It's a play off dry January, I kinda made it up

Decided it would be a good T-break after being in the green for so long

Looking forward to the next high ^^

I know what I'm baking up when I'm thru weedless-January :3

GENIUS

try another 30-35 with the wind chill 💨🥶

get on my level

I am referring to the US government, their politicians and the decisions they make

The healthcare system in the US is fully privatized and it's a complete nightmare, thousands of people falling into medical bankruptcy every year

Canada is doing better in that front, but there is still private dental & eye care, no public coverage for medicine

In China it's a free public service

To think that Canada or the US is further to the left on worker's rights or healthcare is so laughable

The US workforce is at the lowest unionization rate today that it has even been since FDR, I'm sure Canada is in a similar boat

Worker's rights are not even on the list of priorities for us

The focus of the US is not to improve the conditions of its citizens, but rather to increase the profits that are felt by private investors, and that is exactly why the US is in such dire straits today

So far, the US has provided the bare-bones social programs necessary to ensure that most seniors do not go completely bankrupt when they retire, whether through lack of income or healthcare costs, but working people still need to fare for themselves

And that is leading many into medical bankruptcy

They will need to spend more on those social programs as they continue to develop, but they are willing to spend that money and their planning is making sure that they will have that money when it is needed

To compare, the US does not care to spend the money on those things, or even plan for it

China has developed itself in such a way where their government has effectively guaranteed that they will be able to have the money to spend to ensure that its citizens have as good of a standard of living as possible given their current levels of development, without being terribly indebted

If you believe that China is hyper-capitalist, or that places like California or Canada are somehow left-wing or socialist, that is very disconnected from reality

As for the supposed "housing bubble" in China, there has been a lot of chatter recently about property management companies being very over-leveraged (e.g. Evergrande), but that is not the result of speculation on the value of housing itself, but moreso the construction of new housing

China's debt-to-GDP in 2024 is about 90%

For the US it is over 120%

You are not right on that

Furthermore, California is not a left-wing state, as much as people like to believe, their housing is still primarily privately owned and govt decisions are made to increase housing value for investors

The US could have gone a different direction than it did, there was immense pressure from the capitalist class to cave to fascist sentiment to prevent a left-wing revitalization of the economy (see The Business Plot), but thankfully it did not go that way

We find ourselves in similar times today

The fascists ultimately prevailed through the capitalist elites of Germany throwing their weight behind the fascists, as they were the ones who would defend their interests against the Communists

Though the economy was technically improving in the early 30s, the average person wasn't feeling relief

During times of economic crisis, momentum moves towards both ends of the political spectrum as people look for an alternative

In Germany, support for the Communist party grew along with support for the Fascist party during the economic crises in the late 20s into the 30s

And though China has adopted some semblances of capitalism in their economy since the 80s onwards, their government still has ultimate control and uses that control to ensure that shortfalls in basic needs like housing and infrastructure are minimized

The situation in the US/Canada is far more dire