4 ms·

But it's not clear how to make Good Things happen. In general, people who're struggling to put food on the table don't care about the environment. (Even in the

But it's not clear how to make Good Things happen. In general, people who're struggling to put food on the table don't care about the environment. (Even in the US, one whiff of Economic downturn -- OMG we can't afford a new flatscreen TV this year?! -- and all talk of CO2 emissions goes out the window.) You can see that as China's middle class grows in numbers and power the environment becomes a significant issue. Power corrupts, but so does powerlessness. You need to satisfy people's basic needs for food, shelter, employment, etc. before you can get them to care about human rights and the environment.

chrischen 13y ago
The more we integrate with China, the more they will leech off our progress. There's no objective stance on whether or not this is bad or good, but globalization will basically allow China to leech our progress artificially and reduce our own standards slightly. Some negatives for China are that we create an artificial large wealthy market that creates tons of jobs for China, while China isn't actually developing a proper consumer market for their own goods. This could create dependence but it might also mean it messes with the natural development of a developing nation. A lot of the same reasons The Federation in Star Trek has a no-interaction with less developed races.
- podperson 13y ago
  The "prime directive" is completely nonsensical. (And in fact it doesn't seem to stop Star Fleet from messing with more primitive species, it simply causes them problems when they want to do something completely reasonable, like save them from an asteroid collision.) Personally, I enjoy leeching off the progress of others. I'd hate to have to invent philosophy, physics, math, biology, etc. from scratch. And of course, a huge amount of the technical platform we enjoy originated in China, including the gunpowder we used to steal our real estate from the Native Americans with.
  - chrischen 13y ago
    It's usually beneficial to the leecher, but the leeching comes at a price (to Americans).
    - podperson 13y ago
      Wow you're good at missing the point. We (Americans) are "leeching" off everyone else, and they're leeching off us. Who invented gunpowder, the crossbow, stirrups, the printing press, noodles? The Chinese. Who invented radio, quantum mechanics, the computer, programming languages, symbolic logic? Hint: not Americans. This leeching is pretty much how humans make progress.

chrischen 13y ago

The more we integrate with China, the more they will leech off our progress. There's no objective stance on whether or not this is bad or good, but globalization will basically allow China to leech our progress artificially and reduce our own standards slightly. Some negatives for China are that we create an artificial large wealthy market that creates tons of jobs for China, while China isn't actually developing a proper consumer market for their own goods. This could create dependence but it might also mean it messes with the natural development of a developing nation. A lot of the same reasons The Federation in Star Trek has a no-interaction with less developed races.

podperson 13y ago
The "prime directive" is completely nonsensical. (And in fact it doesn't seem to stop Star Fleet from messing with more primitive species, it simply causes them problems when they want to do something completely reasonable, like save them from an asteroid collision.) Personally, I enjoy leeching off the progress of others. I'd hate to have to invent philosophy, physics, math, biology, etc. from scratch. And of course, a huge amount of the technical platform we enjoy originated in China, including the gunpowder we used to steal our real estate from the Native Americans with.
- chrischen 13y ago
  It's usually beneficial to the leecher, but the leeching comes at a price (to Americans).
  - podperson 13y ago
    Wow you're good at missing the point. We (Americans) are "leeching" off everyone else, and they're leeching off us. Who invented gunpowder, the crossbow, stirrups, the printing press, noodles? The Chinese. Who invented radio, quantum mechanics, the computer, programming languages, symbolic logic? Hint: not Americans. This leeching is pretty much how humans make progress.