5 ms·

Yet, citizens of China have enjoyed a steady increase in the quality of life across the board, while the opposite has been happening in US. Meanwhile, US is an

Yet, citizens of China have enjoyed a steady increase in the quality of life across the board, while the opposite has been happening in US. Meanwhile, US is an oligarchy and not a democracy. A long term study from Princeton shows that the main predictor of any law being passed is whether it's favorable to the rich. The public opinion does not matter: >What do our findings say about democracy in America? They certainly constitute troubling news for advocates of “populistic” democracy, who want governments to respond primarily or exclusively to the policy preferences of their citizens. In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule—at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli...

mindfulplay 7y ago
This comment is regurgitating stats and numbers without much context. I feel that over-priveleged peoples in the West with a really good life and pretty much every comfort available, often tend to just look at these superficial charts and numbers and tend to gloss over the context in these other countries. It's pretty sad really that you are comparing China to the USA in this way just by mentioning that the USA is a oligarchy and somehow that's worse than being in China. The US at least has the option. Chinese people do not. This worshipping of communist governments and downplaying the USA's freedoms and comforts really need to tone down a bit.
- geofft 7y ago
  So - as an overprivileged person in the West, I believe I am happier living in the US than in China. There are a lot of freedoms and comforts available to me as an upper-middle-class person. Were I not, I suspect I'd be happier in China. And there's no shortage of e.g. college students from China who want to return after their studies instead of trying to stay around America and get a work visa. They're smart, and they're under no Chinese censorship when in America, so it seems to me that one is not vastly better than the other. (Also the unspoken question is how China, the USSR, Korea, etc. would be were it not for their economic suffocation by the US. I didn't bring this up in the context of the Great Firewall, but if we're talking about quality of life it's absolutely relevant. It's important for the US to buy Huawei because not doing so when they have a better product is just repeating the same immoral economic suffocation.)
  - baq 7y ago
    20 years of indoctrination, obvious and covert, tends to produce a very strong national identity. This coupled with a sufficiently different culture at home makes one unwilling to settle in a country full of strangers worshipping money and freedom of individuals. They come to the US to learn from the best and replicate what works back home for the country. Of course, there are those that don’t. That’s beside the point, there always are.
  - mindfulplay 7y ago
    Majority of Chinese students would want to stay in the US. Based on my very informal unscientific study over the last many years. Recently the visa backlog implicitly pushes people away, no lack of demand. In fact too much demand.
    - adinobro 7y ago
      That used to be the case but that has changed in the last five years. From memory it used to be about 80% and now it is closer to 20%
- TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
  I find the US, the UK, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Israel all absolutely horrific in different but often surprisingly similar ways. Europe, Japan, and a few smaller nations less so - moderately, but not trivially. There are superficial differences in the tribal totems and rhetorical promises used to promote conformity, and in the mechanics of manipulation and repression. Beneath that, the dynamics are very similar. Life can be quite pleasant in any of the above if you're upper-middle class. If you're on the wrong side of any of these regimes and on the receiving end of institutionalised government violence, it really isn't.
mattmanser 7y ago
China's GDP per capita is $9k, while the US's is $60k. I think you're looking at entirely the wrong metric.
- qwsxyh 7y ago
  As we all know, GDP per capita is a very representative stat of how good your life is.
WillPostForFood 7y ago
citizens of China have enjoyed a steady increase in the quality of life across the board 3 million Uyghurs in internment camps have increased quality of life? ~400 million still stuck ineural farms? The gap between the to 1% in China and the bottom is vastly larger than in the US. And of course it is easy for China to “improve” coming from the ruins of the cultural revolution. There was nowhere to go but up.
- xtracto 7y ago
  You mean concentration camps? like... those ones the US has in the south states?

mindfulplay 7y ago

This comment is regurgitating stats and numbers without much context. I feel that over-priveleged peoples in the West with a really good life and pretty much every comfort available, often tend to just look at these superficial charts and numbers and tend to gloss over the context in these other countries. It's pretty sad really that you are comparing China to the USA in this way just by mentioning that the USA is a oligarchy and somehow that's worse than being in China. The US at least has the option. Chinese people do not. This worshipping of communist governments and downplaying the USA's freedoms and comforts really need to tone down a bit.

geofft 7y ago
So - as an overprivileged person in the West, I believe I am happier living in the US than in China. There are a lot of freedoms and comforts available to me as an upper-middle-class person. Were I not, I suspect I'd be happier in China. And there's no shortage of e.g. college students from China who want to return after their studies instead of trying to stay around America and get a work visa. They're smart, and they're under no Chinese censorship when in America, so it seems to me that one is not vastly better than the other. (Also the unspoken question is how China, the USSR, Korea, etc. would be were it not for their economic suffocation by the US. I didn't bring this up in the context of the Great Firewall, but if we're talking about quality of life it's absolutely relevant. It's important for the US to buy Huawei because not doing so when they have a better product is just repeating the same immoral economic suffocation.)
- baq 7y ago
  20 years of indoctrination, obvious and covert, tends to produce a very strong national identity. This coupled with a sufficiently different culture at home makes one unwilling to settle in a country full of strangers worshipping money and freedom of individuals. They come to the US to learn from the best and replicate what works back home for the country. Of course, there are those that don’t. That’s beside the point, there always are.
- mindfulplay 7y ago
  Majority of Chinese students would want to stay in the US. Based on my very informal unscientific study over the last many years. Recently the visa backlog implicitly pushes people away, no lack of demand. In fact too much demand.
  - adinobro 7y ago
    That used to be the case but that has changed in the last five years. From memory it used to be about 80% and now it is closer to 20%
TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
I find the US, the UK, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Israel all absolutely horrific in different but often surprisingly similar ways. Europe, Japan, and a few smaller nations less so - moderately, but not trivially. There are superficial differences in the tribal totems and rhetorical promises used to promote conformity, and in the mechanics of manipulation and repression. Beneath that, the dynamics are very similar. Life can be quite pleasant in any of the above if you're upper-middle class. If you're on the wrong side of any of these regimes and on the receiving end of institutionalised government violence, it really isn't.

mattmanser 7y ago

China's GDP per capita is $9k, while the US's is $60k. I think you're looking at entirely the wrong metric.

qwsxyh 7y ago
As we all know, GDP per capita is a very representative stat of how good your life is.

WillPostForFood 7y ago

citizens of China have enjoyed a steady increase in the quality of life across the board 3 million Uyghurs in internment camps have increased quality of life? ~400 million still stuck ineural farms? The gap between the to 1% in China and the bottom is vastly larger than in the US. And of course it is easy for China to “improve” coming from the ruins of the cultural revolution. There was nowhere to go but up.

xtracto 7y ago
You mean concentration camps? like... those ones the US has in the south states?