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> Go to Beijing... brown air... sick... gaping holes with no signs... break your leg... welding rain down on your head... boss rapes you and you're not connecte

> Go to Beijing... brown air... sick... gaping holes with no signs... break your leg... welding rain down on your head... boss rapes you and you're not connected, that's too bad... Dude, I was in Beijing two months ago. It's not like you make it out to be. Actually, it's a hell of a lot nicer than Detroit. In fact, I was in China five years ago and again two months ago. It's trending upwards quickly - the pollution was near unbearable five years ago and is rapidly improving. Infrastructure is improving. Air and water quality are improving. The country is gradually politically liberalizing... almost everything is improving in China quickly. Scary quickly, actually. Over the last 10 years, China is trending upwards quickly and the USA and trending downwards slowly... you might prefer living in Washington D.C. to Beijing right now (but would you, really?)... but you almost certainly won't prefer D.C. to Beijing in 10 years unless something changes.

nl 16y ago
In fact, I was in China five years ago and again two months ago. It's trending upwards quickly - the pollution was near unbearable five years ago and is rapidly improving. Infrastructure is improving. Air and water quality are improving All of these things are because of deliberate government policies. I'm sure you know this, but it's worth pointing out. I think you & donw are agreeing with each other here - he's just underestimating how quickly the Chinese government acted to fix what was becoming a problem.
- lionhearted 16y ago
  > All of these things are because of deliberate government policies. I'm sure you know this, but it's worth pointing out. Sort of. If you look at history, every country that's gone through an industrializing process has had an increase in pollution followed by a decrease in pollution. Some of that is attributable to regulation, but it happens in unregulated industries too - almost everyone naturally dislikes pollution, and generally prefer to reduce it. Saying pollution is down and infrastructure is up because if government policy is almost correct, but slightly misses the mark - pollution is down and infrastructure is up because Chinese people worked to make that happen. But this same process happens similarly in countries with less government regulation as well. Over time, people want lower pollution and waste near them and invest, manage, and produce that result, government or no.

nl 16y ago

In fact, I was in China five years ago and again two months ago. It's trending upwards quickly - the pollution was near unbearable five years ago and is rapidly improving. Infrastructure is improving. Air and water quality are improving All of these things are because of deliberate government policies. I'm sure you know this, but it's worth pointing out. I think you & donw are agreeing with each other here - he's just underestimating how quickly the Chinese government acted to fix what was becoming a problem.

lionhearted 16y ago
> All of these things are because of deliberate government policies. I'm sure you know this, but it's worth pointing out. Sort of. If you look at history, every country that's gone through an industrializing process has had an increase in pollution followed by a decrease in pollution. Some of that is attributable to regulation, but it happens in unregulated industries too - almost everyone naturally dislikes pollution, and generally prefer to reduce it. Saying pollution is down and infrastructure is up because if government policy is almost correct, but slightly misses the mark - pollution is down and infrastructure is up because Chinese people worked to make that happen. But this same process happens similarly in countries with less government regulation as well. Over time, people want lower pollution and waste near them and invest, manage, and produce that result, government or no.