Very good point and one that people often forget. It's literally impossible to build high speed rail without first becoming an authoritarian dictatorship.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

US is the authoritarian dictatorship here, and it can't build shit. Meanwhile, worker democracy in China is able to build infrastructure at scale. Don't take my word for it though, every western study admits this

[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works -1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I don't know, man. This sounds like some "the enemy is both strong and weak" BS to me. When they can't build a HSR in California they are an unplanned economy but when I point out the cost of China's flavour of government suddenly the US is a dictatorship?

I've got no issues acknowledging when China does some good things but come on. I was rightfully making fun of the implication of your meme here and you come back with doublespeak. There's really no need to pick a side and defend it at all costs, we can acknowledge the positive and negative things.

[–] SSJMarx@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

an unplanned economy

a dictatorship

These ideas are not in nearly as much tension as you think. California is a bourgeois dictatorship (like all other capitalist nations), and the bourgeoisie require the government to forgo centrally planning the economy in order to maximize their exploitation of the people (and therefore profit margins).

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 months ago

but when I point out the cost of China’s flavour of government suddenly the US is a dictatorship?

I mean I linked you a whole bunch of western studies showing that people living in China see their country as being more democratic than people living in US see theirs. Furthermore, a study analyzing decades of US policy has found the following:

That certainly does sound like US is a dictatorship of capital to me where regular working class people have little say in the running of the system.

My argument is based on the empirical evidence available, meanwhile I have no idea what you base your position on.

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