Guns, Butter, Pollution, and Death

Cinese
apitalism

Aside

This was a difficult article for me to write. I don't know why.

China's Smoking Capitalism

China's economy is exploding to the upside. It's ironic that this communist country is veering towards capitalism, that Germany and France are reducing taxes, but that the U.S. is getting ready to swerve left—which will destroy an economy that is humming along.

The problem in China is, in fact, that it is growing too fast, if you can imagine this. They are paying the price for this unbridled growth with pollution that chokes you with every breath, and a runaway stock market that worries Chinese officials, and the world, for that matter.










The problem is a kind of 1920's scenario, where ordinary folks are making fortunes, and so they sell their homes and valuables to invest. It's a great big Ponzi scheme that eventually will end. The only thing that might keep it from becoming a disaster is that China's real growth is astronomic, about 20% a year or more.

This means that the rise in the Chinese stock market is based on fundamental growth, and not just speculation. Still, if their market rises too much, it will overtake real value, and the last ones to buy in will be left holding the bag—minus their homes and valuables. This is just what happened in the 1920's in America when people could buy stocks on margin, only putting up 10% of the value of a stock to own it. When the market crashed, people couldn't pay their margin calls, and started jumping out of windows.

Again, China is not an exact copy of 1920's America, as China's monstrous growth will cushion the eventual fall of the market. Still.

Discipline, Chinese Style

So, China, aware of the danger, has tried to calm down its market by raising interest rates, increasing margin requirements, and so on. The next thing they are trying is to "eliminate" those who encourage speculation. They've just arrested a blogger who is the most read on the Chinese Internet, because he gave stock tips that work! (See also: Chinese blogger, and Chinese blogger arrested.

You see, there are still differences between how their form of capitalism works and ours. We might want to jail unethical people too, but we have to go through a legitimate trial first. There's always the question of guilt and innocence. Was this Chinese blogger really doing a bad thing by giving good stock tips? I don't know the details—whether he was revealing insider information or something like this. The Chinese, though, don't know enough to charge him with anything specific either. They arrested him simply because they see him as part of the problem of the overly enthusiastic Chinese markets.

Notice too, how they handled an unethical businessman recently. They executed him, within weeks of his being charged!

Now that's a heavy penalty. Our Enron offenders are rotting in jail, but Chinese crooks get shot.

Examples of American "Discipline"

Witness, again, that some of our worst businessmen are rotting in jail, after long drawn-out trials and appeals. Enron, Martha Stewart, et al.

Here is another example of how we handle our business renegades:

See the Pearl Izumi advertisement, (& Pearl Izumi ad) in the window at the top of today's post, which appeared in Runner's World. There has been an outcry against, and for, the ad. People against the ad call it tasteless, and lurid. Those for it call it edgy. No one will arrest the authors, though, nor anyone at Pearl Izumi, nor their parent company Nautilus.

Some people might want to arrest them, but we don't do that sort of thing. The ad was either in bad taste, or was "edgy." You decide.

So, Whose System Is Better?

Dictatorships and totalitarian governments are always more efficient than democracies. They can arrest people without trials and stop stock speculation by banning it, to a certain extent. They can jail people fast, and shoot them too. Who's going to complain?

But then what? They've lost this creative blogger, and they're going to lose a hundred thousand others like him with initiative, who now will be frightened to stand out. If the guy broke a law, the law should be public and known to all, before any arrest; and there should be a fair trial.

While we'd like to execute Martha Stewart some days, it's better that she had a trial and was found guilty, and made muffins for the prisoners. (Yeah!)

Our system is better, believe me.

Unstoppable

Like I said, though, things like China jailing a blogger and executing a businessman after a show trial, won't hurt China's growth all that much. After all, they have unleashed the tiger of capitalism in their country. This beast can be ridden, but it can't be stopped. Who would want to stop it? They will try to slow it down, at the point of a gun, but this behemoth has thick skin. It is mightier than bullets. It is not just a tiger. It is a flaming tiger. Its heat melts bullets, and defies firing squads.

One day, it might even lead to—yes, you guessed it—democracy.

Rock

(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)


Click here to get a button link to this blog:

<br /><br /><a href="http://truthrock.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/668/cooltext38806293hm4.gif" alt="Truth—The No Spin Politically Incorrect Zone"></a><br /><br /> <br /><br />

Join me in the war on error, in the fight for truth, justice, and the American way! Support this site!


Subscribe to my feed
                                          

Join or Surf Rock's Political Blog Ring. Both Liberals and Conservatives are Welcome.

Technorati Tags for this post:
China, Chinese, Chinese Capitalism, Capitalism, American Capitalism, Chinese blogger, China executes businessman, democracy

Regular Technorati Tags for this blog: politics, political, politically incorrect, no spin, conservative, Republican, right wing, liberal, Democrat, left wing, leftist, democracy, election, peace, war, George W. Bush, editorial, opinion, news, current affairs, media, television, television, Hollywood, books, culture, society, religion, God, fundamentalism, Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Jew, Israel, Palestine, blog, truth