• Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      39
      ·
      7 months ago

      Some might read your post as an exaggeration, but a good amount of mainstream economists think exactly like this and treat the idea that productivity is important as a revelation.

      • GaryLeChat@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        ·
        7 months ago

        You would think that any economist who actually wanted to be successful would try to understand the shortfalls of capitalism too by reading Capital.

        Instead, “wait, if people don’t make enough money to buy treats, then the won’t buy treats??”, is an actual revelation somehow.

        • flan [they/them]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          7 months ago

          so much of this stuff happens over multiple decades. That is enough time to establish your career and be in the second half or nearing retirement. So being right isnt what’s going to pay the bills. Going along with the orthodoxy will. If the incentives were different maybe we’d see orthodoxy be more in line with reality.

      • IzyaKatzmann [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        ·
        7 months ago

        i dont get it, why is there so much whining then by failure to “increase productivity”? firms dont invest in tools & training and they still want productivity line to go up right? or am i missing something?

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          35
          ·
          7 months ago

          Gotta look at the definition of “productivity” people are using. Often it’s just productivity = revenue / number of employees.

          Defined that way, you can fire 20% of employees and make the remaining employees do more work for the same pay. That causes a 20% increase in productivity because suddenly each employee is doing more work.

          Doesn’t actually mean they want to make more things.

          • DragonBallZinn [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            20
            ·
            7 months ago

            And of course, there’s nothing “unproductive” about having a whole slew of unemployed people who have been pushed out of the workforce as a reserve army of labor.

    • ashinadash [she/her]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      66
      ·
      7 months ago

      Conjured out of nothing and lived in by seemingly no one, China’s so-called ghost cities became the subject of Western media fascination a decade ago. Photos of these huge urban developments went viral online, presenting scenes of compelling weirdness: empty apartment towers stranded in a sea of mud; broad boulevards devoid of cars or people; over-the-top architectural showpieces with no apparent function.

      Bloomberg spinning “they built towns and then got people into them” as an ineffable oriental mystery, lol.

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      36
      ·
      7 months ago

      I remember thst when I knew less about China and had more propaganda brain and seeing the results come to fruition at roughly the same rate of time I got China pilled was neat. The contrast of my own city wasn’t, landlords profits doubled wages stagnated.

  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    75
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Being Chinese must be so fucking dope. Like, I’m sure there’s lots of total bullshit to deal with, there’s no where that doesn’t kinda suck to live a little bit, but can you imagine seeing things getting better as you grew up? The idea of living through an improvement instead of an historically shaaaaaarp decline is something I envy and feel cheated out of, cause I have been cheated out of it. Quality of life for the more privileged here may be better but that’s locked out for me and for those who can get the bag, their children won’t, the bag is empty. I’d rather live somewhere that’s maybe some degree materially worse off for my monetary class that has any degree of hope for a future than this shit hesp I live in where I can see the copper wire Bek g removed already.

    • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      41
      ·
      7 months ago

      Its not like western capitalism didn’t have its own “golden age”, the US between 1950 and 1970s, I’m sure you’re aware how boomers bought everything specially cheap housing etc.

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        41
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        Yeah, hope for the future was pretty normal for a bit and expecting it to stay that way shouldn’t be too much to ask. The fact the word doomer even exists is an indictment of capitalist failure.

    • GladimirLenin [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      7 months ago

      Imagine if you’re a 70+ year old Chinese person. Growing up in absolute poverty to your country probably becoming the most powerful nation on the planet in 2-3 generations. What China has achieved in the last 70 yeas in nothing short of remarkable.

  • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    69
    ·
    7 months ago

    The situation in China’s solar panel sector may be worse, where overproduction pushed prices down 42% last year to levels 60% below the cost of comparable U.S.-made products. China now accounts for 80% of global production capacity, and major solar producers are continuing to build factories, backed by provincial and local subsidies.

    how is this a bad thing!!!

    OH MY FUCKING GOD

  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    69
    ·
    7 months ago

    She’s in China to beg the PRC to buy more USD bonds.

    This is like your deadbeat neighbor coming to borrow more money while lecturing you about how stupid you are for not buying a monkey jpg nft.

  • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    66
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    “We see a growing threat of money-losing firms that are going to have to sell off their production somewhere,” a senior U.S. Treasury official said of overproduction in key Chinese sectors.

    Won’t someone think of the venture capitalists?!

    Free trade is only good when the U.S. is the one profiting off of cheap labor, when they’re facing competition that’s a no bully and you’re breaking the rules.

  • khizuo [ze/zir]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    64
    ·
    7 months ago

    No you see, good economy is when speculation bubbles and bad economy is when making shit that people actually need.

    • DragonBallZinn [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      43
      ·
      7 months ago

      Things have really been settling in. Even as a kid, this is what I saw what economics are like. Make something? Have a service? Sell it. Sure, there’s some rules to not step over for certain labor or environmental reasons, but that’s okay because only the dishonest would forgo those rules.

      But no, that philosophy is…alien here. All based on speculation, even the whole “american dream” propaganda of homeownership emphasizes that real estate is “the perfect investment” to “build wealth”…even though that wealth you build is built on the backs of future generations.

      • determinism2 [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        7 months ago

        Land value is built on the backs of current generations, especially renters. Even single home owners who do not own rental properties gain property value on the backs of renters in their community. Renters pay the same local taxes, taxes pay for local services and infrastructure, local services and infrastructure increases land values. All land owners see a return on their tax liabilities expressed through land value while renters see none.

      • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        7 months ago

        The whole homeownership as wealth building never made sense to me. I mean I don’t pay rent, sure, there’s less of a leech thing going on so maybe I get get more money. But how is it an investment? It’s not like my singular house rises in price and everyone else’s doesn’t. Great, my house is now, in the twilight years of my life, worth 900% more than what I bought it for. I can now sell it, have 900% profit, then immediatly spend all that 900% profit on buying some other dwelling that also rose 900% in price

        • charlie [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          7 months ago

          Inheritance.

          If I inherited 1,000,000 dollars cash, let’s say after taxes and assuming I didn’t inherit the money through a trust or some other tax evasion scheme, in 2010, that purchasing power today is worth roughly 70%. A million dollar house would be worth significantly more over time just from rising property values, and in addition, really the major component, is that there are inheritance laws that favor passing on property as a way of creating generational wealth.

            • charlie [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              10
              ·
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              It’s sold as wealth building in the same way they sell the idea of investing. “You too can become petty capitalists.” But I think you’re absolutely right. And like in the case of my parents, they were priced out of their house from rising taxes before having the ability to transfer that wealth to their kids

  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    60
    ·
    7 months ago

    wait, no, I thought of a better analogy. China is spamming a difficult-to-block combo and obliterating the US who is just button mashing, and the US is holding back tears while screaming YOURE CHEATING, THATS CHEATING

  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    59
    ·
    7 months ago

    really seems like all the loser failchildren of wealthy parents who never told them no are having a difficult time coping with losing. Stop winning, my mommy says you have to stop beating me at economic production. powercry-2

  • cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    54
    ·
    7 months ago

    Please Mr. Xi stop thinking about climate change for just one second! Don’t you know that by subsidizing a green energy transition you’re hurting American oil executive bonuses?! That’s not fair!!!

  • Trudge [Comrade]@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    53
    ·
    7 months ago

    Yellen will seek to convey her view that the excess production is unhealthy for China and that there is a growing drumbeat of concern about it in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Mexico and other major economies.

    Feels good to be recognized as a major economy finally. Get fucked Canada!