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Is He Kidding ?
Now I can understand that perhaps Mr. Friedman doesn’t like what he sees as corporate influence over our government, I think most of us don’t like it. While I would strongly disagree with him, I could even understand if he wanted to ban anyone more conservative that Ted Kennedy from being allowed to participate in politics.
But looking to CHINA as an example of good government ??
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/opinion/09friedman.html?_r=2
Reasonably Enlightened ????
Perhaps he missed this story
Or perhaps he has missed the millions of others who have been sent to prison camps for dissent.
Or maybe he just doesn’t care.
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15 Responses to “Is He Kidding ?”
“But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages.”
[snicker]
The Communist Chinese are not social liberals, but they seem to be making good capitalists. I would have to categorize them as republicans.
or old-fashioned fascists. That word was so overused that people forget what it means when capitalism and government becomes one and the same.
Patrick, if a Chinese author pointed to America as an example of being “reasonably enlightened” with respect to, say, firefighting, one could echo your post, linking to an article about Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, “free speech zones” or other American lapses of ethics and law, and dismiss the arguments just as you have.
While I don't think the Chinese government is enlightened in most respects (I've been traveling there since 1984), they do “see the light” on green economy, which half our populace is fighting. So here we are trying to pick ourselves up after corporate greed drove our economy into a ditch, and we have to do so by opening our wallets to China, Japan and the other makers of things we have not found the will to manufacture, including solar panels, wind energy, appliances, etc. So even the GE wind generators are German design and patent. Seems the whole world will get it before us.
“Seems the whole world will get it before us.”
America: We Do the Right Thing Last
“they do “see the light” on green economy”
The problem is while they build your “green” prius the are poisoning the planet with mercury.
“things we have not found the will to manufacture”
What? They build them because they can do it cheaper not because companies are unwilling. Also not to be overlooked is the saving from having little or no environmental regulation.
EEllis, I didn't mention the Prius, but mercury is a big problem, about which GW Bush relaxed regulations as “harmful to industry”. Mercury is involved in the production of incandescent lights as well as fluorescents, but as I recall, there's 7 times more mercury impact from incandescents per year per lumen of light (because fluorescents last longer).
“They can do it cheaper” because they pay slave wages, and are free of both environmental and labor laws. Your side has argued that WE should eliminate regulations, rather than insist that products sold HERE meet our standards for production, for worker protection and for environmental protection. This has been pushed by Democrats who pressed for environmental and labor protections as a part of trade deals, while Republicans have fought to reward companies for sending jobs and profits overseas to places like China and the Caymans (respectively).
We willingly allowed our entire manufacturing sector to die, and even this year, the GOP tried to let the auto industry die too. If we want ANY manufacturing capability in this country, we have to value something more than just the lowest price.
Like the ability to build submarines, tanks, and fighter/bombers. Or not.
Just like in the good old USA…
Possibly the single greatest source of mercury pollution is coal power plants.
“There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.”
Wrong.
What we have is an oligarchy.
By no stretch of the imagination could the us be described as a democracy. Ticks me off anytime anyone with an education and a public platform talks about a democracy. Democracies only function in small countries with a politically literate base and multiple parties.
But then if you can say nonsense like the us is democracy, you probably cannot grasp that the entire political system and all of the “news” is controlled by the plutocrats. Doesn't anyone read political science anymore and learn about comparative systems. Probably not, since I have never read any economic article that takes the almost pure political corruption of american politicians into their models.
These characters in the congress and the senate are servants of the rich. Probably there are less than 12 politicians at the top level of government that even talk to a blue collar worker today. Of course, we have at least one presidential candidate that would talk to “Joe the plumber.” That was during an election campaign.
Watch these morally decayed politicians that only think that they have power blow off their constituents. I see it constantly in the “townhall” meetings.
Single payer, no war, free the Gitmo prisoners, imprison all of the bushcheneyrove gangs members including ones that are only “suspect” in the gutting of america.
See, I can be as looneytoon as any writer that believes that there is democracy in america.
“mercury is a big problem, about which GW Bush relaxed regulations as “harmful to industry”.”
Quit dancing. You talk about how good china's “green” industry is, I counter, and you want to bring up Bush? Screw Bush and China sucks in terms of their environmental record.
“”They can do it cheaper” because they pay slave wages, and are free of both environmental and labor laws. Your side has argued that WE should eliminate regulations, rather than insist that products sold HERE meet our standards for production, for worker protection and for environmental protection.”
What? You were trying to say hoe positive China's green industry was. Did you change your mind? My Side? Uhh BS.
“We willingly allowed our entire manufacturing sector to die”
Listen you can't cut us off from the rest of the world. Protectionism does not work. It is now a Global economy not just the US. I could argue, and it would be much more accurate than your bs, that your side has done much more to harm the industrial and manufacturing base in this country. Unions do their part to make companies non competitive, the greenies arguing for excessive regulation, dems for higher taxes. I'm not Republican but if repubs are all for business why would they be trying to kill industry? Stop repeating stupid contradictory lefty talking points and think a little.
EEllis, 40% of the world's population lives on less than $2 a day, 20% less than $1. We can NEVER compete with that on wages, nor do we want to. Seriously, do you want American workers to work for $2 a day? And like it or not, we HAVE protectionism. We decide what industries we want to protect (steel, for instance) and set quotas, or price supports (corn, soy, wheat, sugar, cotton), or outright ban imports (oranges). The tariff on imported sugar is 100%. Same for cotton. These are to support farmers, but mostly agribusiness.
The next time oil prices skyrocket and the imported goods that are petro-powered to us become unaffordable, we damn sure better have the ability to make some of that stuff here. It's our national security and in our national interest.
“Ellis, 40% of the world's population lives on less than $2 a day, 20% less than $1. We can NEVER compete with that on wages, nor do we want to. Seriously, do you want American workers to work for $2 a day? “
So now you want to move and try and argue something else? Why drop your previous BS points? Probably because they were BS, show little understanding of the realities, and were just repeated crap.
“The tariff on imported sugar is 100%”
Yep and it proves my point that protectionism doesn't work. When companies like Hershey Chocolate move their chocolate plants from places like Hershey Penn to Canada we lose more jobs
than we ever could “protect” by raising sugar tariffs. You did get where I was against protectionism and said it didn't work right? Now what the heck are you trying to argue? For ? Against? Do you really even know? Protectionism makes things cost more when made in the US and makes sure our products can't compete. In the big picture I doubt they ever really save any jobs. Sure it saved some jobs in the sugar industry, unfortunately costing more jobs elsewhere for a net loss.
We have some of the best educated skilled workers anywhere. We also have tech that's second to none. We don't need to work for $2 because our worker can be much more productive and produce higher quality. That is what we need to do not compete at a $2 a day level.
HERE IS FRIEDMAND HOUSE: WHAT A LOSER THIS GUY IS:
http://www.sustainlane.com/reviews/what-is-thom…