4 ms·
The US government isn't really THAT much different from Japan and all of Europe, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, etc... Even India and, theoretically, even R
by onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago
The US government isn't really THAT much different from Japan and all of Europe, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, etc... Even India and, theoretically, even Russia, too.
So, it's not surprising the average Chinese person has a decent understanding of how a basic democracy works.
In some ways, China is also not THAT much different, either. But it is more different than pretty much every other major economy in the world.
I mean, for one, it does not even put on a charade of being a democracy. It pretends to be communist (economically), but in a lot of ways it is more capitalist than a lot of the West. And the scale of the government is enormous. It's much more different, and there's really not much of a reason for many people in the US to have a decent idea of how it works.
China's government does not affect our daily lives that much - at least not yet. And Americans (like most people) are mostly concerned with themselves.
- whimsicalism 6y ago> in a lot of ways it is more capitalist than a lot of the West China definitely has big market aspects and private ownership, but I also think this can be overstated. There is still massive public ownership of major companies and banks in China and land in all urban areas is publicly owned as well.
- tsimionescu 6y agoIs it actually publically owned, or is it state owned? There is a major difference between these two outside of a democracy.
- whimsicalism 6y agoPublic control is a continuum rather than an on/off switch in my view. They are owned by the state which is nominally responsive to the public, albeit very indirectly. But, then again, much of our economy and laws are determined by unelected councils (the Fed, the SCOTUS, etc.).
- stjohnswarts 6y agoI've yet to find a country where that country's inhabitants aren't mostly concerned with themselves and I've been to quite a few countries.
- onecommentman 6y ago“All politics is local” — quite a famous saying in the US https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_politics_is_local https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_politics_is_local And people are just people, once you scrape off the cultural and political veneer.