Oh god people, please don't bring USSR into the mix! For your enlightenment, here is a current list of countries that have universal healthcare, or some sort of publicly sponsored health care system :

Afghanistan, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and the United Kingdom

And I don't think these countries are all led by democrat, leftist, socialist,or son-of-African-immigrant leaders either.

^ Slavery, murder, and theft are activities that require the use of force, they don't belong in a free market. Do you even know what the notion of a free market is? The reason we have a government is so that it retains a monopoly over the use of force, taking it out of the hands of society. You're making a fool of yourself.

Poorly paid workers is a problem of too little demand for work, a demand that grows once an economy itself grows and requires more production. Working conditions in China were awful and still are, but things over there are a lot better today because China is growing and will most likely have the richest consumers in the world not many years from now.

LOL, you think public education saved children from labor? Yeah, it's a great idea to have our children being educated by the government, let the wolves take care of our lambs.

A libertarian is not an anarchist: Government is a necessary evil. Emphasis on "necessary" and "evil". So the logical conclusion is that it should exist, but it should be the smallest possible (less evil). The government is necessary to avoid those crimes I mentioned before that envolve force and breach of contract. It is not necessary, however, for any purpose that does not require the use of force.

*roll eyes* I'm an atheist dude. It's not faith, I don't do faith. It's more like "I can't explain it all here" and also because it'll probably depart from your current "reality" so bad that you'll have trouble understanding it (not sure though, I don't know you). If you think I'm copping out, I can refer you to some books. I consider myself a very rational person, so I understand where you're coming from, but don't say stuff like that.

No real world evidence of free markets?? What about Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea? What about the US for almost 200 years being the greatest country on Earth because of its freedoms? What about China, do you think its prosperity comes from the fact that its the fakest communist regime EVER or because of the economic freedom they enjoy over there?

Free markets are an ideal, yes, but prosperity is found in any country that is close to it. What can anyone say about prosperity linked to, say, communism? I know communism is an ideal too, but anything close to communism in history or today is usually linked to poverty and mass murder.

Oh and congratulations, Cap'n Trade will probably go through, more taxes on a ruined economy. WHAT A GREAT IDEA. Thank heaven I don't live in the US.

I love Peter Schiff's comments on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MmlElFmJKI

I hope not... it's not the North Korean people's fault they're leader is a paranoid, delusional madman. South Korea wouldn't approve either - they'd much rather see a peaceful road to a united Korean peninsula.

Thousands of Korean families have been split up by the DMZ. One one side of the border is one of the least-developed nations on the planet. On the other side, a nation on the bleeding edge of technology. One country is frantically self-involved with it's own self defense at the expense of the general health of it's citizenry, the other in an development battle against Japan in a race towards making robots for a retired citizen's lifestyle.

It's truly bizarre.

>> ^RedSky:
Pretty sure most computer manufacturing goes in more developed Asian countries like Taiwan and South Korea. China generally sticks more to basic manufacturing.


Really? Let's start by looking at Foxconn, which according to their homepage, mainly manufactures in China, and is the largest exporter there.

"Foxconn is the largest manufacturer of electronics and computer components worldwide, and mainly manufactures on contract to other companies. Although sometimes referred to as an original equipment manufacturer, Foxconn would be more accurately described as an original design manufacturer. Among other things, Foxconn produces the Mac mini, the iPod and the iPhone for Apple Computer; Intel-branded motherboards for Intel Corp.; various orders for American computer retailers Dell, Inc. and Hewlett Packard; the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 for Sony; the Wii for Nintendo; the Xbox 360 for Microsoft, cell phones for Motorola, and the Amazon Kindle." -Wikipedia

I'm sorry RedSky, but you don't know what your talking about. While companies like Foxconn and Asus have headquarters in Taiwan, the vast majority of computer manufacturing takes place in China.

>> ^GuyIncognito:
Tough to do that lv_hunter. If you shop at Walmart, you've helped hollow out America's manufacturing sector, benefiting China. And typing that post on the Sift, chances are that the majority of the components in your computer were manufactured in China as well. Capitalism at its finest.


Pretty sure most computer manufacturing goes in more developed Asian countries like Taiwan and South Korea. China generally sticks more to basic manufacturing.

Not to attack your comment or anything, but you have to admit the futility of arguing against free trade. If in the long term all countries were to focus on what they specialise because of a cost advantage (such as China in basic manufacturing, and the US in several more specialised service industries) then all would benefit from lower prices, and better standards of living from greater efficiency.

As for the whole topic. Well duh, China have lower safety and crash standards than the US or most other developed countries. How else do you think they're going to make automobiles affordable to their growing but still relatively poor middle class in comparison to highly developed countries? Lower domestic equilibrium wage levels will only go so far. That should not reflect on the quality of Chinese goods as a whole, just the state of their current market. Odds are, even if you were to sell a pricier car with a better crumble zone in China, it just wouldn't sell anywhere near as well.

>> ^EMPIRE:
I only watched the beginning of the lecture, until he started saying that more technologically advanced societies aren't really less religious. I don't know where the hell he got his numbers, but that is ABSOLUTELY false.
Yes, there's a lot of religious fanatics in the world to counter-balance that, but it's a fact that the more educated a society gets, the less religious it gets.


