Sure, but if you go against the economic gradient too much there you just have yourself another money pit.
A federation of provinces would be awesome. Most of the bigger provinces have (sometimes brief) histories of being their own sovereign entities anyway. They have experience =)
Yeah, the problem is incentivizing migration to those areas is a tricky business. I know a guy who took a subsidy to work in Tibet and went bankrupt. The quality of life in those places is shit.
estate makes them feel rich. If the old nest egg gets taken out what happens next is not going to be pretty./2
My sense is that the middle class will be just fine until something happens to the housing market. Everyone is cash poor and lives in sub-par conditions, but the equity they have in real /1
Yeah I saw that. Will be interesting to see if that kind of social engineering actually works.
They are trying to brainwash the Uyghurs and Tibetans to feel the same love of the state as the majority ethnicity. Essentially trying to make them easier to govern when the shit hits the fan.
are willing to put up with as their quality of life gradually goes down. Could take a generation. /2
My guess is it ends like it usually has in history: with inflation, but who knows. They could keep a lid on this circus for quite a while. It all depends on how much shit the middle class here/1
The state here has already decided that it should spend billions trying to control culturally alien populations like in Tibet and Xinjiang. It is a money pit that will just grow.
Yeah, honestly I think it will be a losing proposition for the Chinese as well. It's just more state planning and they have to foot all the costs of governance over a mostly ungovernable people.
I think we will see either transition to a two party state or Deng's Reform 2.0 in our lifetime. The current model is interesting but unsustainable. The economy is a joke. Tons of makework.
Yep, Colonialism with Chinese Characteristics. =)
I honestly don't know that much about the shadow banking system here. It is not something I have the opportunity to interact with much. =)
They have to actually invent new markets for real growth to occur and I don't see that happening. Right now there is malinvestment all over the place, tons of unoccupied buildings...
Meh, I don't think the party can keep it up. They are up against the economic calculation problem and growth is slowing tremendously. Already negative if you take into account real inflation.
The problem has mostly been in the cities. The lack of any legal due process means that if you get shafted there is no recourse. Couple that with corrupt police and you can see why trust is low.
China used to be much higher trust before the revolution screwed everyone over. Out in the country everyone knew each other and most people just left their doors open.
Combined with the ubiquitous CCTV, people here are better behaved than ever. You can leave stuff out in the open and not have it stolen instantly. Unthinkable just a few years ago.
Yes, not the case for China. The social credit system is having a significant impact on market behavior. I believe it has made things more efficient, if more dangerous long term.
I have noticed that since the introduction of the system there is now a lot more "trust" in online commerce. People are afraid of fucking up their credit score and behave better as agents.
Yeah, I think the EU will definitely try to emulate it. It does have some nifty applications and can increase productivity in some markets.
Competing private reputation/credit markets => YES. State controlled markets that can be manipulated to include arbitrary criteria like "patriotism" => NO.
It is an interesting idea and has some novel applications. The problem is state control. If the state was not involved it would be almost 100% awesome.
Yeah, I met lots of Europeans 10 or so years ago who had a socialist boner for China. They still would be fawning over the Chinese model if it were not so obvious now that it is a total sham.
