American Economics Thread

[Africablack]

I disagree. American Middle East policy is tied to defending Israel. This is a historical mischaracterization of American foreign policy that has been conducted since the 1970s and 1980s. The US was already a superpower before it was really relevant in the Middle East and would continue to be dominant even without the unjustified military presence. Even today, there are only Americans in the Middle East because of Israel.

Then ask yourself why American foreign policy is tied to Israel.

 

[Franklin]

The tariffs and the rhetoric around the tariffs shows you that America has washed its hands of all responsibility for her own predicament and blames everyone else in the world for her problems.

America has double down on blaming others and putting the onus on others to solve her problems.

 

[siegecrossbow]

The tariffs and the rhetoric around the tariffs shows you that America has washed its hands of all responsibility for her own predicament and blames everyone else in the world for her problems.

America has double down on blaming others and putting the onus on others to solve her problems.

More like they played all the cards during Biden and Trump 1.0…

 

[manqiangrexue]

I mean, you might as well have said if China didn't go through the Cultural Revolution, it's economy and technology might have surpassed America's completely by now and Taiwan would've been reunited. Could've, should've, would've, didn't.

America DID get into those Mideast military adventures AND boggled the ability to get the spoils from those adventures. That's the reality.

If China had done the Cultural Revolution with all things gotten right and none of the economic mistakes made, we would be ahead of where we are now, perhaps already surpassed America. But to not have one, who knows what the country could end up like. We could be a big Taiwan, taking an early lead to appear more advanced and wealthy, but under that, everything is totally under American control, and crippled from the foundation when the US senses the threat of an imminent overtake of thier power. They would never allow a vassal to rival them, even with similar ideologies and historical "friendship."

 

[TK3600]

The funny thing is that if Clinton, through Bush Jr. and Obama, had not gotten bogged down in the Middle East spending trillions of dollars on useless wars, they could have redesigned international geopolitics, rebuilt their infrastructure and created industrial opportunities to maintain or rehabilitate American industry, they would now be in a much more comfortable position to face China, at all levels.

A US with a functional infrastructure, with a truly competitive industry, in addition to having maintained a more egalitarian socio-economic situation, would be in a much better position today than the current US to face China. They would not have this unpayable debt, they would not have these deficits that corrode public finances and accumulate debt.

And reason they keep losing trillions on worthless war? Israel. Israeli faction is responsible destruction of US empire.

If we want to engage in victim blamimg, US system made them easy to puppet around, and their willing worship of their system allowed them to be destroyed by Israel.

 

[han1289]

If China had done the Cultural Revolution with all things gotten right and none of the economic mistakes made, we would be ahead of where we are now, perhaps already surpassed America. But to not have one, who knows what the country could end up like. We could be a big Taiwan, taking an early lead to appear more advanced and wealthy, but under that, everything is totally under American control, and crippled from the foundation when the US senses the threat of an imminent overtake of thier power. They would never allow a vassal to rival them, even with similar ideologies and historical "friendship."

We would've hit a certain point in GDP and then gotten Plaza Accord'ed. 30 years of stagnation and counting.

 

[FriedRiceNSpice]

But to not have one, who knows what the country could end up like. We could be a big Taiwan, taking an early lead to appear more advanced and wealthy, but under that, everything is totally under American control, and crippled from the foundation when the US senses the threat of an imminent overtake of thier power. They would never allow a vassal to rival them, even with similar ideologies and historical "friendship."

Don't know where you got the idea that not having Cultural Revolution would lead to China to become big Taiwan and falling under American control. Cultural Revolution was big mistake, nothing good at all came out of it.

 

[manqiangrexue]

Don't know where you got the idea that not having Cultural Revolution would lead to China to become big Taiwan and falling under American control. Cultural Revolution was big mistake, nothing good at all came out of it.

Absolutely not. The main benefit of it is that it drove hard that China is its own identity; Chinese people are to fight for our own future and be proud for being red. We cannot and will not be a lackey to or reliant on any other power like the USA or the Soviet Union like Chiang KaiShek wanted. For that, all the economic mistakes were worth it, albeit, unnecessary at times.

 

[FriedRiceNSpice]

Absolutely not. The main benefit of it is that it drove hard that China is its own identity; Chinese people are to fight for our own future and be proud for being red. We cannot and will not be a lackey to or reliant on any other power like the USA or the Soviet Union like Chiang KaiShek wanted. For that, all the economic mistakes were worth it, albeit, unnecessary at times.

Cultural Revolution weakened Chinese identity and unity if anything. Why would China have become a lackey of either USSR or US without it? Only possible benefit at all from Cultural Revolution is it set the stage for Deng Xiaoping.

 

[manqiangrexue]

Cultural Revolution weakened Chinese identity and unity if anything.

I don't see this at all. How do you figure? The Cultural Revolution was a crash course, sort of "bring the horse to the river and shove its head down to force it to drink" kinda event for Chinese nationalism. It created a Chinese core that was loyal to the CCP but also fragments that would become self-hating and escape to other countries to showcase their disgrace. At a difficult time in its history, China needed this core to be strong; the fragments are annoying but that's about it. Without the Cultural Revolution, the vast majority of Chinese people would be less aware, less nationalistic and this core would not be there to serve as China's buttress against being bled by foreign interests.

Why would China have become a lackey of either USSR or US without it?

Mao is going to bring the Cultural Revolution to create the core I talked about. He's not going to let China sit there and be mellow. The only way it wouldn't have happened is if China fell under Chiang, who wanted China to be an American lackey because he had no confidence in the innate power and intellect of Chinese people to take us to the top of the world.

Only possible benefit at all from Cultural Revolution is it set the stage for Deng Xiaoping.

So it was useful when it happened and useful at its end.