And where are you getting your numbers? A lot of your technology comes from South Korea, Japan, and China, where religion is growing exponentially. Just because you can't see it or don't want to believe it, doesn't mean it isn't true. And criticism is hardly merited when you say you refuse to even listen all the way through.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'worms, found, chocolate, south, korea, china, seoul, yuck' to 'worms, found, chocolate, china, chinese, product, yuck' - edited by legacy0100

Hey, man, I've been teaching in Taiwan to Taiwanese runts for about six months now. Let me tell you, from what I've heard about the set-up in South Korea, you'll be paid like a rock star but treated like a mule. Brace yourself. I've been working pretty hard myself, but the culture is very different from what I'm used to. My boss just actually got fired because she was, and this is truly a direct quote, "too nice to the teachers." But, it's a good choice. I've been to Hong Kong, Macau, Okinawa, Cambodia, just got back from Sydney and I'm leaving my house after I write this to get my visa to go to Vietnam. The money and experiences are well worth whatever they throw at you. Enjoy!

Great to hear from you. South Korea sounds like a wonderful adventure. Hopefully you can blog about it.

e.g.
The Breadbasket of South Korea: Madagascar
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1861145,00.html
South Korea's Daewoo Logistics in november 2008 has negotiated a 99-year lease on some 3.2 million acres of farmland (i.e. 40 percent of the best arable land) on the dirt-poor tropical island of Madagascar, off southern Africa's Indian Ocean coast, to cultivate and import corn (3/4) and palm oil (1/4).

>> ^Entropy997:
There was a video coming out of South Korea making fun of American baseball fights where they at first seemed as though they were going to brawl, but instead started hopping around in circles on one foot.
Gang life is a sub-culture of American life. It's what they call "thug life", and there's a whole bunch of shit associated with it. Living in the ghetto and all the things that come with it is a part of culture.
It's just not part of mainstream American culture.


Men were still semi-curbed, and they already had gang fights.

There was a video coming out of South Korea making fun of American baseball fights where they at first seemed as though they were going to brawl, but instead started hopping around in circles on one foot.

Gang life is a sub-culture of American life. It's what they call "thug life", and there's a whole bunch of shit associated with it. Living in the ghetto and all the things that come with it is a part of culture.

It's just not part of mainstream American culture.

>> ^Kymbos:
If you want to explore the extent to which the United States supports Israel and makes their military activities possible, see this well referenced piece by Mearsheimer Walt.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html
There is no question that Israel could not undertake such actions without American financial and military aid. Where else would they get the money - export of desalination plants?


Open your eyes. From the link you provided:

Instead, the thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby’. Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest

For starters, any time you see something this identical to 'the secret jewish society' spoken of in 1940's Europe you need to be very cautious. Verify anything that group says with a third party somewhere before accepting it as fact.

But you also cited the link as demonstrating " There is no question that Israel could not undertake such actions without American financial and military aid. Where else would they get the money - export of desalination plants?" Which would seem to be saying you believe the article shows Israel wouldn't have the money for an operation like this without US aid, correct? But the review in the link you gave states "Israel is now a wealthy industrial state with a per capita income roughly equal to that of South Korea or Spain." Doesn't that mean your own source refutes your claim?

>> ^Sagemind:
I'd like to see this include more than just the "US of A"

But then it would have to include the miserable failures in South Korea and Germany, amongst others.

I've been inside a Walmart only once. The bloke greeting me at the entrace was already too much to bear for me and the fake smiles everywhere were bloody creepy. Forced friendliness is incompatible with my natural cynicism.

Evened that up for you legacy0100... such lucid observations don't deserve to be in the negative.

Singapore and Korea have greatly benefited from Western imperialism (English and American). They inherited our knowledge to build sustainable economies around our economic theory and sound legislative backgrounds. As for Saudi-Arabia, US geologists first discovered the oil under their feet in the 1930s but Americans waited at least 20 years to really start pumping it out.

It is not to say that Westeners are totally responsible for these success stories, but we sure as hell had a hand in getting them started. As for Africa, what most upsets me is that many people fell guilty at their failure. Africa has been offered a multitude of opportunities for growth and stability but have wasted them all away.

Ultimately, their fate lies in their hands. We should stop all aid to Africa.


>> ^legacy0100:
Africa needs to start from basic agricultural and clothing/household item manufacturing environment.
Why don't they have these industries? Singapore started out from Malaria ridden jungle to one of the richest, highest GNP economy in the world, without Africa's natural resources.
South Korea was a war torn, bombed down wasteland and within 50 years it is now top 10 economic powerhouse of the world.
Saudi Arabia was a bumblefuck nowheresville desert with fiefdoms and petty tribes dotted randomly in the sand, until they found out their natural resource pitched a high price to the westerners. And now their kingdom is the richest and most politically influential nation in the world.
Did anybody ORDER them to learn new technology from the westerners? Did anybody TEACH them to strive for better quality in life?
No, they fucking decided that for themselves!!!
So what the fuck is up with Africa, seriously? Is it seriously lack of information and education? Seriously? They just don't know where to start? But then how the hell would they know you can get precious metals from burning them?
ANd like Pprt said, why wouldn't they simply just ply out the parts? They're too impatient to do that? Smashing it is more 'efficient?'
Africa pisses me off beyond belief. Why the hell would they do this to themselves? Why would they be contempt? Why can't they rise up, demand something better, start waging war for the purpose of 'CONQUERING' more resources and not petty politics like 'your daughter is a witch' or something?