The US has turned into China

[DetlefK]

First: The Chinese have a different mind-set than Westerners. Europeans and their descendants, like the Americans, have a long history of regional wars, of prejudices, of struggle. When we look at us, we concentrate on our differences. The Chinese have a history of more than 1000 years as a united, centralized country. Accordingly their mind-set is more concentrated on society and harmony.



Two weeks ago, I had diner with former colleagues of mine. One of them is chinese and a proud communist.

Another colleague started the topic, by asking him about the communist rule in China. How many people that he knows have a problem with the current regime? (Answer: None that he knows personally.) What about all those corruption scandals in China? What about personal freedom? Wouldn't people be better off with democracy? Certainly it would be easier to spread equal justice for all in a democratic regime?

The Chinese answered that China is different from Europe. His argument went, that people in Europe have a higher standard of living and are better educated, compared to China. A democratic China would not be stable, as the people would not be able to make well-informed decisions. A change to democracy would leave the country vulnerable to propaganda and short-sighted populism, which is why the chinese government should have the first and foremost goal to increase the level of education and the standard of living.



Even a chinese communist regards a well-informed and educated citizenry as the foundation of democracy. In that light, the evolution of political and media discourse in the US over the last 10 years is very disturbing.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. If that's true...

...it's going to get really, really crowded -- but the quality of takeout should also improve dramatically.

I call it a wash.

[stray cat]

2. I didn't know we had a green energy plan and were putting massive money into innovation

[Mimosa]

3. I see what you mean about the US population becoming less educated, more ignorant

Our scholastic stats prove your point. In urban areas the high school graduation percentage is usuallu under 50%. We are lagging behing in science, math and engineering to the degree we are importing technicians in certain fields.