Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Billionaire Jack Ma Says the US Wasted Trillions on Warfare Instead of Investing in Infrastructure (cnbc.com)
Alibaba founder Jack Ma fired a shot at the United States in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. An anonymous reader shares a report: Ma was asked by CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin about the U.S. economy in relation to China, since President-elect Donald Trump has been talking about imposing new tariffs on Chinese imports. Ma says blaming China for any economic issues in the U.S. is misguided. If America is looking to blame anyone, Ma said, it should blame itself. "It's not that other countries steal jobs from you guys," Ma said. "It's your strategy. Distribute the money and things in a proper way." He said the U.S. has wasted over $14 trillion in fighting wars over the past 30 years rather than investing in infrastructure at home.
To be sure, Ma is not the only critic of the costly U.S. policies of waging war against terrorism and other enemies outside the homeland. Still, Ma said this was the reason America's economic growth had weakened, not China's supposed theft of jobs. In fact, Ma called outsourcing a "wonderful" and "perfect" strategy. "The American multinational companies made millions and millions of dollars from globalization," Ma said. "The past 30 years, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, they've made tens of millions -- the profits they've made are much more than the four Chinese banks put together. ... But where did the money go?"
To be sure, Ma is not the only critic of the costly U.S. policies of waging war against terrorism and other enemies outside the homeland. Still, Ma said this was the reason America's economic growth had weakened, not China's supposed theft of jobs. In fact, Ma called outsourcing a "wonderful" and "perfect" strategy. "The American multinational companies made millions and millions of dollars from globalization," Ma said. "The past 30 years, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, they've made tens of millions -- the profits they've made are much more than the four Chinese banks put together. ... But where did the money go?"
The US could cut its defense budget in half and nothing would change. The Russians would still have invaded and kept Crimea. The Chinese would still not have invaded Taiwan. Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq would be pretty much in the same state.
When you get a lecture from a Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece...
Well, he's right... We've been complaining here about inequality and how trickle-down economics don't work, and that's exactly what he's saying. It's not news though. The billionaires took control of politics and have been accumulating both money and power, and have been lying and getting votes from the exact people that would benefit most from redistribution. But that's okay... we prefer to believe we all have a chance at the American Dream, rather than have anything that resembles socialism.
A Chinese guy with government connections and tons of interests in China says that the US is unnecessarily spending money and that outsourcing is "wonderful". It's like a bad joke that "you guys" report about articles like this without providing any sort of balance. You act like the Chinese propaganda arm and then wonder why people hate you and say you're their enemy.
The tariffs aren't to try and fix any economic problems for the US. They are to punish China for their unfair practices such as impeding imports in various ways, government subsidizing production of goods at a loss, and manipulating their currency. Reducing the US defense spending would correct those imbalances with China exactly how?
Better known as 318230.
Where'd the money go? A lot of it into China's factories to fund the technology needs for the military actions.
They're not in the Chinese banks you say? Where did that money go that could be used to provide the communist Chinese people a better life (y'know that thing that communism is supposed to do)
Perhaps you should ask Pooh bear and his political party comrade Ma.
He just wants the money no doubt to spend on beer and strippers
While I expect his statement is meant as a Pro-China anti-US rant probably to rial up the Chinese citizens to help them deal with the economic hardships from the opposed restriction to their trade. Also would want the US to lower its military presence so China would have greater influence.
However he isn't wrong, the US has been complacent in investing into itself. Defecate spending isn't a bad thing, if the money is being put into US services that that will pay for it self later on. However our taxes go mostly to the Military first, and what is left will get the crumbs. This creates a lot of holes in our safety net. This will prevent people from trying to take a risk and start a new business, get up and move to a different state or city to get a new job, being afraid to switch jobs even ones you hate, because you need the medical insurance.
The conservative faction of the US calls such services as un-american, because that is what the Communist do. However a Democratic Republic with a Capitalist economy can have these support services as well too. The Communist also drink Vodka, so do Capitalist.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
He's absolutely right. We've spent trillions of dollars destroying and then rebuilding infrastructure for the Taliban and other terrorist organizations while allowing our own to rot.
Into defense contracts that go to the rich, and provide no defense.
Also, not communism. It is a Dictatorship. Also, our country is a plutocracy, regardless of the press and teachings. How is that any better.
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
He's right of course. I've been upset about the trillions of dollars we've wasted on our wars since 2001, with no end in site!
But why the hell is the only recent source of this complaining someone from China? Nearly everyone else seems to ignore it! The US has been at war for 16 years now, and it's never mentioned anymore. We spend trillions of dollars on this stupid shit, and basically it's "ho-hum, what war? Let's cut Medicare."
