241–248 of 248 posts
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China is simply not behind in military technology. Neither are they "decades behind" in lithography, nor in launch, nor in satellites. Their first reusable rocket is due for a test launch in a few months, their second domestic carrier is in construction, and in hypersonics they are, by the DoD's own admission, well ahead. They have a fully domestic rocket online with a launch reliability over 94%, and their launch co…
140 000 ton ?
“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking is freedom” --Eisenhower (b. 1890)
(With the caption "Actors run through the air, eager to join the Communist Party, in a propaganda musical in Yanan.")
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> Could you give some counter examples to these non-democracies Given that outside of Greece, the Roman republic, Italian city-states, and a few other exceptions - every single one of thousands of regimes was non-democratic for thousands of years, it seems like those are anomalous and your comment is shot through with historical survivorship bias. > Could you give some counter examples to these non-democracies that w…
> it seems like those are anomalous and your comment is shot through with historical survivorship bias. Fair point. Maybe. Maybe not. What I mean is: it's hard to compare the outcome of democracies and non-democracies, because in my view the only country that has ever existed to come close to the concept of democracy in the history of humanity is Switzerland. And even that one has plenty of non-democratic aspects. Sa…
> China, the very same political/military system, also got those same people into poverty in the first place in a matter of years/decades (killing up to some 60 million people in the process) through Mao
This is just very not true. You're saying there were tons of people making over $2/hr pre-CCP, they then got pushed into poverty by Mao, and all of the poverty gains since then are just raising out the people who got pushed down.
There is absolutely no empirical evidence for that assertion.
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> enforce a level of competence Can you please elaborate? In the US, I see "lying" and "corrupt" as some of the most defining characterisics of modern US "rulers".
Lying and corruption don’t exclude competence. The parent comment meant competent in the sense of whether the state can achieve its goals. A state may lie about its goals to its public, or enrich its elite, while also being capable of meeting state goals. US state competence has clearly declined, but it is worth making this distinction. Strictly speaking the two factors you cite aren’t necessarily linked to competenc…
I doubt this. I would belive that your belief in this is just another indication of how diseased our system is.
You won't catch Sitting Bull or Crazy Horse ever, even once, telling a lie.
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Thats of course ridiculous. "Low !Q" wealthy people in the US arent managing their own money. They hire the best and brightest to do it. China has a massive advantage because they can simply copy or steal what works in the US more efficiently than we can come up with the next best thing.
> They hire the best and brightest to do it. Oh, and how do they determine the "best and brightest"?
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> They hire the best and brightest to do it. Oh, and how do they determine the "best and brightest"?
Just pick hedge funds who have performed in the past run by a bunch of people with top business degrees. Its a lot easier than picking a stock
Nope, it's actually very hard to outperform the market just by looking at hedge fund past performance. Top business degrees do not really equal top talent, having taken a few of these "top business" classes. It's all a salesmanship game to the rich, it's not about actual returns.
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> Actions happen due to some interest group getting their way. This is such a big reason. We no longer identify under a single identity. In America, that would be identifying as an American. In Europe, people still don't really identify as being European before they identify as English, French, German, etc. Between both America and Europe, we no longer identify with being Western. The fact that we now increasingly id…
Yup, and you could say that's the strength of a well-lead homogenous country. That's why although i'm more left-leaning, the constant focus of the left on subgroups being wronged is laughable and such a distraction from the reality of the world. China and their technological superiority and increasing economic sphere doesn't care.
Where you need good leadership is when you have heterogenous groups that lack coherent alignment and need to be brought together to establish consensus.