DISQUS

Older_Wiser · 10 months ago

I read a couple of years ago that many of China's rural poor haven't had nearly as much opportunity as those living in urban areas, even though there have been many from rural areas that have relocated to cities and other manufacturing areas. But you also have to remember that China has over 4 times the population of the US as well.

You could almost substitute the words "United States" in the above assessment, Chris. Just because we might have more TVs, computers and other material goods doesn't mean we don't have the same kinds of problems as China, although we will have a new govt in power next week. Even with all we as a society possess materially, the ignorance of what has been happening here has escaped the majority, who have only been awakened when it hit their pocketbooks personally. Some of us have been warning others about this impending crisis for years now.

China holds a $1 Trillion of US debt and is backing off from buying any more. Our own debt is growing, and we will be using another $1 Trillion on infrastructure and other uses to get our own economy squeaking by. Where will we get that money?Japan and Britain, those countries behind China in buying up US debt, are having their own problems. Will the US simply increase its deficit spending and we will wind up owing ourselves? What if other strapped countries start calling in the debts the US owes them? If Obama has any sense, he will eschew any further tax breaks and revoke the tax breaks of the wealthy. Not only are we going to have to heavily invest in infrastructure, there will also be a significant increase in food stamps, housing aid, Medicaid and Medicare and other forms of govt asst that will have to be paid for. Let the wealthy pay for those people they have cheated repeatedly for years by keeping paychecks low.

If taxes aren't raised significantly on the wealthiest in the US, we're not going to get out of this horrible economy for many years, no matter how the rightwing rants about how raising taxes on the rich will stifle job creation. Keeping those taxes low in its various forms is what I believe has led our economy into this situation in the first place and hasn't created the jobs the laissez faire capitalists said it would, just more hoarding of money by the rich..

Even after WWII, corporate taxes were at levels we've been led to believe were staggering (up to90%), and there was steady growth in spite of it. And that was back when company executives were only making something like 40 times what their average worker made. We have simply allowed the greedy to determine their own govt policies (as well as corporate policies which greedy shareholders endorsed) and China would do well to take a lesson from that and not be swayed by the glamour and glitz of their newly rich.

After all, the needs of human beings are really finite, and you can't take it with you in the end. It's a lesson the obscene rich have never learned over history, a lesson they don't care to learn in their pursuit of greed, but in their neglect, they have sown the seeds of their own destruction.

Bush Bites · 10 months ago

And, don't forget, 2/3s of US corporations don't pay any taxes, thanks to loopholes.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=556....

Bush Bites · 10 months ago

This will be pretty interesting to watch.

The Chinese thought they could have their cake and eat it too--capitalistic growth without democratic reforms.

We'll see.

Older_Wiser · 10 months ago

And we thought we had heard the last of Bush? Not so fast. He's requested prime time Thursday night to "address the nation."

Thank dog for cable. There's a discussion on CSPAN right now about his presser yesterday. Only the truly ignorant (like those who live a "biblical life") are defending him. Oh, as well as the Weekly Standard, you betcha.

Sorry losers.

Bush Bites · 10 months ago

It's too bad the White House Press Corp. are such wusses.

It really looked like he was going to go nuts if anybody pressed him too much.

I usually can't stand looking at Bush, but this time I just kept watching in fascination.

He was definitely on the verge of clucking like a chicken.

Older_Wiser · 10 months ago

Bush isn't interested in anything but preserving his own sense of "self-worth" not that of the country. He remains a narcissistic sociopath. He did this, he did that, the country (and the world) didn't suffer enough for his horrible ego is what came through to me. Only bringing charges against him and players in his regime for their horrible policies of death and destruction will bring any satisfaction for many of us.

Reason0Politics1 · 10 months ago

there is no coincidence that DoD deployed 20,000 troops domestically. Stand by my friends. they KNOW there is going to violence and disobedience.

There can be no recovery. there is NOTHING to recover with.

Obama will be shutting down government, as there is no other choice.

cosanostradamus · 10 months ago

.
"Clever politics"? That's just reverse-racism based on ignorance of the facts. Don't confuse the Chinese people with the Chinese government, historically or otherwise. They're even less well represented than we are. Still, like us, they still bear the ultimate responsibility for everything their governments have done. Clever or otherwise. And what we all deserve is censure, not praise.

I'm sure the Bush family & friends are already ass-deep in the Chinese economy, just as they have been in the Middle East since before the days of Pres. GHW Bush. They'll be there with a shovel and a moneybag when things turn around. It's their reward for betraying us.

Get used to it, folks. The future is China's. We sold it to them, cheap. No strings attached.

Hey, any China-trolls out there? FU in advance. FU, that's Chinese for, well, FU.




Our real future is somewhere in space. No, not the one between yr ears.
.

Indigo · 10 months ago

China's claim on the United States is now about as substantial as it's claim on Tibet.

paulbe · 10 months ago

What China is seeing is what will be seen all over the world, very soon.

EmGD · 10 months ago

Who I feel sorry for is these protesters jobless family members. How are they going to be able to afford the cost of the bullet that the Chinese government is going to bill them for?

http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/

weinerdog43 · 10 months ago

"China has the most impressive history in the world..."

Bullshit. For the past 1000 years, China has been completely, and utterly eclipsed by Western Civilization. You are also forgetting India, which has an equal or greater claim to an older and richer culture and civilization.