The Democrats should be screaming their heads off. But the far left is too pre-occupied with turning everyone into racists to care, and the Republican party stopped caring about government waste 20 years ago.
This article is almost a year old. How is this news???
blaming China for any economic issues in the U.S. is misguided
You mean besides state sponsored IP theft, currency manipulation, dumping practices, and disregarding human & environmental welfare to compete on price?
He's not wrong about the war part. Bush, Cheney, and their cronies emptied the country's coffers to enrich a handful of millionaire and billionaires in the military industrial complex with their bullshit wars. What they did is inexcusable, especially when you consider the opportunity cost of not investing that vast sum of money elsewhere (ex infrastructure, education, healthcare, research, alternative energy, ect.). Think of what we could have if that money was spent productively, like finding cures for diseases (much more likely to hurt you than a terrorist) or aerospace, or any number of other things, and the US needs to get it's shit together when it comes to planning for the future. But China isn't playing entirely fair either.
he American multinational companies made millions and millions of dollars from globalization,
When Joe Schmoe's job disappeared, he didn't see a gain, it was so a millionaire could have even more. It's not hard to understand why some people are unhappy.
Ma needs to demonstrate fealty to Xi. He's a blatant capitalist, but he must do what his master tells him, and he's been told to rag on the US. Of course the Chinese desperately need us to cut defense spending to have a chance to conquer the western pacific. Make no mistake, the Han are on the same course as Japan 80 years ago. Their methods are more sophisticated, but their aims are completely the same.
Meh. Come back when China's average person is as well off as a the US's average person. As a middle class member I'd rather be anywhere in the US than anywhere else in the world from an economic standpoint.
I know things can be better and yes I hate how much we spend on defense. But this is somebody trying to make themselves look good - just like Macron did, just like Merkel did. Trump is an easy target. Meh.
Democrats should get a pass because they care about us.
Jack Ma is Chinese for Ric Romero.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Yeah, an evil Chicom.
Corporatism != Free Market
US could spend money on fighting poverty or improving health care. Probably would work out better than spending so much on the military.
But infrastructure? There's plenty of roads. There's plenty of airports. People feel free living way the fuck away from their work, just because driving 25 miles to work every day is a non-issue. Yes, even in the Silicon Valley. Unless you live in the middle of fucking nowhere your internet is fine, and realistically giving faster internet to poor cabin dwellers is not going to help the US economy.
Think about it. The "Re-Education Camps" for the muslims in China requires people to build. Who is building it? Chinese workers!
We need more Re-Education Camps!
That's pretty fucking rich coming from a country that's pouring billions of dollars into building artificial islands in the South China Sea, a brand-new war fleet and expensive ballistic missiles, all of which are designed for the sole and explicit purpose of ejecting the United States from SE Asia by force of arms. To say nothing of blowing tens of billions on the "Belt and Road" initiative, which was intended to spread Chinese influence and control across the region, but has ended up being a colossal waste of money, just like skeptics warned. And this shithead's going to sass us for "wasting money?" Fuck him.
Besides, he knows damn well where the money from globalization went - straight into the pockets of the huge multinational corporations that directly benefited from labor outsourcing, who've either sat on it or re-invested it in expanding factories overseas to employ more foreign workers and create more cheap product - everything and anything butb injecting it into the US economy. We know why our economy stagnated - worker wages flatlining (considering inflation, actual falling) while the globalizing corporations profits skyrocketed. And some of that money went into the pockets of Reps and Senators on both sides of the aisle to keep them lecturing those silly rube voters on why globalism "works."
Fuck Jack Ma, and fuck the Chicoms that brung'im.
The military is effectively just burying money (in the backyards of military industrial complex execs). During the cold war we got micro computers and the internet out of it. Today we don't get much of anything, it would be nice to be dumping that cash into the backyards of construction execs, at least we would have non-crumbling bridges and high speed rail.
To paraphrase the old saying, nobody ever got fired for beefing up the military (and blowing up the national debt).
We wasted trillions protecting our interests in oil across the world so that we could not be hobbled by a weaponized oil supply and demand front which would affect all aspects of American life.
He'll revive the clean coal industry and crush the rest of the industrialized world!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
(please don't make me explain sarcasm)
"The American multinational companies made millions and millions of dollars from globalization"
Billions, not millions.
"Where did it go?
To officers and shareholders of the corporations, i.e. the "elites".
Some of it dribbled down to the workers in China and Vietnam in the form of slave wages, but not all that much. None of it went to American workers, because they're not using American workers. But hey no problem, just get 'em on food stamps and tell them to live in section 8 housing. Who needs a middle class lifestyle?
