The Poor, The Rich

[GodsGrace]

The US majority continues to go backward. Other nations majorities continue to go forward.

LOL
Not Europe....
I think the whole world is facing a new phenomenon...poverty in the middle class...it happened in Greece and many countries in Europe are not growing at all.

 

[Michael74]

LOL Not Europe....I think the whole world is facing a new phenomenon...poverty in the middle class...it happened in Greece and many countries in Europe are not growing at all.

Its that QE. Bankers are taking stuff from the majority, and giving it to the rich financial class.

European health is slowly improving though. The US is going backward, according to the AMA.

 

[Michael74]

The USA gives away something like 50 billion in foreign aid...

Much of that is to influence others. Its cheaper for hegemons to buy influence than it is to send in the troops.

China is doing a much better job of this. Their belt and road initiative has resulted in oodles of natural resources being sent there.

 

[JohnDB]

Much of that is to influence others. Its cheaper for hegemons to buy influence than it is to send in the troops.

China is doing a much better job of this. Their belt and road initiative has resulted in oodles of natural resources being sent there.

China is building infrastructure they should have had almost a century ago. But their isolationist policies have stifled their growth.

So they are still building power plants, roads, water treatment plant a, sewage treatment, and etc...they are horribly behind everyone else for the resources they have. Their growth will be halted again if they don't fix their quality control problems.
People won't buy garlic cleaned by prison labor...
People won't buy cheap wine that isn't any good.
Cheap sneakers, cheap electronics, and clothing and trinkets...ok. but all the schlock isn't where the real money is at...it's in quality, durable products that are really good.

 

[Michael74]

Cheap sneakers, cheap electronics, and clothing and trinkets...ok. but all the schlock isn't where the real money is at...it's in quality, durable products that are really good.

China has been rapidly improving their technology. They have an elaborate spy network to nab technology from other nations. Han expats will frequently send information home as a patriotic gesture. Foreign companies that set up shop in China are teaching them how to do things the right way. Many talented Chinese study at foreign universities, and then go home with their advanced skills.

Yes, they were way behind, but they are rapidly catching up. They do have some serious issues to overcome, such as air pollution beyond all reason in some of their cities.

BTW, inexpensive sneakers and such are exactly what the poor in most countries need. They can't afford the other stuff. Sending them inexpensive sneakers is good PR, and helps China to win allies who send them natural resources in return.

 

[Michael74]

An example. A pipeline is being built from the Middle East to China to supply them with energy. This will supplement their energy from Siberia. China used to be isolationist, but that changed with their realization that they need imported natural resources from around the world for defense to be possible.

Japan came to a similar realization in the 1930s, but chose a silly strategy to obtain those resources. An archipelago empire that could not be defended with the battleships they relied on.

China is building overland infrastructure to import resources, and a powerful navy to defend their transports. A new carrier factory on the Yangtze is busily churning out carriers to make them a regional hegemon. They are building infrastructure in resource rich countries in return for natural resources.

 

[Michael74]

Just one in four civil defendants has a lawyer, down from nearly all of them in 1992...

Meanwhile in the USA, the average person can't even afford to hire a lawyer to obtain justice in civil cases. Bank inflation is out of control.

 

[JohnDB]

Well there are a lot of trends that are at work.

Post secondary education costs ballooning from subsidies from various government grants (lottery proceeds). The effectiveness of gaining larger salaries from completing a degree is down.

Women are more likely to complete a post secondary education than men...5:1 or 3:2 ratio?(can't remember)

Opioid epidemic. The sheer volume of the increased percentage numbers of people recovering from opioid abuse is insane lately...of course concentrating while suffering withdrawal is decreased.

Mental health epidemic.
More people are having mental health issues than ever before. Wide ranging issues from depression to bipolar and autism... never before seen percentages of the population.

Moving morality line.
Acceptable morality line has always been fluid. It waxes and increases in allowed behaviors slowly over time. The current trend is to not actually have one... creating chaos when collaboration is needed. Currently no one has the collaboration to actually put a man on the moon...the technology we have... putting it together? Not a chance. But no one else can either and you can't do it alone.

 

[Michael74]

Currently no one has the collaboration to actually put a man on the moon...the technology we have... putting it together? Not a chance.

Once the USA put men on the moon when no one else could. Now the USA hires Russia to put men on the space station. Times have changed.

The icing on the cake is China's moon program seems to be ahead of the USA's program. They are the ones landing robots on the moon, and plan a permanent colony on the moon by 2030. They want to mine the moon's minerals.

 

[JohnDB]

Once the USA put men on the moon when no one else could. Now the USA hires Russia to put men on the space station. Times have changed.

The icing on the cake is China's moon program seems to be ahead of the USA's program. They are the ones landing robots on the moon, and plan a permanent colony on the moon by 2030. They want to mine the moon's minerals.

Don't follow the alarmist propaganda... LOL

Russia is having issues with their collaboration as well. China is in no better shape either.
Capitalism may have conquered everyone but it's also made the world self centered as well.

 

[Michael74]

Russia is having issues with their collaboration as well.

Yes, that is a measure of what inefficient bank central planning and lobbyist license raj have done to the country. Half of the USSR's population disappeared when they split, their navy is canceling ships, and the US has to hire them to get their astronauts into space? Boeing is the only remaining US manufacturer of commercial airplanes, and they can't keep their new plane in the air.

China is in no better shape either.

Using purchasing power parity, China's GDP is now ahead of US GDP. During 20th century free market capitalism the US was so far ahead of everyone else that the US produced half of the world's GDP all by themselves.

Capitalism may have conquered everyone but it's also made the world self centered as well.

Capitalism did, but the US no longer uses free market capitalism. Bankers now centrally plan the economy, and lobbyists demand monopolies/oligopolies to prevent competition (another form of central planning). The gap between the rich and the poor has become fantastic due to "credit creation" redistributing goods from the majority to the financial sector. The average non rich American has become so despondent that they are offing themselves in record numbers, or taking drugs to escape their dismal situation.

Now JAMA has new research relating that US longevity is going backward, while the rest of the world is generally going forward. The US would benefit from going back to an honest dollar, and moderating lobbyist demands a bit.

Diverse weights and diverse measures, They are both alike, an abomination to the LORD. Proverbs 20:10 NKJV

Oh well, things will improve when Lord Jesus returns.

 

[jasonc]

China is building infrastructure they should have had almost a century ago. But their isolationist policies have stifled their growth.

So they are still building power plants, roads, water treatment plant a, sewage treatment, and etc...they are horribly behind everyone else for the resources they have. Their growth will be halted again if they don't fix their quality control problems.
People won't buy garlic cleaned by prison labor...
People won't buy cheap wine that isn't any good.
Cheap sneakers, cheap electronics, and clothing and trinkets...ok. but all the schlock isn't where the real money is at...it's in quality, durable products that are really good.

I go through those cheap shoes in,two,weeks at the worst ,the beat two months,

The worlds poor walk,more then I,do .I,have routes where I walk 10 miles .I have two or more where I don't move my truck.

I can't see the same shoes lasting any better in those nations

 

[jasonc]

And those are 50,to,80,dollar shoes .5 years ago I got a year of them