> The #2 economy in the world is run by the Communist Party of China. #1, if you measure in material terms rather than financial terms.

Well if you can even get accurate measurements out. Nobody really knows, for example, whether the population of China has been severely undercounted, or truly how much debt has been amassed, or what the next crises may be, similar to over-building in housing.

You also can't ignore the history of these countries in modern context. China has become more capitalist over time because communism was not working. The comment I was replying to was talking about World War II so of course pointing out the tens (hundreds?) of millions of lives lost due to communism is just participating in the discussion that was put forth here. I'd say the greatest gift China continues to give the United States is hamstringing its economy. They'd easily be #1 right now if not for the CCP.

> Time passed, and the private owners of the US economy sold our industrial base to the communists in order to stuff their bank accounts.

Not just that, but in order to get Americans the cheap baubles they so desire. But that seems less of a criticism of capitalism and more of a government failure.

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smallmancontrov a day ago | parent [-]

Right, because Joe Sixpack got a choice between "cheap baubles" and "a job" and chose "cheap baubles"? No, this decision was made by shareholders for shareholders.

It's a government failure all right: a failure of the government to tell the shareholders to stop selling out America.

	▲	ericmay 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'm not resolving policymakers of blame, but ignoring consumer behavior and cultural attitudes leads to incomplete analysis and faulty solutions. You see the same thing with respect to the environment. People still buy plastic bottled water, for example and travel all over the world on vacation while talking about how we need to reduce emissions. We can't reduce emissions without reducing or changing consumption patterns too. Corporations simply sell products that people want - it's up to us as a country to rein them in and that goes for both policy and behavior.