81–90 of 116 posts
California’s GDP is now twice as large as Russia’s. Yet the President of the United States seems to spend a lot of time trying to make Russians happy, and zero time making Californians happy.
California should acquire some nuclear weapons then.
And the idea that you have to make 'Russia happy' because they have nukes, if fucking beyond dumb.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't say the US Senate and Electoral College make much sense.
I think they make an incredible amount of sense. The population centers don't deserve to dictate how the entire country works just because they pack a ton of people in. For the Senate, it's important to have a body where all the sovereign states get equal say, because after all they are supposed to be the primary unit of government. Not only that, but the fact that there's equal representation in the Senate is the so…
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If California separated from the US, most of California would separate from California and rejoin the US. Read about the "State of Jefferson" movement, etc. The Coastal cities in California are really a completely different place from the rest of the state, and the rest of the state is pretty dissatisfied with this union.
Surprisingly, those Coastal cities have a lot of people (common theme in the US).
It's funny that the list includes both California and the US. It would be interesting to compare economies of the same scale, regardless of legal status: If you are considering the US and China, maybe you should include the whole of the EU. And if you are looking at Germany, Japan, ... It makes sense to not only include California, but also to split up other countries. I'm curious how high up Guandong or Shanghai wou…
>The fact that the US and China show up as single countries (and not "continents"/regions) whereas the EU shows up as a bunch of "small" countries is source of a lot of inferiority complex in Europe. On the one hand, yes, you're right, the EU is more powerful economically as a whole than as individual states. But on the other hand the individual states are a bit less unified than the US or China. So they are a bit mo…
EU countries still have:
- their own laws and constitutions
- their own foreign policy, embassies, intelligence services, armies, etc.
- their own taxation; there actually is no EU tax (though there is some pressure to create such a thing)
- their own policies for education, healthcare, social security, taxation, trade, etc.
- their own currency in some cases (e.g. Denmark, Sweden, Poland and many other eastern European countries)
- border disputes like Cyprus, the Balkans (several former Yugoslav countries are members or aspiring to be). And though not part of it, you might count Greenland here as it is Danish with a special status.
As a trade block, the EU is pretty large. And the sphere of influence also includes former soviet states not part of the EU, Turkey, Northern Africa, etc. But it doesn't speak with one voice like the US and China tend to do. Also there is a lot of division on topics like e.g. the Ukraine war, energy, and a lot of other topics.
I wish we had the same outsized influence over the US federal policy as well.
Honestly 80% of California's problems are self-inflicted NIMBYs limiting growth. Crazy crime handling policies in SF (which are getting reverted now). Cities outside the main centers (SFBA, LA, etc) dying. Complete political ineptitude for things like HSR No wonder they're losing population
Austin is quickly building more housing though, which I am a fan of.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
While a low effort comment, it does touch on an important topic. Imagine if CA was run with the kind of efficiency that Singapore or South Korea was run. Clean, safe streets. Modern infrastructure. Instead we get a state government that is going to waste the goose that laid the golden egg. The high taxes paid disappear in a black hole centered in Sacramento. CA reminds me of New Jersey. Other states used to be jealou…
Panhandling / begging and sleeping in public places is punishable with prison time (assuming you can't pay the massive fine) in Singapore. California wouldn't be California if it was run like Singapore or if it had the 9-9 chaebol work culture like South Korea.
The police can force you to stay in a shelter, yes. But they have them available. Most very poor people in SG stay in subsidized housing.
In SF there literally are not enough shelter beds. If you were homeless today you would have to sleep on the street.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't say the US Senate and Electoral College make much sense.
I think they make an incredible amount of sense. The population centers don't deserve to dictate how the entire country works just because they pack a ton of people in. For the Senate, it's important to have a body where all the sovereign states get equal say, because after all they are supposed to be the primary unit of government. Not only that, but the fact that there's equal representation in the Senate is the so…
Also works though
California’s GDP is now twice as large as Russia’s. Yet the President of the United States seems to spend a lot of time trying to make Russians happy, and zero time making Californians happy.
On a per capita basis, California still has some work to do. Washington, Massachusetts, and New York are all significantly higher. No one should get bonus points for having a large population.
California’s GDP is now twice as large as Russia’s. Yet the President of the United States seems to spend a lot of time trying to make Russians happy, and zero time making Californians happy.
California should acquire some nuclear weapons then.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taiwan is not free.
Why?
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3306215/tai...
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E7%BD%B7%E5%85%8D (Chinese)