China achieving an equivalent standard of living would probably not work out so well for the authoritarian government there - but it would work out surprisingly well for Marxism. Actually equalizing US and Chinese wages would lead to an extreme acceleration of other areas with depressed wages and, potentially, lead to the world becoming more equal in wages without the current assumed approach - that US wages will deflate quite significantly.
A world where China elevates itself to the US's level is one we should celebrate in the west as it means we need to suffer less ourselves.
Also, the world is well beyond being a zero sum game economically, most of the biggest economic drivers these days are "silly and irrelevant" things like Facebook, Banking and the service industry. All the world can be well off.
>China achieving an equivalent standard of living would probably not work out so well for the authoritarian government there
That myth has been disproven long ago. Achieving a high standard of living and level of education does not magically cause people to pour into the streets and protest against their authoritarian governments.
>A world where China elevates itself to the US's level is one we should celebrate in the west as it means we need to suffer less ourselves.
A world where Xi Jinping is in charge of the global economy is a world where fundamental dignity is stripped from anyone who isn't Han, white-collar, hyper-nationalistic and living on the East Coast of Mainland China.
Many nations in Asia are gearing up economically and militarily to make sure this cannot happen.
> That myth has been disproven long ago. Achieving a high standard of living and level of education does not magically cause people to pour into the streets and protest against their authoritarian governments.
While a flip doesn't instantly switch it does cause an erosion of the stability of the government. An enlightened populace is less accepting of authoritarianism than an unenlightened one and the excess luxury time that wealth creates leads more of the populace to enlighten themselves.
This is mild fear mongering - I’m skeptical of Xi myself. But You are projecting the colonial powers’ treatment of the world onto a nation that has never done anything close to what you describe.
>But You are projecting the colonial powers’ treatment of the world onto a nation that has never done anything close to what you describe.
Please read some Chinese history. You'll see the exact same level of brutality, imperialism and aggression shown by the European empires, from Rome to Britain.
Much of central and Western China was only conquered during the last 500 years (basically the same period as European colonialism). They too, experienced forced cultural assimilation and ill treatment. They didn't conquer the globe in the way the Europeans did, but equally they didn't have the naval technology to do so.
Ok… heard of Kublai Khan? Part of the mongol empire circa 1200s preceding the colonial powers existence by a good 500-600 years… That was the Yuan Dynasty (in china) and they conquered a whole lot more than modern day china.
Now since Yuan, you’ve had Ming and Qing… neither of which were particularly aggressive outside of their borders… and Qing was of course the start of the Opium wars, where the colonial powers essentially raped china for all its resources.
With regard to your strange Naval quip. You should look up the Chinese treasure ship. (Ming dynasty)… predates the colonials naval power.
So which Chinese in particular would you like me to read about? Everything you said is factually incorrect. To a laughable degree. I recommend you watch Marco Polo on Netflix, it’d teach you something.
People are the same. China is very well known for its extreme nationalistic tendencies. The Party to stay in power must be really, really to the right in terms on nationalism. Without nationalism the Party has no chance staying in power. Read up on the topic. And yes, they treat their minorities extremely bad. Including concentration camps for Ughurs. US compared to them is a pure equality heaven.
A world where China elevates itself to the US's level is one we should celebrate in the west as it means we need to suffer less ourselves.
Also, the world is well beyond being a zero sum game economically, most of the biggest economic drivers these days are "silly and irrelevant" things like Facebook, Banking and the service industry. All the world can be well off.