[lit-ideas] Re: Class Envy
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 10:11:08 -0400
China is anything but a perfect system. Out of a population of 1.3
billion, 300 million are in the middle class, more than the entire U.S.
The rest are dirt poor peasants who earn something like $250 per year, and
are taxed on it. China has historically had a culture where humans didn't
count. Need a dam? No need for heavy equipment when you can get literally
thousands of men to do the lifting and digging. If a human gets caught
under a steam roller, laugh and keep going. Their pollution is so severe
that there are areas where literally everything is covered in black soot.
Trees, grass, water, animals, humans. Yes, China is not perfect.
Having said that, the Chinese government is fostering capitalist-style
economic growth of Chinese-style private industry, and they're doing it big
time. One of the ways they do it is by giving their companies loans they
don't have to pay back. Imagine how industry here would grow if companies
had free money to invest in themselves. To date, the U.S. middle class has
served as the world's consumer, buying the products that are manufactured
in places like Japan and China. Now the Chinese middle class, larger than
the entire U.S., is getting to where they will in the relatively near
future serve as the world's consumer, including of their own goods,
supplanting the U.S. We here in the U.S. have something like 14 major
cities (NY, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, SF, LA, etc.). In China they have
something like 40 major cities (my numbers are approximate, I don't have
the source handy, I'll look it up later) sprouting up every year. There
are more people in China who speak English than in the U.S. Every major
American industry, from Dell to Walmart, are opening up manufacturing
facilities in China at staggering rates and not opening up facilities here.
Our trade deficit is vast in China's favor, meaning we import their stuff
like crazy and sell them next to nothing. Look around your house and find
all the stuff that was manufactured in Asia or some place other than the
U.S.
Yes, China has no respect for humans, but I would argue that the very laws
and regulations which you find so onerous are the very laws and regulations
that keep slave labor style camps from happening in this country (remember
the end of the 19th century in the U.S.?). There are major considerations
in China which may yet backfire. The extreme pollution, caused by
unregulated corporate interests; the unhappy peasants, numbering more than
3 USA's., many of whom are streaming into the manufacturing areas which are
resulting in the above-mentioned cities springing up literally overnight,
are another. Gates, Buffet, Walmart, etc. don't seem to care about that.
They have turned their back on the U.S. in favor of China.
The Cold War is over Brian. Not recognizing China for what it is because
it has unregulated labor, that very thing you find so onerous about the
U.S., is like wearing cotton shoes to protest against killing cattle. And
that's all I have time for.
Andy Amago
,
> [Original Message]
> From: Brian <cabrian@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 5/10/2005 10:14:49 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Class Envy
>
>
> On May 10, 2005, at 8:03 AM, Andy Amago wrote:
> >
> > Slave labor economy?
>
> Yes, or have you not heard of laogai, the Chinese forced labor camps?
>
> http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-3-24/20545.html
> http://www.laogai.org/news/index.php
>
> ~Brian~
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