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Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

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Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#161

Post by jsprogrammer »

Retra wrote: post #153
jsprogrammer wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why should we care about some long-dead slaves' opinion about what is good or bad? Because they had a more direct experience of it than we can ever have. I think the (even if implicit) claim that it is better to physically harm, rape, and kill slaves than to be nice to them is highly questionable. Yes, both are bad situations, but adding additional physical violence doesn't make things better, only worse. Edit: I gu…

I guess my own position is tainted by the belief that slavery is fundamentally wrong as a restriction of freedom, not as a matter of being beaten. So if I were a slave, though I would personally prefer not to be beaten, I would also prefer slavery be seen as a vile practice, and if I have to take a few beatings to make that be known, I would take them. The alternate of nobody being beaten, but still being slaves wher…

I do not consciously support slavery. I just find some objection to the apparent false dichotomy that beating slaves is a sound path to their freedom.

If (and it's a very big if), the only way to end slavery is to have slaves be beaten, then you might have a good point. However, I can think of no way to verify that, nor can I think of any evidence in support of that premise that can withstand even most most basic scrutiny.

>How much different would the world be if Hitler had announced from day 1 his play to conquer Europe and massacre millions of people?

How do you know he didn't?

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#162

Post by maxerickson »

Retra wrote: post #159
maxerickson wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think you would be the same you if you had been born into slavery?

I don't think that's a useful hypothetical. If I were born into slavery, I would be a different person, and I can't tell you what that person would think.

Yes, that was my point. You had written as if that were not the case.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#163

Post by AnimalMuppet »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #161
Retra wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess my own position is tainted by the belief that slavery is fundamentally wrong as a restriction of freedom, not as a matter of being beaten. So if I were a slave, though I would personally prefer not to be beaten, I would also prefer slavery be seen as a vile practice, and if I have to take a few beatings to make that be known, I would take them. The alternate of nobody being beaten, but still being slaves wher…

I do not consciously support slavery. I just find some objection to the apparent false dichotomy that beating slaves is a sound path to their freedom. If (and it's a very big if), the only way to end slavery is to have slaves be beaten, then you might have a good point. However, I can think of no way to verify that, nor can I think of any evidence in support of that premise that can withstand even most most basic scr…

> How do you know he didn't?

In particular, Mein Kampf comes pretty close.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#164

Post by Retra »

maxerickson wrote: post #162
Retra wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's a useful hypothetical. If I were born into slavery, I would be a different person, and I can't tell you what that person would think.

Yes, that was my point. You had written as if that were not the case.

I was telling you what I actually do think, not what someone else might think. That is, knowing what I know now, I would say what I said. If you are asking me if I would agree with that while not knowing what I know now, then obviously I can't say, because I would know things that I don't currently know.

Regardless, I can't make decisions using information I don't have, so the question is pointless.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#165

Post by Retra »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #161
Retra wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess my own position is tainted by the belief that slavery is fundamentally wrong as a restriction of freedom, not as a matter of being beaten. So if I were a slave, though I would personally prefer not to be beaten, I would also prefer slavery be seen as a vile practice, and if I have to take a few beatings to make that be known, I would take them. The alternate of nobody being beaten, but still being slaves wher…

I do not consciously support slavery. I just find some objection to the apparent false dichotomy that beating slaves is a sound path to their freedom. If (and it's a very big if), the only way to end slavery is to have slaves be beaten, then you might have a good point. However, I can think of no way to verify that, nor can I think of any evidence in support of that premise that can withstand even most most basic scr…

Would you allow yourself to be beaten if it meant your children could be free? Or would you rather let your children be slaves and neither of you be beaten?

This isn't just about slavery: it could apply to any war-like situation. But if you aren't being beaten as a slave, how are you resisting slavery? Your owner just lets you get away with not doing what you're told?

