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China Is Rapidly Overtaking the United States as the World's Scientific Superpower (futurism.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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[–] -3 points 7 months ago (14 children)

I feel as though the low standard of living of the average Chinese national is a more decisive factor. The resources that could be spent on public welfare programs are spent on research and subsidies instead.

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  • [–] 15 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    I mean, resources aren't being spent on public welfare programs in the US either. We only have a higher standard of living because of the legacy of (roughly) the New Deal era, when we were investing in it as well as unions winning a lot of labor reforms. Those preexisting advantages have only been slowly eroding for the last 40-odd years.

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  • [+] -9 points 7 months ago* (5 children)

    They absolutely are.

    Let's say I get into a car accident or have cancer. Treatment involves expensive chemotherapy, blood transfusions, and multiple rounds of major surgery.

    If I'm in the poorest 10%-30% of the population, the care is provided free of charge. If I'm poor-but not that poor- I have the option to receive the expensive treatment and just not pay. It will just negatively impact my credit score, but I can also get away with "paying what I can afford."

    ...this is just one example. Everything from our food to our electronics are subsidized by the government. Most of the resources are more or less taken from poorer nations. If they don't play ball, we withhold aid, bribe officials, loan their enemies weapons, or finance a coup.

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  • [–] 11 points 7 months ago* (3 children)

    Saying 'It will just negatively impact your credit score' like it's nothing in a capitalist nation where nearly all financial trust is based on how effectively you pay back your creditors is a pretty wild take.

    Especially when a car and home are the bare minimum for most people to be able to function in the US (public transport is laughable anywhere outside a metropolis) and the average person isn't getting either without a loan.

    I wouldn't be so quick to ignore medical debt. The average retired couple spends $350000 on medical expenses in the US. The system is a lot more dysfunctional than you make it out to be.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    @shawn1122 @BygoneNeutrino Capitalism can't work with fractional reserves in place, or wealth hoarding. Our system is tyrannical in nature, and we all suffer for it. If we don't change dramatically and quickly there will be a price paid. We need to start at the bottom. Practice self control, and independance. We need our own food supplies in the forests and fields so people dont need to rely on the system to live.Hidden Life Of Trees describes how forests work together as a collective.

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  • [–] -1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 child)

    It could be better, but even the person with crippling medical debt lives luxuriously relative to the global norm. I think it could be better, but I think it's important to understand exactly how much we have.

    Where we got our excess resources is also relevant. I think it's important to understand the exact role that weapons manufacturers and corporate chronies play in bolstering our lifestyles. At the end of the day, I don't think the average citizen wants to know.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    Running up medical debt, declaring bankruptcy, and expecting the inflated costs being charged by the insurance system to just sort of absorb it is entirely different from the government having public welfare programs!

    You do see how it's different, right?!

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (6 children)

    Poor Chinese with their 96% home owner rate, great social benefits and no debt.

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  • [–] -1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (5 children)

    It's more like poor China with their average $5000 per year income.

    They also have a 0% homeowner rate. All property is owned by the state. As for the houses they do "own", the typical city apartment or rural homestead is...deficient by Western standards.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

    All property is owned by the state.

    In the US too, if unpaid property taxes mean your home can be foreclosed upon

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    I think China's view on property ownership has it's advantages. Since nearly every piece of land in the US is private property, building infrastructure as simple as bike paths and railroads are a nightmare.

    ...I guess the government could use foreclosures and eminent domain to get similar results, it's not as consistent.

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  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Sigh, I'll dumb it down for you.
    if you have 5 rocks and it gets you a house, and another guy has 10 rocks that can only buy a Dr Pepper the guy with 10 rocks is not better off.
    And you clearly don't know anything about the system of home ownership either.
    And their homes and cities are far more advanced and clean than let's say the US shithole's dilapidated cardboard shacks and glorified trailers. If they have a home that is.
    But I should've seen your bias from your first silly comment so I'm going to let you be in your delusion and ignorance and not waste my time.

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  • [–] -2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 child)

    I'm having a hard time believing that you live in either China or the United States. You definitely don't live in the United States because you aren't familiar with our low income housing; if you do live in China, you're job is to write these comments.

    If there is one thing I learned about Lemmy, it's that there are quite a few bot handlers that don't want it to gain momentum. We are going to need some form of identity verification if this community wants to get off the ground.

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  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago

    if you do live in China, you’re job is to write these comments.

    LOL man you're even further gone than I imagined from your previous comment.
    You really drank the China bad cool aid.

    No I don't live in China but in EU.
    As if that matters (to anyone not paranoid and imagining things like yourself)
    And it's perfectly possible to know how people live in the US.
    Or do your organizations give false statistics on the massive homelessness and poverty?
    And I've heard first hand stories from people who went there. (I will never set foot in that banana republic)
    All 'normal' for the people that do the NY,lA touristy things, but man were my friends shocked when they had the bad idea to bike along a large part of the coast and see the real america.
    complete villages with junkies, slums and 3rd world world conditions everywhere.
    The crime that came with it ended that trip a lot sooner than they planned.
    I have more stories but I guess the people I know are secretely chinese or Russians trying to badmouth the greatest country in the universe.

    Anyway not buying your BS and maybe you get some verification at a psychologist, if you can afford it that is.

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