The "What Are You Doing This Moment" Thread

[HamburgerBoy]

This context dummy. The cultural context.

What cultural degradation? Mao already tried his best to destroy Chinese culture, it can't get much worse than him. Are you talking about the new rich in China and those children of skyscraper developers that go around in gold-plated Ferraris snorting coke in high-class Chinese raves? Yeah they exist, but that's the exception, not the norm. I never said that China will be free of degeneracy forever, once they reach our standard of living I think it's only natural that they decay as well.

 

[CiG]

What cultural degradation? Mao already tried his best to destroy Chinese culture, it can't get much worse than him.

You say that as if Mao has been entirely purged from Chinese culture.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

See edit, and answer the question.

 

[CiG]

See edit, and answer the question.

This.

I have a few Chinese friends, some living here and others living there and they're always talking to me about the situation over there and it sounds like a shitshow.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Cool, a Facebook video of some white English-speaking guy approaching a house and apparently being blocked by Chinese people, with a link to a BBC article in Chinese, which when translated tells me that it's about a woman struggling to run as an independent candidate in a nation none of us would argue is democratic.

Anything else?

 

[CiG]

The Two-child Policy.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

The Two-child Policy.

What about it? The one-child policy saved them from potential hundreds of millions more Chinese people that would be living in squalor. I didn't say they were a libertarian paradise, but the things you're talking about are nothing compared to the improvements China has seen since the 80s.

 

[CiG]

Cultural improvements? Sure, like you said, Mao was a low point that is hard to compare with, but there's a reason they have such policies to begin with. Environmentally the country is also a total disaster.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Cultural improvements? Sure, like you said, Mao was a low point that is hard to compare with, but there's a reason they have such policies to begin with. Environmentally the country is also a total disaster.

I'd say it's more pragmatic than cultural. Peasants didn't have lots of kids because of some innate cultural pride, they did because they wanted cheap labor to plow the fields. It's a minor deal.

The costs of environmental damage are easily outweighed by the benefits in most other features of their standard of living.

Life expectancy:

GDP per capita:

 

[CiG]

Well good it's about time those terrible shites caught up.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Those Chinamen stealing yer jerb, roight m8?

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I glorify Asia because they're greater practitioners of capitalism than most of the West

Corruption, poor regulation, capital flight, and dirt-cheap stock valuations suggest otherwise.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-04-23/china-s-control-problem

In much of corporate China, weak internal controls are the norm. Banks are reluctant to spend money on database or compliance software. Forged corporate seals have been used to conduct billions of dollars in seemingly legitimate trading. Nearly 60 percent of Chinese executives say that unethical behavior is acceptable to keep a company going or to meet revenue targets. In short, investors and regulators have reason to worry.

American bank compliance, by contrast:

https://www.complianceweek.com/blogs/the-filing-cabinet/ex-wells-fargo-ceo-slams-‘absurd’-compliance-spending#.WQqeldIrKUk

“I think what’s happening today, is that they [banks in general] are getting rid of sales staff and investing in technology and so on, in order to pay for compliance. It is staggering. In our bank there are probably close to 10,000 compliance people. At JPMorgan it is 20,000 compliance people. It is absurd that we are investing that kind of money on compliance."

Exhibit C - Hyundai CEO:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Mong-koo

He was convicted of embezzlement and breach of fiduciary duty in February 2007,[2] but was given a suspended sentence and was fully pardoned by President Lee Myung-bak.

Lee was also a Hyundai executive before becoming President of South Korea.

Chung is still the Chairman and CEO of Hyundai today. Embezzlement charges are pretty unheard-of among CEOs of large, public US companies, as are such companies being run by convicted criminals.

For more on corporate corruption in South Korea, see the ongoing bribery trial for Samsung's CEO:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/07/samsung-boss-trial-court-jy-lee.html

Exhibit D:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1Malaysia_Development_Berhad_scandal

In 2015, Malaysia's Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak, was accused of channelling over RM2.67 billion (nearly USD 700 million) from 1MDB, a government-run strategic development company, to his personal bank accounts. The event triggered widespread criticisms among Malaysians, with many calling for Najib's resignation

Razak is still the Prime Minister.


The only major Asian country I'd consider calling a "good practitioner of capitalism" is Japan.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Good point and examples. True, Asia practices a kind of corporatism/crony capitalism that falls short of American ideals, but despite the amount of corruption in play and the currency manipulation and other bubbles China is playing into, the end result is that by adopting cut-throat market economies, those nations have been rapidly managed to build wealth, jobs, infrastructure, and their standard of living. Corporate fraud is bad, but let's not pretend it's something the West is immune to; the only reason you have all those banks hiring "compliance people" is because of how many of them hosed Americans during the recession, or even after. See John Stumpf.

Ultimately I was referring more to the competitive nature of their culture, though. In France, Spain, the UK, etc you see a gradual decline as the citizenry becomes more complacent with just working less for more social benefits.

 

[CiG]

Those Chinamen stealing yer jerb, roight m8?

I work for myself you cretin.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I work for myself you cretin.

Self-employed Asians taking over your can recycling business.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Ultimately I was referring more to the competitive nature of their culture, though. In France, Spain, the UK, etc you see a gradual decline as the citizenry becomes more complacent with just working less for more social benefits.

I certainly won't defend Europe on economic competitiveness - just the US

 

[CiG]

Self-employed Asians taking over your can recycling business.

Most Asians here seem to own fish and chip shops and lunch-bars, long story short they suck balls at cooking western food.

 

[CiG]

Gee, why is there an uprising of the right in the U.K. and Europe? @Mort Divine a "woman" after your own heart.

 

[arg]

koreans are probably the hottest asians. i wonder how the whoring scene is in south korea

 

[CiG]

I'd rather the North Korean whores, they're more desperate.