It is kind of interesting that China, which has the fastest growing economy in the world, is nominally communist, semi-protectionist and rigorously controls its exchange rate by linking its currency to the largest capitalistic semi-socialist free-trade proponent is the world - the USA. Good for China. Meanwhile Europe, Japan and the USA effectively, if not statistically, are in recession. 3 links below.
I am sure there are better experts on this subject out there who may have a more detailed grasp of the subject but here is my effort:
I know semi-socialist sounds funny but there are huge social programs in the USA that take up a very large part of the federal budget. All salaried employees pay 15% of their wages into Social Security which is supposed to be just for retirees' pensions. Then the regular federal taxes are calculated which support things like Medicare which is also for retirees. These are all parts of the budget referred to as "nondiscretionary" because the government has no choice but to pay them. There is really very little budget flexibility because of this. It is very easy to spend more but very difficult to spend less. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, et al are just more semi-socialist. Many people seem to use socialist and communist as synonyms but I do not. Communist is a command economy and socialist ( semi or not ) is a demand economy with social programs to help out the less well to do.
I hope that was not too long. You are not wimpy or pinkos!
And to get this back on topic, I wonder if any Chinese Politburo members drive a Mercedes?
I cannot accept my car which is made in Red China. I experienced the bloody chinaman workmanship that was horrible. I hope my next new mercedes will not be made in China.
I can't be a racist this time because I can't discriminate against my kind. I am a Chinese who speak and write Chinese and but don't trust the Red China's workmanship and their promises. If MB is made in Taiwan, I will shut my mouth because they are more reliable. (Red China =\= Taiwan) Will see...
We all know the difference between Taiwan and China. In fact, in the past several years I consider stuff made in Taiwan top notch, good quality. They are however hard to find these days. I guess all the production line were moved to China now for better profit.
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