Being rich isn’t the greatest reward. And not feasible. Only the few can ever be rich.
Demanding a society where an economic system makes the virtuous rich is mental.
An economic system should be measured by the quality of life and productivity by the society. And it’s ability to consume said wealth. I.e. china is failing their citizens, badly. So is Germany in their psychosis of exporting.
Okay that’s fair, let me try that again: Even on a per capita basis China is doing pretty well for itself. You can also compare other countries here (this is basically a poverty index so the lower it is the better).
I mean, that’s how you get good standards of living. You can also look up its GDP per capita, which isn’t high but is definitely respectable. In that case though you can look up China’s HDI. There’s just no metric by which China is failing the majority of its citizens (emphasis on majority; of course Uighurs for example will feel differently).
It also doesn’t punish an export economy without domestic consumption
That doesn’t make sense though. Exports bring in money which can be used to import stuff or for domestic consumption. A strong export economy leads to good standards of living.
That’s not correct. E.g. Germany has consistent exported way more goods and services than it has imported. A healthy economy is not an automatism from being good at shipping stuff off shore. There is no gain from building a car if you buy the materials ship the car and have money left over. You do actually have to spend that money. There is no good in owning money. That’s how economies die and cost of e.g. housing explodes.
I mean, Germany has one of the highest standards of living in the developed world despite being weighed down by East Germany so clearly it’s working out for them. Stuff like the housing crisis is hitting the whole developed world all at once, so it’s not like Germany is special there.
But surely being rich (i.e being comfortable and having the freedom to explore new enterprises) is the best reward that society en large can give you; the best and only appropriate award that the government can provide you for your skilled labour. It has also historically been very effective at getting society to innovate and improve.
So you want neurosurgeons to be rich enough so they can stop being neurosurgeons for their deed of becoming neurosurgeons? Sure they should be well off enough. But they typically are just normal people.
Rant: Scientists aren’t fundamentally better. They just have learned how to do science. That’s not particularly hard or admirable and virtually everyone could do it.
It is being made hard due to societal decisions such as high study costs etc. but that doesn’t make them superior.
Please explain where China is failing their citizens? We cannot even afford houses in the West anymore, while they have 95 % homeownership rate in China. And there are many more examples like that.
China’s domestic consumption is very low, their exports are much greater than their imports, i.e. they provide the world with goods without sufficient compensation. Their population should be doing better and being wealthier. Their consumers are using real estate as an investment vehicle creating an enormous housing bubble. Home ownership is ridiculously expensive and there are mostly very small apartments at high rates. They are famous for constructing highly speculative ghost towns.
As soon as the promise of wealth in age starts to falter china may change fundamentally. And it seems like that may be coming soon rather than later.
Being rich isn’t the greatest reward. And not feasible. Only the few can ever be rich.
Demanding a society where an economic system makes the virtuous rich is mental.
An economic system should be measured by the quality of life and productivity by the society. And it’s ability to consume said wealth. I.e. china is failing their citizens, badly. So is Germany in their psychosis of exporting.
I mean, no? China is the single biggest driver of reduced poverty in the world.
China is among the most populus countries and your metric is susceptible to that.
Okay that’s fair, let me try that again: Even on a per capita basis China is doing pretty well for itself. You can also compare other countries here (this is basically a poverty index so the lower it is the better).
Real gdp growth is not a good metric of wealth. It’s a metric of progress(speed).
It also doesn’t punish an export economy without domestic consumption, which is what I find worrying/exploitative.
I mean, that’s how you get good standards of living. You can also look up its GDP per capita, which isn’t high but is definitely respectable. In that case though you can look up China’s HDI. There’s just no metric by which China is failing the majority of its citizens (emphasis on majority; of course Uighurs for example will feel differently).
That doesn’t make sense though. Exports bring in money which can be used to import stuff or for domestic consumption. A strong export economy leads to good standards of living.
That’s not correct. E.g. Germany has consistent exported way more goods and services than it has imported. A healthy economy is not an automatism from being good at shipping stuff off shore. There is no gain from building a car if you buy the materials ship the car and have money left over. You do actually have to spend that money. There is no good in owning money. That’s how economies die and cost of e.g. housing explodes.
I mean, Germany has one of the highest standards of living in the developed world despite being weighed down by East Germany so clearly it’s working out for them. Stuff like the housing crisis is hitting the whole developed world all at once, so it’s not like Germany is special there.
But surely being rich (i.e being comfortable and having the freedom to explore new enterprises) is the best reward that society en large can give you; the best and only appropriate award that the government can provide you for your skilled labour. It has also historically been very effective at getting society to innovate and improve.
So you want neurosurgeons to be rich enough so they can stop being neurosurgeons for their deed of becoming neurosurgeons? Sure they should be well off enough. But they typically are just normal people.
Rant: Scientists aren’t fundamentally better. They just have learned how to do science. That’s not particularly hard or admirable and virtually everyone could do it.
It is being made hard due to societal decisions such as high study costs etc. but that doesn’t make them superior.
I don’t like that elitism.
Please explain where China is failing their citizens? We cannot even afford houses in the West anymore, while they have 95 % homeownership rate in China. And there are many more examples like that.
China’s domestic consumption is very low, their exports are much greater than their imports, i.e. they provide the world with goods without sufficient compensation. Their population should be doing better and being wealthier. Their consumers are using real estate as an investment vehicle creating an enormous housing bubble. Home ownership is ridiculously expensive and there are mostly very small apartments at high rates. They are famous for constructing highly speculative ghost towns.
As soon as the promise of wealth in age starts to falter china may change fundamentally. And it seems like that may be coming soon rather than later.