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China is doing much better than Britain did, from several points of view. Britain had a safety-netless trickle-down economic model that gave rise to huge econo
by chalst 5y ago
China is doing much better than Britain did, from several points of view.
Britain had a safety-netless trickle-down economic model that gave rise to huge economic inequality and combined it with a nearly uninterrupted hard gold standard and a very laissez-faire financial sector. This is the regime that gives a certain kind of right winger wet dreams, but it depended on resource extraction on a vast scale from the colonies for its success and still was hugely unstable, with five major economic crises hitting London in the C19th, with one deeper than the Great Depression.
China's interventionist model has some serious issues, but I think in terms of equity, stability and self-sufficiency its last 40 years compares well to any period of the British Empire.
- zdragnar 5y agoChina has no social safety nets, no freedom of movement (trying to move to a big city from a rural province to get a job, and you are effectively an illegal immigrant). Its last 40 years has been one of decreasing centralized economic control, and increasingly capitalistic engagement. The wealth gap between the few richest and the many poorest is far greater than the UK's- Britain looks practically egalitarian in comparison.
- chalst 5y agoIf it is not clear, I'm comparing China today with C19th Britain. Britain's safety net back then was mostly driven by private and Church charity, and covered very basic health and education services and the existence of workhouses. Starvation was rare in mainland UK, but extreme malnutrition was common, and the military complained consistently about the dreadful health of recruits. China is far ahead of this. China has inequality today, but it does not have a rentier class, which dominated C19th British politics.