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Monday, August 20, 2018

China and The US: More alike than we think

By Silverfiddle

"Lijia Zhang says the Communist Party’s violent discarding of traditional values, suppression of religion and later embrace of cutthroat capitalism has severely damaged social trust."

Link:  Rabies vaccine scandal reveals China’s tattered moral fabric

11 comments:

  1. China today is little changed from China’s Imperial Era. Take an Emperor, change his title to President; take the Mandarins, call them the National People’s s Congress ... and the people of China continue to live under the knuckle of a dictator. The “rabies” scandal isn’t the first of this sort over the past 30 to 40 years. Chinese manufacturers were “caught” providing baby formula to the Australians and Vietnamese that contained melamine, a carcinogen. There have also been instances of contamination in cabbage, pork, soft drinks, regular milk, cooking oil ... suggesting, of course, that corruption is alive and well in China (as it always has been).

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    1. The socialist position would be that state regulation has a significant effect on our cultural values. Remove the idea that the corporation should be channeled to act in the public good and you get the current Chicago school mentality that the corporations primary purpose is to maximize share holder value.
      The earlier regulatory state put in place by the New Deal built a thriving middle class whose weakening is lamented by the right just as they promote the policies that greatly weakened it.

      We should tend to our own issues and be instructed by China's venture into lax regulation.

      MAGA.

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    2. Ducky, as usual, your commentary is a murky, noxious stew of obfuscation.

      A corporation, or any business for that matter, including "non-profits" must make a profit to stay in business.

      Government's job is to police the marketplace.


      You want to "do good" according to your socialist ideals? Do it on your own dime.


      Post WWII was a historic anomaly. I would love for Bernie and a bunch of wild-eyed socialists to get into power and really stick it to the rich, reinstitute 90% taxation and all the restore all the post WWII regulations
      and policies.

      The giant sucking sound would be deafening, and China and other more capitalist, less socialist nations would be the happy beneficiary.

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    3. Remove the idea that the corporation should be channeled to act in the public good and you get the current Chicago school mentality that the corporations primary purpose is to maximize share holder value.

      Perhaps, like in Venezuela, we should require corporations to open their balance sheets to the needs of the governed?

      In April 2010, Maryland became the first U.S. state to pass benefit corporation legislation. As of January 2013 California, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia, and Washington had all passed legislation allowing for the creation of benefit corporations. Legislation is also pending in Illinois that establishes a new type of entity called the “benefit LLC,” making available to limited liability companies the same opportunities afforded to Illinois corporations under the state’s Benefit Corporation Law. Passage of the bill would make Illinois the first state to offer a social enterprise the opportunity to be a benefit L3C.

      Oh wait, American socialism was given birth in 2010...

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    4. I guess all that American "thriving Middle class" prosperity pre-2010 came from that "maximize share holder value" crap.

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    5. Silver... I'd love for to, if you can, expand on two things you mentioned.

      1. Government's job is to police the marketplace... What does this look like in a practical matter? How far is too far when doing that and how is it determined? Whose interest is the government charged with protecting?

      and...

      2. Post WWII was a historic anomaly... How so? What was the historic anomaly? Why were we able to have historically high taxes, a growing economy and declining debt. Are there lessons from that era we can apply to today? Certainly "tax and spend" ppl draw one conclusion. What conclusion do the more libertarian or "cut and grow" ppl draw?

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    6. Dave, Dave, Dave...

      #1: regulation comes from laws which are passed by representatives of the people. California regulation looks much different than Oklahoma's, US federal law looks different than Germany's in some respect, which is as it should be if the law reflects the will of the people.

      #2: We were the only industrial power left standing at the end of WWII. We dictated and set prices to the rest of the world because of this power. the government got away with taxing the rich and companies at a confiscatory rate because those people and businesses had nowhere else to go.

      In case you haven't noticed, we are in a much different world today.

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    7. Silver...

      1. I think what you are advocating is a state by state approach. I get that, but are you saying whatever regulation a state wants is fine, so long as it is not a federal mandate? I.E. Clean air standards? In other words, would California be within their rights to demand from businesses in their state a tougher standard than any other state? Same with Texas and their education standards? Is Texas within their right to demand certain curriculum in textbooks, federal standards notwithstanding? Theoretically at least, I think we could both see those two positions reflecting the will of the people of those two states.

      2. Yes, of course, after WWII it was in fact a different world. The question remains as to whether we can draw any conclusions as to how markets and the economy works based on that time period.

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  2. :P

    Socialism with Chinese values = capitalism.

    Except capitalism encapsulates certain values like, "Enjoy!"... especially 'products' who's deleterious effects have been removed... ie - coffee w/o caffeine or soda w/o sugar, or cigarettes w/o lung disease (vaping).

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