6 ms·
Democracies aren’t beholden to the ego of an authoritarian. Free trade for free countries, and a tyrant tax for authoritarian regimes should be the norm if we w
by sinoue 4y ago
Democracies aren’t beholden to the ego of an authoritarian. Free trade for free countries, and a tyrant tax for authoritarian regimes should be the norm if we want human centered capitalism. https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fiw&year=2023 https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fiw&year=2023
- imwillofficial 4y ago"Not beholden", like say, unilaterally waging war on another country without congressional approval?
- throwawayx134ax 4y agoUnfortunately congress did vote. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_for_Use_of_Military_Force_Against_Iraq_Resolution_of_2002 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_for_Use_of_Milit... They didn't declare war, which is unfortunate but congress did approve.
- imwillofficial 4y agoThis came after the fact, which is not supposed to be how it works.
- pfannkuchen 4y agoFree Trade for Free Countries is a decent slogan! I’ve long been disappointed that this isn’t the mainstream position. Anything else feels very hypocritical (for the US).
- throwawaymaths 4y agoEh, economic engagement with unfree countries got us south korea, Taiwan, probably more in eastern Europe: Albania comes to mind. Afaict disengagement only worked with south Africa.
- SkyMarshal 4y agoThere’s roughly three levels free vs unfree: 1. Democratic countries that mostly abide by international law and the rules-based order. 2. Non-democratic countries that also mostly abide by international law and the rules-based order, because they benefit from it more than not doing so. 3. Non-democratic countries that reject international law and the rules-based order. The US trades with #1 and #2, and was hoping to make China into #2. But unfortunately it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, China is in the grey area between #2 and #3 and probably trending toward #3.
- throwawaymaths 4y agoBeautifully said.
- jacquesm 4y ago2 works for small countries, if countries are large enough they can afford themselves to be a 3, which otherwise is reserved for failed states and outright dictatorships.
- pfannkuchen 4y agoMy goal wouldn’t be to get them to change. We just shouldn’t get involved.
- Herval_freire 4y ago[flagged]
- borissk 4y agoObviously you haven't lived in a dictatorship. Spend a few years in Russia or China or Turkey or Iran and then come back with your hypothesis about the raw truth.
- Herval_freire 4y agoI lived in both the US as a citizen and china as well.
- borissk 4y agoSome people are naturally born slaves and do prefer living in a society where their lives are completely controlled by a strong arm dictator...
- throwA29B 4y agoHello, Hitler, how is the weather in Hell?
- Herval_freire 4y ago[flagged]
- foverzar 4y agoHave you? Honestly, pompous "democracies" aren't fundamentally different to the rest of the world, when you start actually experiencing the day to day living. There are lots of "dictatorships" where living is better then in lots of other "democracies", but this is not something you'll figure out from your internet feed, you really have to actually travel.
- Herval_freire 4y ago
- petre 4y agoWhat good is free trade is China's navy gets to countrol shipping routes? That's one card they are playing. The other one is controlling Russia in exchange for Taiwan. They understood that building cheap and in great numbers is the key to success. They did this with the J-7 and now the J-10.