But it's gonna backfire on them sooner or later. I foresee a socialist revolution in the making, led by the likes of Ocasio-Cortez. Well not by her specifically, I don't think she has the ruthlessness or the balls to become the next Lenin. But someone in her orbit who does have what it takes to be a good dictator and who isn't afraid of executing a few thousand members of the opposition.
Do I want to see such a thing happen? No, not really. Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela etc. weren't exactly pleasant places to live. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, the current rulers of USA (a.k.a. the Deep State) are such despicable characters, it would feel really good to see their billions wiped out and the high and mighty former CEOs and directors and senators become penniless, and then summarily executed 1918 style.
That must be a typo.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Please do the same criticism of your country's military.
Just try it. See what happens.
My guess is you will find out what an internment camp looks like. That is communism for you. Tyrannical and not open to questioning.
I am being nice. Personally I would rather fight every fucking commie on the planet for the mass murder and mayhem they have created, resulting in the US having to spend such sums.
You are reaching... and your bias is showing.
That's exactly the point. Of course, the retarded progressives will agree and cluck about how evil the US is while buying the Chinese propaganda.
I think wealth and income inequality is a bigger problem than military spending.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were problematic in many ways, but for better or worse, the US has been the main guarantor of freedom of the seas and trade and a lot of the global economy wouldn't be what it is today if it wasn't for US power projection. So a lot of that military spending has basically been enabling the global commerce that China depends on.
My guess is if you had to zero-sum swap parts of the economy, I'd be inclined to have looked at taxation strategies that went after corporate profits and the windfalls the very wealthy have achieved vs. axing the military budget.
China doesn’t need any carriers, military airplanes, or build artificial islands in South China Sea. They totally could use that money to build more bridges, skyscrapers and maybe fix the roads between Tianjin and Beijing. Or maybe a few more nuclear plants.
Sounds like a foreign country is trying to "influence" American elections.
I expect the usual suspects to get on this dire problem right now.
50% have no wealth now! Using data from Congressional Budget Office study and doing a polynomial regression shows who got rich and who did not.
"instead of feeding graft and cronies." FTFY.
Let's face it: our military is conservative welfare. If you live in a small town or rural area, the only job opportunity for many young men is the military.
Table-ized A.I.
The US keeps increasing the military budget, and for what? A war that really shouldn't still be a thing and to police the world when nobody asked them to.
Both countries are making the same mistake. Military one-upmanship is a wanker size contest driven by the male ego.
Table-ized A.I.
China, what is your profession?
And you, Russia?
EU?
Americans, what is your profession?
https://youtu.be/gI6sARmxEuc?t=32
Of course he's right and instead of invading Iraq or going on this stupid war on terror, we should've invested in our infrastructure. But since we didn't, we have to spin this in the only positive way we can.
We re losing jobs because China and other countries tolerate working conditions, environmental transgressions, and things that would never fly in the US.
You CANNOT pick up a Chinese steel plant, drop it in Ohio, and operate it at the same level of profit as you can in China, even taking into account the wages and cost of materials. THAT is why US manufacturers go there.
Some people say we have outsourced jobs. What we really outsourced was the pollution and working conditions that would never be tolerated in the U.S.
Which begs the question: If it's not OK to manufacture things in the US under these conditions, then why is it OK to do so in China? If we import these items, are we not even a little bit morally responsible for the misery and pollution inflicted while creating these things?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
It looks like these are unclear to Jack Ma:
What US is really blaming China is for stealing Intellectual Property!!!
(& Unfair trade practices also (if I am not mistaken)!)
Fear monger huh?
The past 30 years, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, they've made tens of millions
Abysmal ROI considering the repercussions.
Saddam Hussein was someone you put into place in the first place you batshit idiot, you put him into power to fight your fuckup in Iran and supplied him with money and weapons, including chemical weapons which you would later brand as "WMD", in the Iran-Iraq war.
He's your batshit creation, you stupid uneducated historically illiterate shit, your creation to fix Iran going fundamentalist which was also your creation you stupid dumb uninformed retard. Meanwhile nobody gives a fuck about Kuwait because it was yet another batshit dictatorship like Saddam, except its dictator was a "good boy", and apparently you support dictatorships so long as they are "good boy" as history showcases, including Erdogan as an example until you fucked up with him as much as with Saddam. Just shut the fuck up if you don't know shit about anything, it's best that way.
Don't forget Supplemental Security Income (and "The Last Psychiatrist"'s comments on same).