Because I really don't see how not resisting is supposed to end slavery, and I don't see how avoiding beatings is any kind of resistance.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#166

Post by keyboardwarrior »

dreamfactory2 wrote: post #138
vijayr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you give just enough, you'll keep the poor subdued. One could say the same about salaried employees - give them enough to stay. Too little - they revolt or leave, too much - they save the money and still leave after they've saved enough

Nobody in their right mind saves with current interest rates and cheap credit combined with consumerism keeps enough people in hock across the income spectrum

More like sparse array.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#167

Post by blazespin »

hiram112 wrote: post #149
blazespin wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's simply not true. And thanks to Obamacare, not even true in the US anymore. One caveat of course, is this assumes you don't have dependents. That's obviously a completely different problem. I'm glad you like your standard of living btw. Completely unnecessary of course, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

In a sense it is possible when you're very young (i.e. early 20's or so). I was able to slide by at that age with minimal employment, for months at a time, followed by a few months here and there of retail / delivery work. Of course, I ate shitty food, had no access to medical/dental care (possible when you're 20 years old, not 40), lived with multiple roommates in rather cramped conditions, and lived very frugally -…

Yeah, but a bad trip to the ER can screw up your life even if you have money. Everyone dies, unfortunately, and interventionist medical methods don't seem to help that much. What does help, though, is living a clean and healthy lifestyle.

I agree, living without money is certainly more challenging. Growing up without it and not getting well educated makes it much much harder. But again, I know people (no children, no dependents) who do just fine. They just realized at some point that they can survive without the trappings of wealth. I envy them greatly.

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#168

Post by knight17 »

selimthegrim wrote: post #156
codyb wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it looks (at least in Saudi Arabia's case) that they were trying to diversify towards renewables in a vast way [0], although my google search also turned up more recent articles indicating they're pushing that back [1]. The thing about the Saudi Arabian royal family is that they're all guaranteed allowances and the family grows at a near exponential rate since they all have multiple wives. I couldn't find any goo…

I believe he wrote a long Atlantic article based on the book - 'The Fall of the House of Saud'

The Fall of the House of Saud

The Atlantic. May 2003 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/05/the-fall...

"A former CIA operative argues, in an article drawn form his new book, Sleeping With the Devil, that today's Saudi Arabia can't last much longer—and the social and economic fallout of its demise could be calamitous.

Five extended families in the Middle East own about 60 percent of the world's oil.

The Saud family, which rules Saudi Arabia, controls more than a third of that amount.

In the air in Riyadh and Jidda is the conviction that oil money has corrupted the ruling family beyond redemption, even as the general population has grown and gotten poorer; that the country's leaders have failed to protect fellow Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere; and that the House of Saud has let Islam be humiliated—that, in short, the country needs a radical "purification."

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#169

Post by jsprogrammer »

Retra wrote: post #165
jsprogrammer wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not consciously support slavery. I just find some objection to the apparent false dichotomy that beating slaves is a sound path to their freedom. If (and it's a very big if), the only way to end slavery is to have slaves be beaten, then you might have a good point. However, I can think of no way to verify that, nor can I think of any evidence in support of that premise that can withstand even most most basic scr…

Would you allow yourself to be beaten if it meant your children could be free? Or would you rather let your children be slaves and neither of you be beaten? This isn't just about slavery: it could apply to any war-like situation. But if you aren't being beaten as a slave, how are you resisting slavery? Your owner just lets you get away with not doing what you're told? Because I really don't see how not resisting is s…

Surely there are other ways to resist slavery than being beaten?

If there were some highly effective and rapid communication system, for example, the slaves could possibly organize and GTFO before their owners had any way to stop them. Yes, there's the chance that it could turn bloody, but I can imagine scenarios where it might end peacefully (as far as one can imagine such a hypothetical).

Re: Children of the Yuan Percent: Everyone Hates China's Rich Kids

#170

Post by happywolf »

zhemao wrote: post #94
happywolf wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it has 'er' instead of 'ar' sound. In fact, 'err' is a better word than 'earl'

In Standard Mandarin pronunciation, er is definitely pronounced like "arr". If you don't believe me, listen to the pronunciation given by Google Translate. https://translate.google.com/#zh-CN/en/%E4%BA%8C There might be some regional accents which pronounce it more like "err", but "arr" is the standard pronunciation.

I agree the google translate link above pronounces this character very close to 'Arr', however do note the Pinyin (Chinese phonetic system), 'Er' starts with 'E'.

Just for the sake of discussion, here is character that starts with 'A'. See if you feel the difference.

https://translate.google.com/#zh-CN/en/%E5%95%8A

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