[throwsprtsdy]

> Industry isn't a culture, it's a combination of skill sets and infrastructure. China is the world's second largest economy...

It's interesting to see those two statements adjacent to each other. China is a tremendous world power, but if I understand the history correctly, it arrived at this point after a series of (sometimes extreme) cultural and economic upheavals that prioritized modernization over traditional culture.

[du2hehehdy]

The presentation wasnt the best I agree. The point I was driving towards is that culture can accelerate industrial growth and development but this doesn't mean any /one/ culture or set of beliefs should be presented as superior/better. America became number one (nuanced but I want to avoid another essay) through embracing multi-culturalism, liberty, and being one of the few places that weren't damaged much in WW2 with a nod towards their role in post ww1 decision making as well. China came to be viewed as number 2 and a credible threat to the position of number 1 through radically different cultural processes. So while culture contributed to industrialization in both instances, that doesn't make it sensible to make normative statements supporting either direction as a suggestion for improving the world, or a whole region, at large. These issues are nuanced and if they don't seem nuanced then it's much more likely that we're arguing from a position of ignorance rather than correctness.

[anticodon]

> America became number one (nuanced but I want to avoid another essay) through embracing multi-culturalism, liberty, and being one of the few places that weren't damaged much in WW2 with a nod towards their role in post ww1 decision making as well.

The first part is really amusing. America become rich because while Europe was fighting world wars, US was making money on them. US joined WW2 by the very end when it was evident that Germany lost, and arrived just in time to colonize its share of Europe that remains colonized to this day.

Also the fact that US dollar is the world's exchange currency also benefits US immensely. US can print astronomical amounts of money and the whole world becomes poorer with each printed bill. No other country in the world has the same position. If Iran would be in the same position, they would be just as rich without all the "multi-cultural" "liberty" fluff.

[blaser-waffle]

> US joined WW2 by the very end when it was evident that Germany lost

Bollocks. The US joined the war because they cut off oil supplies to Japan and Japan saw future conflict as inevitable -- and struck first. They bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 -- and the war didn't end until 1945. In 1941 Germany had beaten France, the UK, Norway, Denmark, and was on a path to steamroll Yugoslavia, Greece, and possibly the USSR.

> just in time to colonize its share of Europe that remains colonized to this day.

The US military is still in Europe because the NATO is fine with the US footing the cost of defense spending. "Colonized" my fat ass, the reason the EU is able to throw around grand farm subsidies is because the US is paying for missile defense and aircraft carriers.

[anticodon]

Yeah, forgot to mention that Japan and South Korea are colonized as well.

Footing the cost of defense spending is a sweet lie for the population of the occupied countries. And some of them are actually paying for this "help". South Korea, for example, had to increase the payments for the US "protection". BTW, this is exactly parlance that criminals use to justify racket: "You pay us for protection, pal. Win-win!"

And I also forgot that US spies all over the world. Every computer device has numerous CIA backdoors. This obviously provides huge advantage to US businesses.