Anyhow, the US goes "capitalism yay! American dream! free country! rah rah rah!" but does have some "socialist" programs, and over here we're in a pinko commie "social democracy" where they "privatised" the whole medical system because "free market!", as well as the postal services and the national railways, which means they're going to the dogs like the American highway system, or the New York subway.
It's not really about socialism versus capitalism. It's about the upper crust spinning tales and sucking the rest dry. Over here nine out of ten households is getting at least one government subsidy, yet a single earner middle class income is no longer enough to start a family and raise kids.
They keep on telling us that the crisis is over and there's growth again. There'll be 1.5% earnings growth for all next year! Except of course the real (not official, real) inflation is something like 4.5% so we're still losing 3% in net income year-on-year. That's in North-Western Europe countries that spend more to the EU than they get back in subsidies. That's the rich countries with strong economies, and even there the rest of us are still slowly losing ground in the battle to feed ourselves.
The upper crust spins different tales in different parts of the world, but the net result is always the same. The rich are getting richer and the non-rich are getting poorer. In the end, the rich will run out of poor to suck dry, but of course they're not the first to feel the pain.
I think I'm going to call it "Milton's legacy".
States STILL have statutes banning someone who doesn't believe in god (not gods, either) is not allowed a state position of authority.
Free trade, but not if it's softwood. Free trade, but not if it's copyrighted IP works of hollywood or Silicon Valley. Free trade, but not if the USA doesn't like it.
That China doesn't have to invest in much of their own Warfare tech because they steal it from everyone else.
"If our defense budget was cut in half, which freedoms would I lose?"
You would gain freedom, because there would be more money for taking care of citizens.
The "Defense" of the U.S. is poorly managed. Highly qualified people don't want to work helping the military kill people and destroy property.
800 military bases in more than 70 countries: Where in the World Is the U.S. Military?
Quote:
"Despite recently closing hundreds of bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States still maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad -- from giant "Little Americas" to small radar facilities. Britain, France and Russia, by contrast, have about 30 foreign bases combined."
Jack Ma isn't the first person to point this out and certainly won't be the last. For example, Thomas Friedman has been saying this for years. Friedman questioned the wisdom of pouring money into countries that will NEVER amount to anything. Afghanistan will always be a backwards, tribal s**thole country riven by warlords and violence. Iraq has a tiny sliver of potential to be more than just another oil barrel nation, but it's too rife with corruption and sectarian grudges to ever realize that potential. Friedman pointed out that the amount of money pissed away on our adventures in the middle-east and central Asia could buy every American a 4-year college degree and still have money left over for infrastructure development and other societal ills. What really saddens me is that we're 17 years into this "Forever War," and every year the memory of living in a nation at peace fades just a little bit more.
Discretionary is 600 billion. But non discretionary and R&D for military purposes, along with the military intelligence forces and spy satellites add nearly 1 trillion. Sure, you ALSO use some of the things from that other trillion elsewhere, but it is sourced based on the military use of it.
Chinese Wasted Trillions on Authoritarianism
...now let me be sure my Tor was working correctly throughout the posting of this comment...
Calling Captain Obvious.
Medicaid pretty much requires you to be destitute. If you make $8/hr for 30/week you're not getting it. Source: Have friends & family that depended on it to survive major illnesses.
SNAP has been cut back for decades. WIC too.
The top brackets of our Progressive Income tax have been slashed non-stop for 40 years. Laws were put in place to make it hard to raise them again but easy to cut them, resulting in a "ratcheted" effect where they go down but never up. Government are then forced to implement regressive taxes like the "Netflix" and "Soda" taxes or just plain more sales tax because those aren't covered by the laws.
Good luck getting on SSI Disability. I've got a buddy who's been in a wheel chair his entire life and has massive hearing loss (no call center work for him) and he fights tooth and to get what little he can. Only reason he's not homeless is friends and family keep pitching in.
I could go on. We started slashing the safety net with Reagan. Nobody noticed because there were two massive economic bubbles in a row (Internet and Housing). Those bubbles are over and there's nothing on the horizon, folks are feeling it now. That's how we got a guy like Trump, the lower working class is looking for answers (well, their parents mostly, based on the polls of who voted for him and why). Thing is, we've danced this Charleston before: bad economy, demagogue, desperate working class.... It doesn't end well.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Check up on Charles Dickens. When the USA had no "IP" produced at home, they did not recognise either patent or copyright. When they did have IP they did not recognise international copyright. Hollywood is there because the companies ripped off patents for motion picture cameras by Edison and since it was so far away they could make their money back and close shop (to open up again as a new legal entity) before anyone could serve them a court summons.
