USA social/economic model is CHINA (PBS' wide angle)

[DagmarK]

I just watched an incredible documentary on PBS' Wide Angle.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/

I guess I was never quite aware of what goes on in that country. Very, very few people are entitled and they are RICH. And the rest? poor as can be. They even have laws that say that country people cannot leave their villages. Millions do migrate to Beijing to work as immigrant labor -- ILLEGAL immigrant labor in their own country.

The country provides no education. In the city, there are "public" schools -- but they are for-pay. Yes, you have to pay and they are boarding schools where the students go to school from 6a to 10p everyday. Now, that's a country that has a big plan for a few. In fact, those schools put kids on track for college and then to what they call the "golden" collar jobs. Shoot, in the USA, the best we have done is have "white" collar jobs.

In the countryside, the govt (the farmers' only 'client') continues to lower the price it will pay for their crops to the point where there is just no money. It seems to me that the govt just wants these people to stay away, provide some food, not make any noise and then die. And there are some volunteer schools in the countryside -- that are funded by foreign volunteer organizations. But the govt is slowly shutting these down on grounds that they don't meet "regulation." The people running the schools have no idea what the regulations are.

When all industries were public enterprises, the govt made a deal with workers to pay them very low wages in exchange for housing and social services for life. Then the govt privatized the industries suddenly and the workers are left with absolutely nothing. If the "private" owners pay them, they do. But it sounds like slave labor to me.

I am watching this program and I am seeing the USA in the future. I have been hitting my head against the wall for months trying to figure what the HELL benefit it is to the corporatist radical right to run this country and its people right into the gutter. And, yeah, I have intellectually figured it out to be that they want to kill the middle class and have a very small and very rich upper class and the rest as slave labor.

Well, I just got a sober glimpse into how this actually plays out. A question has been answered for me. I have been saying, "HOW can so many unemployed or underemployed people be of benefit to the US govt when that means extraordinarily fewer taxes going into the treasury." That just seems like basic bad budgeting. The US govt won't need us to pay a bunch of taxes. They won't be providing ANY services to the bulk of our population. And what we will be is slave labor to produce to sell goods on the world market. THAT's where the managing govt and the corporatists will make their money -- Not on the tried and true American consumerist middle class.

And the organization that is facilitating this whole thing? WTO

Am I slow or what? Are most people on DU cognizant of all this?

This isn't about getting an extra dem senator or a democratic president (though that would help). The challenge before us is quite simply THE PEOPLE vs. the corporate-owned govt. There's still time to turn this around.......but not much.

In the last week there have been a few subjects I have given much thought to: 1. economic developments or the lack thereof here; 2. Watergate and the repukes' attempt to take over the govt; and now 3. the CHINA model. And with each, I have come up with the EXACT SAME CONLCUSION. THE PEOPLE of the USA need to get fiercely indignant soon or it really will be too late.

I can't imagine a 'frivolous' thing like a win in an election some crisp day in November 2004 as being quite enough to make the power/war mongers to just put their plans on hold. No......these corporatist radical right greedy bastards are not going to let their grand plan be thwarted by a popular vote. And I shudder to think what they will do to make sure they aren't thwarted.

We need to be worried. Really worried.

[DagmarK]

1. Shameless Kick.....

In case anyone else saw this show and made the same or different correlations. It gave me chills (on top of feeling really bad for the Chinese people.....the big green fighting machine u.s. of a should do something to liberate those innocent people!)

[jagguy]

2. good old China

yet another socialism success story !

maybe having the state own the means of production isn't such a hit concept. greed will out and in a system that has eliminated greed there is no way to manage it.

[DagmarK]

4. Greed is the managing tool in China today.....

They have privatized the means of production......and education and .....

[jagguy]

5. only a little

.

[htuttle]

7. China hasn't been 'socialist' for about 20 years

I think they switched to 'oligarchical facism' around the time that Deng Xiaoping wrote the 'Five Pillars of the Chinese Economy' paper (IIRC....I think he was the author).

[The White Rose]

10. Hmm...

If your neighbor beats the hell out of his kid every day, does that mean you should be proud of the fact that you only thrash yours every other day? Just a thought...

[Armstead]

3. The left has been saying this for years Dagmark

The unwillingness of the Democrats to address this core and transcendant issue is one reason for the frustration of progressives with the current form of "business as usual" politics.

[DagmarK]

6. wow, I guess I am slow, Armstead........

I mean...I have known about this stuff.....I guess I didn't KNOW it in its incremental and detailed forms: who, how, when, etc.

The only way I can see that this can be reversed is through a popular revolution -- and I sure hope it's a revolution of words and not blood! EGAD.

[bpilgrim]

8. no just misinformed... deliberately

thanks to the corp media and politicos who support the status quo

thank GORE he invented the internet ;->

peace

[thermodynamic]

11. Unwillingness, do the Greens make a valid point for once?

The Dems CANNOT address the issue because they get quite a few "handouts" from the corporate 'community' as well. Handouts which the corporate dogs want paid back, with interest. Biden and Berman are certainly getting handouts from the RIAA and MPAA, that or they're truly ignorant of the issue - but they sound like pukes anyway.

The only way things will completely change is if Greens get elected nationwide. And as has been said many times, that won't happen.

So enjoy the 2 party system where a third party of a different sort gets the desired outcome regardless. Corporate america has controlled the political scene since the late 70s (if not since Reagan contrived to win office using hostages as electioneering fodder) and that will never change.

I'll still vote Dem because they're still infinitely better than the pukes, but I know that in the end it just won't make as much of a difference as I could ever life to hope for. :-(

[slappypan]

9. I learned a lot about China talking to a Chinese co-worker

One thing she told me about Chinese society — there are lots of pensioners and other busybodies with time on their hands who spy on their neighbors night and day. If they happen to see you coming home late or hanging around with strangers or just don't like the way you dress, they can report you to your "work group" and make all kinds of trouble for you. I bet there are plenty of spiteful people here in America who would love a system like that — they would love to be the neighborhood "morality police."

[cap]

12. how about TIPS....

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