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The CCP is using its authority to make its citizens the slaves of the world. They do this by manipulating the currency and internal environment to stop living s

The CCP is using its authority to make its citizens the slaves of the world. They do this by manipulating the currency and internal environment to stop living standards and wages from rising to Western levels, while trying to avoid interference with economic activity that does not threaten the government. Key nationalized sectors under-perform (like their oil industry) while others work much like they do in America. That doesn't make them a centrally planned economy, any more than FED's currency planning makes the US economy centrally planned in nature. They have a "central plan," which is to drive all of their money towards reinvestment, but it's not a planned economy. Going beyond a statement of facts, I assume the reinvestment is supposed to eventually lead to owning the world, but that isn't working out in Africa and all of the western infrastructure they finance has turned into yet another way for depressed Chinese living standards to transfer wealth to the countries the government is trying to get on top of. (It might feel intrusive to find out that a Chinese company owns a toll road you frequently use, but what actually happened is they froze their capital in a fixed asset, freeing an American firm to start a new project.) It reminds me of how the US's own foibles, mainly of a neocolonialist/military interventionist type, have done nothing to benefit us but have weakened domestic security and the security of our interests abroad.

sooheon 3y ago
> to drive all of their money towards reinvestment Can you be specific about how this is done?
- steveBK123 3y ago
  Being a hybrid planned/market economy, CCP still has much of a say in what businesses prosper & which do not. China has very little in the way of a consumer sector, quite the opposite of the US consumerism. This means there's very little for consumers to spend their money on versus a US consumer. China's savings rate as a result of these pressures hovers around 50%, compared to the low 4% in US / 10% in UK / 20% in Germany & Northern EU countries. Saving such a high % of income means more money is available in the banking system to be lent out to businesses for investment. So China has an export driven market in which they sell goods to the world, and then re-invest it to build more capacity to build more exports to..
  - caskstrength 3y ago
    > China has very little in the way of a consumer sector, quite the opposite of the US consumerism. This means there's very little for consumers to spend their money on versus a US consumer. FWIW Chinese middle class tend to gobble up ridiculous amount of foreign overpriced luxury crap instead, starting from designer clothes and ending up with several thousands of dollars worth bottles of whisky (that I bet absolute majority of the buyers couldn't distinguish from random Johnnie Walker in blind testing). High saving rates must be cultural and not just a result of not having the ability to spend the money.
    - zdragnar 3y ago
      > High saving rates must be cultural and not just a result of not having the ability to spend the money. You can see this too in the generation that lived through the Great Depression, and some carry-over into the next one. OTOH those who grew up in boom times tend to take on unhealthy amounts of debt (esp credit card, for weddings and vacations, and fancy cars) and have to struggle to learn to live within their means. China has had a lot of rough times to until relatively very recently, and much of the country hasn't shared in a lot of the economic growth.
  - sooheon 3y ago
    Isn't this a false dichotomy? The inverse -- high spending and low savings -- still leads to reinvestment. From business POV whether they get funds via loans or via revenue the money they have to invest in growth is the same.
    - steveBK123 3y ago
      In China you have a lot of SOA (State Owned Enterprises) and entire sectors loosely under the CCP thumb. So 50% of income going back into banks which then direct capital as the CCP sees fit.. more export oriented growth. This is very different than the US model. In the US ~95% of income goes into spending which flows into private enterprises which make operational cost, capital cost, and saving decisions on their own. The US model is more decentralized. We have to create incentives and schemes like IRA and Opportunity Zones to get private individuals and companies to deploy capital where the government prefers, and even then it only works on the margins.

sooheon 3y ago

> to drive all of their money towards reinvestment Can you be specific about how this is done?

steveBK123 3y ago
Being a hybrid planned/market economy, CCP still has much of a say in what businesses prosper & which do not. China has very little in the way of a consumer sector, quite the opposite of the US consumerism. This means there's very little for consumers to spend their money on versus a US consumer. China's savings rate as a result of these pressures hovers around 50%, compared to the low 4% in US / 10% in UK / 20% in Germany & Northern EU countries. Saving such a high % of income means more money is available in the banking system to be lent out to businesses for investment. So China has an export driven market in which they sell goods to the world, and then re-invest it to build more capacity to build more exports to..
- caskstrength 3y ago
  > China has very little in the way of a consumer sector, quite the opposite of the US consumerism. This means there's very little for consumers to spend their money on versus a US consumer. FWIW Chinese middle class tend to gobble up ridiculous amount of foreign overpriced luxury crap instead, starting from designer clothes and ending up with several thousands of dollars worth bottles of whisky (that I bet absolute majority of the buyers couldn't distinguish from random Johnnie Walker in blind testing). High saving rates must be cultural and not just a result of not having the ability to spend the money.
  - zdragnar 3y ago
    > High saving rates must be cultural and not just a result of not having the ability to spend the money. You can see this too in the generation that lived through the Great Depression, and some carry-over into the next one. OTOH those who grew up in boom times tend to take on unhealthy amounts of debt (esp credit card, for weddings and vacations, and fancy cars) and have to struggle to learn to live within their means. China has had a lot of rough times to until relatively very recently, and much of the country hasn't shared in a lot of the economic growth.
- sooheon 3y ago
  Isn't this a false dichotomy? The inverse -- high spending and low savings -- still leads to reinvestment. From business POV whether they get funds via loans or via revenue the money they have to invest in growth is the same.
  - steveBK123 3y ago
    In China you have a lot of SOA (State Owned Enterprises) and entire sectors loosely under the CCP thumb. So 50% of income going back into banks which then direct capital as the CCP sees fit.. more export oriented growth. This is very different than the US model. In the US ~95% of income goes into spending which flows into private enterprises which make operational cost, capital cost, and saving decisions on their own. The US model is more decentralized. We have to create incentives and schemes like IRA and Opportunity Zones to get private individuals and companies to deploy capital where the government prefers, and even then it only works on the margins.