I have no children and after seeing the state of public schools in my area I'm glad. I grew up here and moved back after retirement. To say that kids today aren't given the same opportunities as my classmates were is a gross understatement. The school is starved for cash, but all the government seems to care about is Common Core.
Since the USA basically just prints money, how it is spent is irrelevant. The system is about as close to infinite money & power as is physically possible.
Missinformer too.
He talks about Kurds dying as if he gives a shit yet USA has been turning a blind eye to Turks killing them like flies for decades, because it's ok so long as it's an ally doing it.
He's a half-witted dumbshit who is either an Israeli shill or a dumb uneducated redneck, not that the two aren't inclusive these days.
The fact that he acts as if more people would be dying without USA is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of dead Bangladeshi Indians
as well as the Syrians who have died and were displaced had the Syrian war not been protracted all thanks to USA (or initiated in the first place thanks to USA dumbshittery). Most of the deaths exist in the first place because of USA destabilizing and triggering conflict in the first place in most of the world. South America also has plenty to say regarding US dumbfuckery.
The sole reason there is any peace in the world is because we manage war by appealing to greed and trade/economic manipulation and coercion of dictators who don't give a shit about anything so long as they have money, because dictators can be reasoned with while theocracies can't (which is why replacing dictators with theocracies was both cautioned as the worst case scenario in Middle East happening, and also did happen because Americans such is the dumbfuck misinformer here didn't have the brain cells to put two and two together and just went with it until the initial cautions proved true in all 5 countries). As soon as the USA military gets involved, in 90% of cases it makes the entire region worse wherever their dumbfuck selves appear. Either making a war protracted therefore increasing long-term casualties, or fucking up the local government so bad that the domino effect falls onto neighboring countries and therefore the entire region as Iraq showcased.
Did you just try to suggest that piracy is free trade?
Saddam Hussein was someone you put into place in the first place you batshit idiot
So what you are saying, is that if you make a terrible mistake you should never try to rectify it...
HMM.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A large chunk of the US GDP gets turned into smoking craters in the middle east, or gets locked in Scrooge McDuck vaults in Switzerland.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Part of that warfare was necessary. Basically, AQ in Afghanistan, and maybe ISIS. Had W not invaded Iraq, I tend to believe that the middle east would not be so loony right now. But yes, we continue to ignore IKE's advice.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
You Bred Raptors?
Chinese national says china is completely blameless and the US has to fix its 'distribution policies'. Spoken like a true communist shill. How about the part where china vastly underpays its workers and treats them like slaves?
If we hadn't fought many of those wars, we'd've fought others instead, likely on our own soil, and we'd likely be speaking russian or mandarin today.
No fucking thanks.
Am I the only one that read this as welfare?
I'm as conservative as they come, but he's right.. Wasting money on bombs..... Like, if some country is an actual threat, I'm all for bombing them to dust, but that's not the case in almost all of our recent wars....
On one hand, you could make the argument that our military is bloated by a bureacracy that needlessly wastes our money on dubious projects while sabotaging the actually decent ones. Bush got us involved in a war with the wrong country, and the US military is stretched thin as is due to our commitments world wide.
On the other hand, China wants to dominate the world as the new super power, has been selling arms to repressive regimes in Africa to gurantee them rights to extract resources, wants to invade and punish Taiwan, install a Big Brother system to controll their citizens, and is bragging about their own military projects.
I suppose it takes one oligarch to know one.
Also, not communism. It is a Dictatorship.
Why not both? Stalin was certainly a dictator. The USSR was certainly communism.
Although honestly, after they ditched the centrally planned economy tenet of communism they're like commie-lite. With the poohbear serving emperor for life and putting an end to any party member having a vote.... I'm not sure what aspect is left wearing the color red. I guess their close ties and control over their corporations. Just give that some time though. I mean, technically, nobody owns land over there. They just rent from the state. Which just sounds like property tax with extra steps.
Also, our country is a plutocracy,
Heeeey, one of the (very few) silver linings to the latest election is showing that it DOESN'T matter who spends more money. People still control the vote. Hilary out spent him by far and still ended up losing. It's not JUST money. But it's mostly money.
I'd say we're more of a corporcracy, rule by corporations. Partly because any new legislation essentially has to be bartered through with (or comes directly from) the businesses they're trying to regulate and partly because it meshes with the idea that we're stepping into a bad cyberpunk novel.
That China icon for stories is getting old, can I suggest a new one that looks something like this:
https://img.thedailybeast.com/... (source TDB)
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Before everyone gets into a big pissing contest about how much the US can cut military spending, it would help to remember some of the history on this. Not the usual Eisenhower military industrial complex quote, but the rapid and massive draw-down of US forces post WW2.
