proelite
Junior Member
Do you think the government would not have the ability to properly police ammo sales on the black market and prevent gun crimes?
Chinese Economics Thread
- Thread starter Norfolk
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Do you think the government would not have the ability to properly police ammo sales on the black market and prevent gun crimes?
I don't understand the value proposition here.
The market for private firearms even in the US is $28 billion.
The price imposed by gun violence directly in the US is $550 billion.
What is the incredible value of personal firearms with no ammo (so they couldn't even be used in self defense) that would necessitate the risk of incurring 20x their cost to public health and safety directly?
proelite
Junior Member
They're essentially expensive toys with wide appeal for adults, who would need to travel to a site and pay extra money to enjoy them to the fullest (annual recurring revenue for ammo manufacturers, gun range businesses). There might be a whole industry formed around customizations and aftermarket parts.
I doubt that China ever had the level of gun violence it is in America before 1996 when ownership was mostly legal. Combined with ammo being illegal to own, I don't believe gun violence will be an issue at all.
It is the cost/return ratio that matters. Do not underestimate the creativity of Chinese. I bet underground ammo factories would mushroom all over the country the next day if the government let go of ban on gun ownership as you are suggesting.
proelite
Junior Member
If we regulate ammo manufacturing, smuggling with the same mechanism as illicit drugs, would that work? Is drug addiction even a thing anymore in China?
Certain class of illegal drugs have medical exemptions, so that parallels with ammo purchase and usage at gun ranges.
Just a thought experiment.
With the level of control and surveillance capabilities of the government and the conformity of Chinese society, I think Chinese citizens can safely given more freedom without the risks involved.
I've always believed that a society can maximize two aspects: security, privacy, and freedom. Given the level of capable surveillance in China, I believe Chinese society can enjoy very high levels of security and freedom. Contrast that with the US where security is sacrificed at the expense of freedom and privacy. Even worse because lack of security equates to lower freedom.
Maybe I am overestimating the surveillance capabilities of the state or underestimating the level of privacy afforded to Chinese citizens lol.
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China is not a conformist society so it will be devastating. Did you think Chinese were as conformist as westerners which never had a successful commoner's revolution from the time of Rome until Oliver Cromwell in 1600s?
In fact since the late Qing, Chinese have been referred to as a heap of loose sand.
I don't think such activity should be hosted inside China, as it invariably leads to the exploitation of the actors. And afaik, it already exists in some form, outsourced by Chinese owners to SEA. But there is a caveat here in that China can perhaps within a few decades totally reshore and reshape the global adult entertainment industry through AI and advanced robotics.
China is on the cusp of developing a general humanoid service robot. Which will be used for sexual entertainment as well. Probably only China can design the advanced technology at prices consumers can afford. After all if China can make consumer friendly robodog in 2024, a consumer friendly humanoid isn't far off, and the generative AI technology for pseudo-human interaction already exists.
Ironically China buys back a lot of goodwill from western incels if they can put such a product into the market. And a surprising amount of the grifters that US nationalists are appealing to have this background, insecure and frustrated American young males who fear China's international position will doom American living standards and in turn make them wageslave incels for life.
With Chinese advanced robotics they would still be wageslave incels, but they'd have their perfect white, western tradwife to go home to. That would imho make it quite difficult for them to have lasting anger towards China.
Drug abuse and trafficking is still a serious problem in China. Many police officers sacrificed their lives fighting the drug dealers and addicts. The police busted drug shops that had produced tons of drugs, literally. It was rampant between the 90s and the 00s. It is said that there are signs of it coming back. The authorities are on high alert.
Yeah, I do not understand what is problem Pettis has.
Seems like he is trying to out compete Comrade Chang, but more in a low key way.
That is the only way I can put it.
You are looking at him through too narrow of a lens. He is a pretty standard economist, which means that he has a wonderful theoretical model which explains everything about economics and if only everyone recognized it then he would win a Nobel Prize. But everyone needs to recognize it first, which is why he constantly talks about how China (and Germany, and Argentina, and so on) are all examples of how his model is perfectly correct. And anything which doesn't fit or disproves it is ignored or dismissed. Because reality does not matter; what matters is how reality can be explained by his model. And his model can never be wrong, because then he can't win a Nobel Prize. It's far too late for older economists like him to start from scratch with a new model, so they have no choice but to double down even as time changes the conditions they used to originally create their model. Most economists labor under the same kind of delusion, from Milton Friedman to Paul Krugman to everyone in between, because everyone wants to be the new Keynes.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
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For the same reason it's important to have a null hypothesis, an alternative hypothesis, and a hypothesis.
"Generally" And Tesla's 4860 cells are in fact on the technological frontier, but yes, most manufacturers outside of China can't build a decent EV to save their life, but technology isn't just "EVs".
The $550 billion is a made up number.
But to your earlier point, many developed societies do in fact have legal gun ownership. Even in police states like United Kingdom. The gun ownership is heavily regulated and the culture around firearms in those countries is completely different from United States. Which is why they do not suffer from the same gun violence.
The problem with Uinted States is the ease with which any idiot can get a firearm (also why suicide via firearm is common). A total ban on firearms is fine too, most people seem to do just fine without them, but there are benefits to fostering a gunowner community.
Plus, they're also really fun.
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