I'd probably question your sanity if things in this crazy world (including me!) didn't set you off from time to time.
Thank god for understanding wives...
China to Europe: You are just too damn lazy.
- Thread starter Grandluxe
- Start date
I'd probably question your sanity if things in this crazy world (including me!) didn't set you off from time to time.
Thank god for understanding wives...
If John Lennon was a little more down to earth he could have written a song about it. If people were truly free to love it or leave it, nobody would want to screw a country up because everybody would just leave.
I guess the next scary thing to look for is when Mexico ships 20,000 workers to Windsor, in exchange for 20,000 F-150's.
In any hierarchy, an individual will rise to his or her own level of incompetence, then remain there.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Peter_Principle
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Peter_Principle
So basically, Chinese students are far more competitive. The West is doomed.
The richest Asian countries (japan, singapore, hong kong) are the ones with the most western influence, the ones that adopted more elements of the western model of liberal democratic capitalism. Taiwan and South Korea are much poorer than those 3, and much poorer than USA, UK, France, Germany, Scandinavia etc. Let's take a look at how Malaysia did with their "Asian values" lol, or even N Korea or PRC China - it was a pure fad.
And let's not forget, the Asian tigers only developed because of the western-paid military protection offered to them, otherwise they'd be Chinese or Japanese colonies by now.
Take a look at the facts - correlations across study after study, linking overall freedom (both individual, democratic, and economic) with higher living standards. Some two-bit ivory-tower pen-pusher can say all he likes, that doesn't alter verifiable facts and evidence.
Yes, you can definitely go from economically repressed 3rd world shithole to 2nd world status by opening up the economy - see Russia, Brazil, India, China, the dictatorial Asian states etc. But to go to proper 1st world status you need to go beyond just producing commodities or cheap labour industries, you need to move up the value chain, and that requires intelligent people to run more of a knowledge-based economy. If you are a repressive dictatorship which doesn't allow individual rights, persecutes minorities etc, many of the intellectual class will emigrate, and fewer will migrate in. The net result is lower level of prosperity, worse leadership across the economy and government, and so on.
Freedom is not just morally right, it is more profitable, and results in more prosperity, wherever it is tried, regardless of cultural differences.
And let's not forget, the Asian tigers only developed because of the western-paid military protection offered to them, otherwise they'd be Chinese or Japanese colonies by now.
Take a look at the facts - correlations across study after study, linking overall freedom (both individual, democratic, and economic) with higher living standards. Some two-bit ivory-tower pen-pusher can say all he likes, that doesn't alter verifiable facts and evidence.
Yes, you can definitely go from economically repressed 3rd world shithole to 2nd world status by opening up the economy - see Russia, Brazil, India, China, the dictatorial Asian states etc. But to go to proper 1st world status you need to go beyond just producing commodities or cheap labour industries, you need to move up the value chain, and that requires intelligent people to run more of a knowledge-based economy. If you are a repressive dictatorship which doesn't allow individual rights, persecutes minorities etc, many of the intellectual class will emigrate, and fewer will migrate in. The net result is lower level of prosperity, worse leadership across the economy and government, and so on.
Freedom is not just morally right, it is more profitable, and results in more prosperity, wherever it is tried, regardless of cultural differences.
This is really not true. When you're speaking of correlations + study, which ones? When I look at correlations, I see any number of incredibly poor nations across the third world who aspire to "freedom"... and yet haven't reached them.
There are more democracies in Africa, today, than dictatorships. Same goes for South Asia, central Europe, etc, etc. Where do they fall on your table of correlations?
And it's ironic that you'd suggest Hong Kong (was) free. It never had anything approaching democracy as a British colony; it's governor was appointed, not elected.