The Korean War had the world's previously preeminent military handed it's ass by a bunch of Soviet Satellite stooges and human waves of Chinese. Often with better equipment on the other side. The US was lucky to come out of that conflict in a stalemate.
David Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter" is a fairly decent retelling of some aspects of this.
This is not to deny examining military spending, but we do have a history of stowing the hardware and it didn't turn out particularly well.
Let me ask the question: You enemy says that everything you do is wrong. You spend money wrong. You enjoy life. You defend your country. And it is all wrong. And what kind of an idiot would listen to this Chinese Communist Party member??
Answer: A millennial idiot and their parent who raised him to be the idiot.
...from a guy whose country is literally building massive empty cities.
Infrastructure sans people.
https://www.afr.com/news/world...
The only thing creepier is a friend of mine in the military that said there is some speculation that these empty cities could be relocation destinations for refugees from other cities in the event of war...which would then make one wonder what does China expect?
-Styopa
Saddam is your attempt at rectifying your mistake with Iran, which lead with you making a mistake with Saddam by betraying him because he turned his eyes onto another neighboring dictatorship when he failed with Iran and you failed him with proper logistics and support, which lead to the mistake of Osama Bin-Laden betraying you as well since he saw that you are treacherous cunts and he was ALSO one of your creations to combat Communism as opposed to Saddam.
Even when you attempt to rectify shit you make things worse, so shut the fuck up, and fuck off back to your nation because you are not a world police but world saboteurs. Everything you do outside of your nation turns to shit, that's your fucking talent. Stick to building and manufacture, and leave world politics to the world unless shit REALLY hits the fan with an advanced AND I EMPHASIZE ADVANCED nation tries Nazi shit which might kill more than 10 million people. Anything under that, consider it overpopulation management.
Even when it comes to attempting to be moral and just, the world has had the last few decades to learn for good that you are double-faced shits and anything but moral or just, with all that freedom and justice bullshit seen as pure bullshit. If you truly believed in it you would have sent plenty of your own generals and commanders to the Hague to be tried as an example of your moral principles for all the shit USA has done which warrants war crime charges, but since you don't walk the talk you should shut the fuck up about righteousness and morals as well to anyone here who actually gives enough shit to follow documented history and declassified documentation from YOUR OWN SHITSTAINED NATION admitting its crimes.
It just came out what? A month ago that this guy is a member of China's Communist Party. Is anyone surprised he would belittle the USA over how we've handled things?
You'll note that comments such as this never came out of his mouth before he was outted as a Commie, but now that it's out in the open, he's parroting the Communist agenda.
USA = Bad!
USA = Foolish!
USA Aggression = Bad for business
Now Americans, get back to spending your hard earned dollars on some alibaba before those deals are gone!
Really? This is news for Slashdot? Anyone who keeps abreast of the news these days knows his agenda.
the US economy did grow, maybe not as much as it should. But it wasn't all because of the money wasted on war. A lot of the lack of growth can be blame on inequality.
Does any first-world country ever cut their military spending? No. Why do you think that is? Because the other guys aren't going to downsize their military. Sad, but it's a fact of life. Unless and until every country on this planet wakes up one morning and simultaneously decides to downsize and defund their military, you're an idiot if you do it unilaterally. This would take a fundamental shift in the way our species thinks, which would likely take a huge leap in our overall evolution. Don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen. So sad, but ultimately true. There's only one thing I can think of that otherwise would unify everyone more or less all at the same time: World War 3, with the winner taking over the entire planet. Don't count of there being 7 billion people alive after that, and maybe don't count on the planet being terribly habitable afterwards, either.
msmash this is not /. news. This is what your world looks like with your head firmly inserted in your anus..
Enjoy the Smell, the many different shades of brown, the ambiance.
With that said, I have one thing left..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Extract Value from that, bitch
Spying on all other nations globally. From space and via computer networks.
Detecting nuclear testing. From space and via globally networks.
Detecting nuclear weapons launch. From space and via globally networks.
Having camps, forts, ports and bases all over the USA and around the "free" world.
Supporting freedom and democracy everywhere for decades. Any political groups that supported the USA got free "funds".
Hunting down criminals everywhere all the time.
Hunting down other nations spies everywhere all the time.
Paying in full for other nations random people to live, get education and health care in the USA.
Illegal migrants using city and state gov services meant for a low number of US citizens.
The US budget faces growing mil spending demands. State and city virtue signalling to show how politically correct they are to look after illegal migrants.
