America's political system will allow it to happen because, after all, the purpose of America's political system to ensure that capitalism can keep growing. America's military will allow it to happen, too, because the purpose of America's military is to safeguard America's capitalist interests, now global, which coincide with China's economic interests.

[faulkner]

The globalists are not really globalists. They are China-ists.

This is because the globalists all mistakenly convinced most Third World countries to adopt representative democracy prematurely, before they developed a middle class. So their republics are chaotic, dysfunctional jokes characterized by chronic legislative gridlock and neverending parliamentary bickering which scare away rather than attract foreign investors. Thus, foreign investors pour money into China by default.

[faulkner]

Without laws there is chaos. Today's Third World republics like Russia have laws, but still there is chaos. Merely imposing a representative democratic political system on a Third World country won't make it suddenly law-abiding or a mirror image of Peoria, IL, overnight. Laws developed in Western society over centuries (English common law, etc.) as a result largely of growing capitalism, which required standardized laws in order for capitalism to grow and become efficient on a large-scale. So the best way to make China or any other country law-abiding is to allow it to have long experience with capitalism, so that the people themselves can gradually over time realize the need for laws and start to respect and obey the law and develop a law-abiding general mindset and culture. Then, if and when a representative democracy is officially adopted, it won't be a crime-ridden joke like Russia or India (which have all the laws in the world but no one obeys them).

[faulkner]

China is on the top of the list

China is a lot more open to foreign trade than most of today's Third World republics are. China's tariffs on US-made goods are 2-3 times lower than India's.

Free is good when everyone has the same set of rules.

Every country starts out from a different base. Some are First World, some are Third World. And there's no rule in capitalism that says First World and Third World countries can't trade with each other. Remember, US firms outsource to China because American consumers want low prices. China doesn't force any American to shop at Wal-Mart, but they do so completely voluntarily. And when American workers want maximum wages while American consumer want the lowest prices, something's got to give. Wal-Mart's growth is a testament to the fact that American consumers don't believe there's any rule in capitalism that says they can't buy stuff from China if, at the end of the day, it's going to save them money.

[faulkner]

We should not screw up our economics in order to satisfy someone's politics. We should do business the way that is fair and balanced.

Your problem is not with China but with America's bargain-loving consumers.

[faulkner]

Geopolitics is a function largely of military strength, but what is the foundation of military strength? It's economics. After all, arms and troops don't grow on trees but cost money to support. The bigger a nation's economy is, the bigger its military can be because, simply, it can afford a bigger military. Taiwan is already having trouble maintaining its military budget and buying US arms because its hi-tech companies, the heart of its economy, are leaving the island in droves for the mainland and will never return. Empires (Roman, British, etc.) rise and fall on the health of their underlying economic systems.

[maui_hawaii]

Why don't you shut up moron.

[faulkner]

Why don't you shut up moron.

Lenin couldn't have said it any better.