I didn't know Americans don't have unions or they have 996 working hours or they jumping from the buildings because of unbearable working conditions. I didn't even know there are political prisoners in the USA or that Americans are afraid of criticizing their own government. Even if we pretend what you say it's true, doesn't the last missing bit in your own words bother you enough to forgo buying a Chinese car?
But you are fine if the cars comes from a country with no labor protection, overworked work force, keeps social score on its people, has political prisoners and keep large swaths of unwanted minority in concentration camps,...
What is your opinion of driving a car from a country with an authoritarian government which is keeping social score on its people and put millions of Uyghurs through concentration camps. Lets not forget about political prisoners or organ harvesting.
>Why is it critically important to maintain a particular culture at a cost that is not sustainable?
Don't you like cultural diversity? Would you prefer the whole world to be culturally the same? It will not be a mishmash as you think, the new culture would be the culture of people with most kids. I doubt you would like it.
>Why not? Deficits can be healthy and safe when they’re managed. Literally most persons, businesses, and governments use debt.
It probably greatly depends on what debt is spent. If it's used for investment to spur further growth, it's entirely different if it's used for consumption. Is government using depth for future growth?
You made a mistake, an order of magnitude. It's over 135k per year taxed at 45%. Of course none of the rich people pay this tax, because they don't receive salaries.
I think you are exactly right. This is the product of society which has more empathy towards the bullies, because they are the real victims, ignored and left behind by the society. On the other hand there is very little empathy towards actual victims themselves. And to go further probably the majority of teachers believe, support and vote for people holding such ideas.
Do you think Turkey can again become a great regional player in the near future? Looking at the population projections for the Balkans and surrounding countries like Hungary, things don't look great long term. Also Austria is afraid to make a statue of the polish king who saved Vienna from Ottomans in order to not hurt t the feelings of it's Turkish migrant population.
Ironically you are making his point. Countries that have stronger respect for property rights dump way less or no garbage in the oceans as the countries where there is no such respect.
So which economical system enables us to talk to inanimate objects or unborn babies, since you think this is a fault of capitalism?
You have a deep misunderstanding of markets and capitalism!
A country that can't provide basic goods like bananas and coffee, needs to send millions of it's people to another country so they can survive, represses minorities and political dissidents, has Lukasenko type of dictator for life as president and finally bankrupts and violently disintegrates with a genocide is a definition of a failed state. I do ideologicaly oppose to such a system to be revived, it would be criminal to want that.
How exactly can you ask an unborn child, a river or a glacier what it wants? Did the Yugoslav dictator ask Kosovars what they want before violently oppressing them?
You brought the failed state of Yugoslavia as model. I don't have a clue why though. Its economic model certainly doesn't solve any of the existing problems and it would exacerbate them. The forest will burn and rivers will run dry as long as this planet will exist. You are acting as if this is not a naturally occurring phenomena.
No, every one participates. Ordinary people the most, because the capitalist first and foremost need to provide value to us. I'm not sure what do you mean by rivers, glaciers or others not participating in the market? Isn't it evident people assign great value to natural resources. The world is a bit older then 120 years in your graph. There were a lot of natural disasters that wiped quite a lot of living beings from the planet.
Yugoslavia failed spectacularly economically. People had to smuggle bananas, diapers, coffee and jeans among other goods from the neighboring Italy and Austria. Millions of people (Gastarbeiter) migrated to Germany to be able support their families, because there was no opportunity at home. Inflation was horrendous, people exchanged the local currency to german marks on the same day as the payday, otherwise by the next day it was worth half as much. There was a shortage of gasoline and people sometimes waited years to get a car. But yes the dictator and the red nobility lived very well for sure.
Do you never have problems with transportation like breakdowns or accidents stopping the traffic for a while or having some sort of emergency where you need to drop everything an take care of it?
People miss their youth. You can do the same poll anywhere and the results will be similar, whether that place was a communist dictatorship or not. And no it's not a simple fact that people enjoyed their lives. Maybe it was for your family who was either close to power or ideologically agreed with the dictatorship. Communism was good to the the people aligned with the regime, but for anyone who had a dissident idea, it was hell on earth. A lot of things were missing and not available to buy. People had to make do with what they had. And reporting did happen as well, even if you try to brush it off. Poland would be a first world country had it not stay behind the iron curtain.
In my experience those are the people who miss the "good" old times, when everything had order and hierarchy. Wikipedia says the communist party in Poland had 3 million member which is about 10% of the population at the time. If you add the family members and close relatives, the number of people living a privileged life was quite big. Red nobility is known phenomenon in former communist countries.
>> we adapt our societies to become less dependent on it
How? Old people need care. Younger people will need to take care of them. When they die, a lot of knowledge will be lost, because there will not be enough young people to learn all those skills. Less people will also mean overall less economic activity, less creativity, less inventions and so on. I'm not saying the world will stop, but the transition will certainly be painful.
If you need to apologize for defending Aristotle after more then 2000 years after his death, you must be a part of a political establishment which is very out of tune with the feelings of ordinary people and are a part of a religious community which is unforgiving of any transgressions and can cancel and outcast you for a minor verbal delict.
>>And, are you now signalling yours?
Not very precisely. I think at least 90% of political body would disagree with their position. Also all the biggest world religions believe in repentance.