An education system that cant test and sort the best students on merit to ensure only the best of every generation gets more education.
Non academic considerations ensure the education system has to keep on funding a lot of students who will not and cant study.
Allowing in more and more random refugees over the years that then need more support in the USA.
While US citizens in the USA get fewer services.
Due to all that political spending and mil spending the US had to let a lot of city, state and federal spending go.
Roads, bridges, charity health care for US citizens all needed better support and regulation.
The trick few other nations understand is the freedom the USA offers allows all its citizens to fail, win, make money, keep their own money and be the best.
Freedom is the key to why the USA is winning and the best.
Not a Communist party banning words, history, art, religion, bears and all images of protests.
Not a French government putting more taxes on an emerging and growing tech sector.
Not a German government watching how it citizens use words and comment on history and politics online.
Freedom of speech and freedom after speech allows the USA to win every time.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Not all campaign influencing money is spent by the candidate or party. Outside "dark money" groups that are not disclosed are not counted. There is a rather infamous $130,000 one most people have heard of, for example, but that's peanuts compared to the stuff we haven't fully discovered.
Personally, I am ok with any ruleset that is symmetrical and consistently and reciprocally enforced. Execution for jaywalking or double parking? Fine by me. Just make sure the cops and politicians are also executed if and when they do it.
What about the war on drugs? He 's got a point, but let's not get distracted by it. Space force is still necessary to protect our GPS satellite network,for one thing.And if the Chinese aim to surpass us in space, at least we can play defense. D-fence!
Aubrey de gray (SENS, Mprize project) said (about 10 years ago) that 1 billion R&D would be needed to develop good therapies (using biotechnology and nanotechnology) to get a good handle on controlling and reversing aging.....he figures that we are now 5 years away from the first therapeutic application of this actually hapenning (see fightaging.org).....these wars in the Middle East (since 9-11) have done so much destruction and drained away many thousands of billions (4,500 X 1000,000,000 DOLLARS) that a very tiny fraction of that could have given us a working life extension tech by now.......youâ(TM)re going to need this tech to repay all those student loans off, not to mention hoe long itâ(TM)s going to take to take on a mortgage to eventually buy an apartment or small house!!!! Also, a lot of high tech companies tend to dump you once you as soon as you reach your early 40â(TM)s (even way back in 1974, it was a major problem for electrical engineers at certain companies), !!
China is the largest holder of our national debt. We got in debt to finance this endless war on a military tactic. USAian's opinions are created by the media. China, and Russia are huge share holders in our publicly traded media conglomerations.
They are using the media is keeping us divided while our nation is sinking into depression. China / Russia /Mexico are laughing there asses completely off.
The opinions of USAians is not based on any kind of logic other than the logic that forces you to support your home sports team.
This endless war on conservative religious fundamentalist who love guns is supported by God fearing gun loving republicans whereas the Democrats are against a war on terror. Funny thing is the so called terrorist are against everything the Democrats say they support.
Stop hating your fellow citizens and start hating China /Russia and Mexico because they sure hate you. Also hate the media that is their cock holster.
Jack Ma, who made his money on the internet (built by the US Defense Department), says that the US spends too much money on the Defense Department.
you morons just read what you imagine inside your head.
Try reading it again, fuckwit.
And, yes, it IS being "Stuffed in matresses". Sure, it is loaned out. But in loaning it out they will demand from the business more than the money is worth. Meaning that the businesses are being bled by the rich who never needed the money in the first place.
Indeed in Syria you're fighting to support another Saddam who does exactly what you decry Saddam having done. For the same reason you supported Saddam as well: he's willing to do what the USA wants. When Saddam stopped doing what the USA wanted, they didn't like him. When he did what the USA DIDN'T want (all international trade in euros, killing the us dollar) they had to frantically look for something he did that the USA (or the other western powers) did not have a large hand in.
The US should have the best infrastructure in the world bar none.
Congratz on perpetual war.
China is communist in name only. It's a one party dictatorship market-ish economy with uncontrolled capitalism except by the state.
They want their talking points back.
The rest was for fun and profit.
We spend way more (orders of magnatude?) on the management of the welfare system than is ever given to welfare recipients. The difficulty is that this is generally spoken of only by those on the right who are immediatly ripped to shreds by those on the left and called evil. Of course, the managers of the welfare system are making out like bandits. Just follow the money.
"BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, the current rulers of USA (a.k.a. the Deep State) are such despicable characters, it would feel really good to see their billions wiped out and the high and mighty former CEOs and directors and senators become penniless, and then summarily executed 1918 style."
