Tag: living standards

If you work in the U.S., you don’t know how bad you have it

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

It’s no secret that United Statesians are more ignorant of the world beyond their national borders than the peoples of other countries. That ignorance serves a purpose. How can you keep screaming “We’re Number One” and believing you have it better than the rest of the world if you are in possession of accurate information?

If you work in the U.S., you don’t know how bad you have it

H/T: Dandelion Salad

China, the U.S., and the Idea of National Competition

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

China, the U.S., and the Idea of National Competition

What appears to be meant in the U.S. by ‘competing with China’ can be inferred by the rising Pentagon budget, by the failure to raise the minimum wage, by hiring private corporations to get around restrictions on domestic spying, and by appointing a high-level administrator to shut-down inconvenient political opinions on the internet. The political parties are now balkanized to the point where their adherents trust members of their own party, but not the other. What this likely means is an iterative process between ‘wealth of nations’ style economic nationalism and neoliberal internationalism where the only constant is the consolidation of political control by oligarchs and corporate executives. I believe that Italians in the 1920s and 1930s had a name for this type of governance.

Western propaganda on Xinjiang often sounds like white supremacists

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Western propaganda on Xinjiang often sounds like white supremacists

And herein lies the real problem. While living standards in the West – both economic and moral – are largely either declining or have stagnated, life in China is improving day by day. But Chinese people are supposed to be oppressed and poor. Seeing them grow rich irritates the propagandists to no end. Perhaps they can shout “It’s the birth rates” into the void to alleviate the pain.

*Xinjiang*

Inflation and financial risk

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Is inflation coming back in the major capitalist economies? As the US economy (in particular) and other major economies begin to rebound from the COVID slump of 2020, the talk among mainstream economists is whether inflation in the prices for goods and services in those economies is going to accelerate to the point where central banks have to tighten monetary policy (ie stop injecting credit into the banking system and raise interest rates). And if that were to happen, would it cause a collapse in the stock and bond markets and bankruptcies for many weaker companies as the cost of servicing corporate debt rises?

Inflation and financial risk

Answering The Empire’s (and the Fake Left’s) Campaign of Baldfaced Lies Against China

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Answering The Empire’s (and the Fake Left’s) Campaign of Baldfaced Lies Against China

“In a time of great need the US government is letting its citizens freeze, go broke, get evicted, and die of preventable illnesses, so obviously it’s of paramount importance right now that Americans rise up with one voice and direct their righteous anger at China. I’m developing a special disdain for people who mindlessly regurgitate US anti-China narratives, especially people who are normally skeptical of US government claims. There’s just no excuse for this nonsense. The geostrategic agendas are so obvious, the barefaced liars so familiar, and the facts so readily available for anyone intellectually honest enough to look”.

Caitlin Johnstone.