They "eliminated" extreme poverty caused by communist control in the first place, by going to a capitalist system.

There were tons of economic low-hanging fruits by building out large infrastructure projects, which corruption happily siphoned off of.

The ROI of these infra projects have been gone for a while, yet they continued. Also it's been stealing intellectual property, trade dumping, exporting deflation. Soaking up the manufacturing oxygen of everyone else through subsidies, elite capture, then using the leverage gained and veiled threats against others to force them to yield resources, market access and political control.

Emm... and what prevents the USA from doing all the same things?

Labour laws, for starters.

The conditions the average Chinese works in are abysmal, even from the American point of view.

Well, then you basically know what to do. Rescind those laws and become competitive again.

China benefited greatly from the US-led globalism order that's been going on since WWII.

Another way of saying it is China took the most advantage. And it has gone way overboard in taking advantage. So the backlash is expected and necessary.

Part of fixing things involve doing things that seem like it's destroying the order that the US created itself.

>They "eliminated" extreme poverty caused by communist control in the first place, by going to a capitalist system.

Not a fan of CCP but pretending like there was no extreme poverty in China before CCP is insane position.

More cope.

"They eliminated poverty... but at WHAT COST? They did good things but they trampled on the intellectual property of our beloved billionares? *sob*"

Yeah, and whilst getting themselves out of poverty they built 50,000km of high speed rail.

By racking up debt of epic proportions, with no return on investment in sight.

All the while going into a demographic death spiral. Partly cause by the draconian 1-child policy, which attempted to fix the pronatalist policies of Mao.

"debt"? You mean the balancing item from money creation? Question: To which bank does the government owe the liabilities created when it creates the money? (clue: the government owns it).

Nothing is really stopping other countries from doing the same, to be honest. People are just scared to give legitimacy to what China has done for their citizens in a very short amount of time, because that would be against their own beliefs and morals.

I'm not saying China is the best and whatever, just saying they've proven every "China is about to fall" headline that has been circulating around for the past 15 years. Maybe we should learn some things from them.

Debt is not fundamentally bad. But the financing has to be justified by positive return, be it in the service itself that makes money back to pay off the debt, or as a public good, returns in the form societal benefit as a result of the service.

When you have massive buildups with no hope of returns, it's a a bad financial decision and the public carries the debt burden.

What is this debt? You didn't answer my question. Who's buying it and what choice do they have, and to whom is it owed ultimately?

I’m not sure, because for every “China debt bad”, we see millions of people getting urbanized and living in upgraded environments.

>But the financing has to be justified by positive return

Pure BS

They weren't "lifted". They stopped their policies, lasseize faire, and the market took care of the rest. Now they're back at it again, impeding.

I recently spent 3 months in Tokyo and I have say, that the quality of life, service, food, consumer products, safety, air/noise pollution, are the best I've seen anywhere.

It's especially pleasing given that the prices are very low in comparison to other world-class cities. I did, however, witness prices rising during the time I was there.

It's hard to see how Tokyo might have been stagnating given the quality of life I witnessed. It saddens me to say this but, I'd visit Taiwan to see what economic stagnation looks like - it feels like time-traveling back to the 90's.

In the 90s, Taiwan was much poorer than Japan, but its per capita GDP is now at parity with Japan and likely passed it last quarter.

Occasionally, I’ll visit an area I knew from 15 years ago and it will feel like a completely different city. In particular, it’s shocking how much better the infrastructure and transportation has gotten. The cities have a lot more green areas interspersed into them also.

It brings me no joy to say this.

Taiwan's numbers looks good on paper (until you dig further), but the reality on the pavement, or lackthereof, is dire. The noise, air, visual pollution are as bad as it was from 30 years ago, maybe worse. Traffic is bad, and salary to cost of living is extreme.

Japan's numbers look bad. But its quality of life is one of the best in the world.

Has there been progress in infrastructure/housing in Taiwan? Sure, in small areas, such as new housing developments, where all the capital sits, extracting rent or sitting empty, contributing nothing.

We need to do better, raise our standards. Otherwise we're going to get left behind even further.

I would think fear of being blown up by mainland China at any moment is bad for capital investment... meanwhile you have a highly skilled and educated workforce vying to man the capital in the country. I would think that would make labor artificially weak.

IMO Taiwan needs world recognition and solid assurances their capital investments won't end up in the opium pipe of some CCP party man. Until then you'd have to be kind of insane to bet the farm providing jobs to Taiwan.

Taiwan offers a really easy "gold card" for Americans that I considered getting but I realized what they needed wasn't my labor but lots of foreigners from powerful allies living in the crosshairs to make sure allies will get really really pissed if they get blown up.

You folks ought to spend some time in Taiwan. I'm in Tokyo now, was in TW for a couple of years prior. Tokyo is extremely beautiful in comparison. (I'm Taiwanese Canadian)

I'd say practicing non-dualism à la Zen Buddhism helps a lot. In short it helps see through preconceived (or any form of) notions, such that one doesn't become attached, including to the notion of becoming unattached itself.

It points outs that the separation of our individual self from others can be seen as illusory, that we're all deeply connected. Sure my left arm is weaker than my right, but that doesn't make it "less important", and in fact thinking in such a way is preposterous. But might be useful in another context such as left/right balance for fitness.

Consecration: The Final Recordings

It's recorded weeks before his death. There's something special in his later performances.

I’d actually recommend Taichung as well. Much more affordable than Taipei, and more spacious.

Air quality has regressed though, because they shut down the nuclear power plant after Fukushima.

Taipei is actually pretty OK. Other cities in Taiwan, not so much.

I have a 49” curved too! But it’s a UHD TV so it’s four 24” 1080p screen in one! Three/two portrait windows is great for reading, reducing scrolling.

It took way too long for me to realize that this isn't a product where one stores/sends famous words from smart people.

Otherwise, looks great!

Haha sorry to confuse you. We'll work on the keywords.