When Competing Evils Collide: c. 2040 by E D Phillips
Rated "G" by the Author.
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edited: Sunday, February 1, 2015
Posted: Saturday, January 31, 2015
Since 1980 the China economy has been growing in leaps and bounds. Just a few years ago China passed Japan and became the second largest economy in the world. Today it is twice as big as Japan’s and it is closing in on the U.S. economy. By 2020 it will surpass us. By 2040 it will be several light years ahead of us with a GDP around $100 trillion v. our own projected GDP of about $30 trillion.
Concurrently, the wealthiest 1 percent of U.S. residents now have a larger net worth than all the rest of us (the other 99%) combined. By 2040 they will be several light years ahead of the rest of us. Their current net worth will have grown from $45 trillion to about $255 trillion while the other 99 percent will hold around $75 trillion.
Several questions arise from these two looming gigantic forces and disparate outcomes: First, which of them poses the greater threat to the United States and to the rest of the civilized world? Second, can the world accommodate both of them at the same time? Third, do these issues matter?
I don’t have answers to these questions. I do have preferences. I would prefer life under the rule of China’s elite than under the rule of our own plutocrats. My reasons are numerous. They are also hypothetical because I will be dead and gone long before 2040. If you are yet to be born up to about 35 years of age, please take heed. Your lives will be affected,
America’s plutocrats are driven by greed, while China’s elite are driven by ideology. Both can be and are hazardous to your health. Both are insulting to your intelligence. Both are dehumanizing and humiliating. Both are excessively cruel. Both are based on false senses of self-worth. Both feed off their own warped world views. Both are unkind, uncaring, cruel, dishonest, immoral, and both will make you a slave to them or they will kill you. Both will not open the doors of opportunity to you. The Chinese are a bit more humane in that they will shoot you for disobedience. Our plutocrats will let you starve or die of diseases while blaming you for your circumstances.
The main differences boil down to these: The Chinese ideology will indoctrinate you into their ideology; our plutocrats will not. China will provide minimal health care; our plutocrats will not. China will praise you while you toil in the fields or in their factories; our plutocrats will not. China will kill or incarcerate you if you try to escape; our plutocrats will only incarcerate you if you try to come back.
But here is the deal breaker for me: China will not force atheism down your throat; our plutocrats will spend most of their time jamming their religion down your throat. I would prefer to take my chances with a head empty of religion, than one filled up with nonsense.
I enjoyed your comparison of the rich of China and rich of the U.S., but they both have ideologies and this is of no consequence because ideologies are shaped by what they are going to do anyway, and that is: make as much money as they can, get as much power as they can. I only wish the rest of us, the 98%, would wake up and realize that we are the ones that keep this boat afloat by doing our jobs, even when they are senseless. We need to look at what's happening and tell it like it is. Act according to our own needs: our need for education, health care, our need for housing, safety etc. and make the government answer to our needs, not the desires of the rich. Most of all, we don't need the rich. They are parasites. The sooner we realize this the sooner we can work to reshape the economy.
Ron: My preliminary comment about what is possible and potential is not the same as a prediction. It is a distinction I learned to make about 40 years ago. But moving on. Yes, there is also the looming conflict with Islamic extremists, the climate, energy, old Russian territorialists, and many other issues that likely will continue to intrude and compound themselves. I chose to limit the subject to a clashing of essentially dissimilar people and origins that nobody else is talking about.
You are very brave to predict the future. On the other hand, you are right about not being around to worry about whether you're right or not.
Left me wondering about India and what part it would play in your scenario. As I understand it, India has many religions, making money about the only one that makes any sense. I have found Indians to be very resourceful and bright, so they are a force to be reckoned with.
So, it's all about religion… Isn't it? Or is it about money and greed (I can't believe that the Chinese party heads accepting huge bribes are not greedy)?
You are preaching to the choir, my friend. The only people who pay attention to what is happening are of small number. That is interesting about China. As usual, brilliant article.
Democratic Dilemmas and Divine Inspiration examines the significance or relevance of the idea that the U.S. Constitution was, as many believe, divinely inspired. How much did that belief matter to founders of the nation and how much does it matter no
Democratic Dilemmas and Divine Inspiration examines the significance or relevance of the idea that the U.S. Constitution was, as many believe, divinely inspired. How much did that belief matter to founders of the nation and how much does it matter no
Democratic Dilemmas and Divine Inspiration examines the significance or relevance of the idea that the U.S. Constitution was, as many believe, divinely inspired. How much did that belief matter to founders of the nation and how much does it matter no
Left me wondering about India and what part it would play in your scenario. As I understand it, India has many religions, making money about the only one that makes any sense. I have found Indians to be very resourceful and bright, so they are a force to be reckoned with.
So, it's all about religion… Isn't it? Or is it about money and greed (I can't believe that the Chinese party heads accepting huge bribes are not greedy)?
Food for thought…
Ron