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Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

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Re: Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

#91

Post by freejulian85 »

9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #57
Animats wrote: post #42

The increase in pork prices is due to a swine fever epidemic that started in Liaoning province.[1] SCMP has a reasonably good article. China's huge boom is starting to level off. Down from 10%/yr to 7% a year. The US is under 3%/yr. That happened to all the "Asian tigers", as they caught up to the developed world. Its a long way from a recession. [1] https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3020488/c...

The problem in China is that they're likely to get old before they get rich. China's GDP per capita is still only a quarter (or less) of Japan, Singapore or South Korea: https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/china/japan

China’s population is 4x that of the USA. It makes complete sense that their per capita gdp is therefore less. It should remain that way.

Re: Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

#92

Post by seanmcdirmid »

bakuninsbart wrote: post #76
9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem in China is that they're likely to get old before they get rich. China's GDP per capita is still only a quarter (or less) of Japan, Singapore or South Korea: https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/china/japan

This is a really serious risk, but it is also important to consider that China isn't reallly one country. - Even internal migration is restricted. If you look at cities like Shanghai, Nanjing or Beijing, there's a subtantial minority already basically living with western living standards. That number is still growing quickly. Furthermore, China has little problem letting old people work longer - or potentially even i…

China still has a mandatory retirement age of 55 for women and 60 for men. This doesn’t mean much in the private sector, but is sort of strictly applied in the public sector. Obviously it isn’t sustainable at any rate.

Re: Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

#93

Post by seanmcdirmid »

StreamBright wrote: post #82
Iv wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And?

>> Because they are very quickly becoming the #1 economic power in the world and I really do not want to see them spreading their views on authoritarianism and citizens control. For one, China has been the #1 economic power in the world longer than any other country. Second, they do not spread their views unlike the Western world. How many interventions the US committed in the last 70 years with the approval of the U…

If you ware bringing China’s long history into this, China historically has fought many many wars with its neighbors (there is a reason Vietnam is so paranoid of china’s “70 years” of non intervention).

China is hardly that successful in Africa yet, it just publicized the success it has had greatly and ignores all the riots and failed funding situations completely.

Re: Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

#94

Post by [deleted] »

StreamBright wrote: post #88
pizza234 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they do not spread their views unlike the Western world. I'm not sure if with "unlike" you imply that they [China] doesn't do it at all, or not as much as others [US]. In the first case, the argument is wrong. China is using economical leverage to impose its political agenda. See, for example: https://sentinel.tw/norway-one-china-policy .

"The Norwegian government reiterates its commitment to the One China Policy, fully respects China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, attaches high importance to China’s core interests and major concerns, will not support actions that undermine them, and will do its best to avoid any future damage to the bilateral relations." I guess this is what you are referring to. It is called diplomacy. You apply diplomatic…

[deleted]

Re: Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

#95

Post by johnisgood »

barry-cotter wrote: post #68
onion2k wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...I really do not want to see them spreading their views on authoritarianism and citizens control. Western nations have plenty of authoritarianism already. It's just more insidious and under the surface. For example, here in the UK there are CCTV cameras everywhere [1]. They're all linked up so the police can remotely follow citizens around towns, along roads, down motorways, etc. Every bus and train has CCTV on it.…

> Western nations have plenty of authoritarianism already. It's just more insidious and under the surface. For example, here in the UK there are CCTV cameras everywhere[1]. True > They're all linked up so the police can remotely follow citizens around towns, along roads, down motorways, etc. Not true. The police need to ask individually every time they want CCTV footage from private businesses or get a warrant. They…

> I doubt the average mugger has too much to fear from CCTV.

Not sure if you are claiming this, but this does not mean that surveillance is not rampant. You need more than CCTVs for criminals to fear them. Sometimes you do not even need CCTVs for criminals to fear the state.

Re: Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

#96

Post by 9nGQluzmnq3M »

freejulian85 wrote: post #91
9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem in China is that they're likely to get old before they get rich. China's GDP per capita is still only a quarter (or less) of Japan, Singapore or South Korea: https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/china/japan

China’s population is 4x that of the USA. It makes complete sense that their per capita gdp is therefore less. It should remain that way.

I was comparing to Japan, and per capita means divided by population.

Re: Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

#97

Post by johnisgood »

laughinghan wrote: post #71
onion2k wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...I really do not want to see them spreading their views on authoritarianism and citizens control. Western nations have plenty of authoritarianism already. It's just more insidious and under the surface. For example, here in the UK there are CCTV cameras everywhere [1]. They're all linked up so the police can remotely follow citizens around towns, along roads, down motorways, etc. Every bus and train has CCTV on it.…

Two things can be bad without being close to equal or even comparable. The UK's pervasive mass surveillance is definitely bad, but you can, for example, campaign and vote against them, right? Do you feel like pervasive CCTV limits who you can vote for or what books you can read? That's not a strawman, that's literally what it's like in China right now.

> The UK's pervasive mass surveillance is definitely bad, but you can, for example, campaign and vote against them, right?

I wonder, can you really do that, and with ANY effect (leaning towards your goals)?

Re: Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

#98

Post by throwaway1997 »

tarsinge wrote: post #80

As a French the amount of (bad) news regarding China on American websites I browse (hn, reddit, newspapers websites...) is really disturbing compared to home. I try to think rationally but the coincidence with the trade war is hard to ignore. As an outsider it looks like nothing has changed (China is a communist country, fresh news!) but suddenly the media is all over it. The media pattern now is so obvious every tim…

In Asia we mostly hear bad news as well. The economy of China really is slowing down and there is a massive housing bubble which is evidenced by huge numbers of unoccupied newbuilds which are already crumbling down. And it's a fact that growth is slowing down and there are lots of political issues which are further damaging the outlook.

Re: Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

#99

Post by NonEUCitizen »

Yizahi wrote: post #70
christkv wrote: post #19

I expect China to clamp down harder and harder on its population as well as deflect attention from it as the economy slides to try keep the party in power. Look for the social credit system to expand even more and also more rhetoric about it all being the fault of evil foreigners.

If huge country enters recession and crisis then, with some exceptions, it usually goes to war with its neighbors. See Russia waging war for last 20 years constantly, see Iran expanding to nearby countries to shut internal crisis. China does the same - nine dash occupation of south china sea, cold war with Taiwan, conflicts with Japan and nearly all other neighbors. If big crisis will happen in China it will cause a…

US (and UK) have been in more and longer wars than China and Russia in the past 70 years, recession or no recession. And their wars cause damage on a global rather than regional scale.

Re: Life in China Is Getting Harder With High Prices

#100

Post by hoseja »

barry-cotter wrote: post #69
friendlybus wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GLF was terrible, but the west shares a shame in throwing away our intellectual and cultural pursuits. There's an argument that a very long time ago, the islamic intellectual tradition preserved enlightenment values whilst we were off doing other things. I don't know the gritty details of the argument, so I'd be the first to say I'm wrong.

The Enlightenment was something new under the sun. The Islamic Golden Age was intellectually impressive but nothing in it presages the ideas of individualism and freedom that are at the heart of the Enlightenment project.

The heart of the Enlightenment project is the realization that educated, non-poor citizens are more effective at waging war with other countries.
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