LOL. Agree with the sentiment. But that's not gonna happen. For an idea watch the movie Elysium. I don't know about practicality of space, but the super-rich are always going to find some good place to hide.
Is the fasted way for China to go to war with us, because at that point they need to invade to prop up their own economy with the hope that resource exploitation of America will keep their own population fat and happy for another few years while they consolidate power and prepare for the Great Downsizing, wherein peasants and unruly members of the middle class can be slowly removed from society moving towards a more enlightened era for the Party. And keep in mind, for those not keeping count, that America is heading the same direction, albeit at a different pace. Purging the undesirables from both China and America is coming once the necessity of cheap labor declines thanks to improved and fully autonomous automation. Gone will be the manufacturing jobs, the service industry jobs, and eventually the farming jobs, leaving the majority of the population redundant and a threat to those in power due to desperation and a lack of resources made available to the bottom 90 percent. That other 9 percent is who will remain as researchers, skilled workers, and other positions for the former 1 percent.
If / when diplomacy in the South China Sea fails, let's see which one he thinks is more important.
There's a sort of cult-like acceptance in the US that spending money at home, on infrastructure and people, is Socialism. Socialism, to the Cult, is clearly bad, evil and wrong. The exceptions are the military, giving corporations money, and any established social programs (although the political Right does launch a lot of attacks against these, most of those attacks fail).
nm
This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
Why not free trade? Why is it ok for the Us to fuck over every other country exporting soybeans? Why not free trade in oil in any currency?
America is a joke, almost as much as your 'analysis' of trade.
Roman Empire Trick;
Bread and Circuses: bribe the population with free bread and distract them with circuses whilst the rulers do whatever they want.
Casteism
Actually no, the USSR wasn't certainly communist. Their official stance was that they were merely socialist with the communism as a long-term goal.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
As a resident of the UK I know full well the awful mismanagement and short-sightedness of government. Any small surplus in the balance sheet is immediately used for tax break bribes to win the next election, as just one example. Would help if politicians looked beyond the next election when planning.
Ironic, as without the US spending on its military you wouldn't have an internet, and you wouldn't have an Alibaba.
Smart guy ?
... medicating the US population to calm their "commies are coming" anxiety.
sigo ergo sum
the US deep state wasted lots of money on invading all those countries, unfortunately, they need to waste a little extra now to get that deep state gone again...
Without that deep state elites, we would have had free energy 100 years ago, flying cars 50 years ago, and no pollution. But hey if you rather have race division and white man hate, extreme feminism, LGBT, abortion (= baby organ selling) and Trump bashing, be my guest...
It was the JEW behind the wars in the Middle East, all to protect 'precious' Israel, and to move towards 'Project Greater Israel', where Syria, Iraq, Iran, etc. are destroyed so that the JEW can expand Israel by moving into them. Sickening.
Don't believe me, try finding out for yourself.
China has 2,500 sky scrapers under construction at any given time,and no economic reason for them to exist. There are far more houses than people. 1/5th of the homes (50 million) are empty! But what the heck, let's take our advice from them.
...what this guy says. China can spend trillions on infrastructure...and people who go against the party still disappear.
China's infrastructure strategy in recent years -- and apparently going forward -- is to make enormous loans to third-world countries in Africa and Southeast Asia for Chinese companies to build giant infrastructure projects like harbors and high-speed railways. They know that the country will never be able to repay the loans, and wait until they start to come due to squeeze privileges out of the defaulting government. This is how they got an eternal lease on the new harbor facilities in Malaysia that Chinese companies built there. Similar things are going on in Africa. It's all a sort of back-door colonialism cloaked in altruism, at least in the beginning. It's also a great way to establish a foothold in foreign countries for commercial and military activities.
In America, political parties exist only in countries south of Mexico and north of Canada, inclusive. You cannot join Democrats or Republicalns in US, because there is no party membership. Inner party-- yes, you can be Congressman or Senator for D or R. But there is no party to join for a common man.
People have a bit of a wake up call coming if they don't understand this shit already.
When did it transcend common sense and common will that spending money on destruction and killing is not good?
Simple as fucking that isn't it. I don't know how people fell for it all so hard. It's turning around on itself though and we're witnessing that now. Anyone denying it has gotten comfortable with their television.
Nice words. Meanwhile, China is overtaking US. Take that!
many years ago, he introduced us to the dangers of the MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY
(video clip from his farewell address)
Why not? The consumer is the problem!
Ever wonder why Americans have the worst CO2 per person? It's because they consume the most.
It's quite simple to understand for people with 2 braincells to rub together.
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutlah!
Fetch me muh slippuhs, butlaaah!