this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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A top economist has joined the growing list of China's elite to have disappeared from public life after criticizing Xi Jinping, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Zhu Hengpeng served as deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for around a decade.

CASS is a state research think tank that reports directly to China's cabinet. Chen Daoyin, a former associate professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, described it as a "body to formulate party ideology to support the leadership."

According to the Journal, the 55-year-old disappeared shortly after remarking on China's sluggish economy and criticizing Xi's leadership in a private group on WeChat.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 12 hours ago (29 children)

The most ridiculous I have heard is that when I pointed out that people had to wait for years to get a car, and bread lines were common, I got told that the scarcity in communist states is by design.

SuRe yOu lIvE iN tHe CoUnTrYsIdE, bUt YoU dOn'T nEeD a CaR. JuSt WaLk oR gEt A bUgGy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 hours ago (21 children)

when I pointed out that people had to wait for years to get a car, and bread lines were common

Breadlines weren't common. Breadlines never took place in the USSR between WW2 ending and Perestroika taking place, you're being ahistorical. Food supply wasn't secure for all the population in any nation until the green revolution, the USSR being no exception to that.

Regarding waiting for a car, the soviet economy simply didn't prioritize car manufacturing. The planning didn't intend for every citizen to have a car in the 70s or 80s, they didn't intend to make so many cars, so naturally, the people who had the wealth to buy a car, had to wait in waiting lists to get one, it's not so hard to understand. There are no waiting lists in capitalism because you can segregate 99% of the population from consuming a particular good simply by making it expensive. In socialism, when you don't have extreme inequality, most people will have access to purchase power for the vast majority of goods you produce. This in turn means that either you manufacture literally from the start one product for every citizen, or there will be waiting lists, it's really as simple as that.

When you can't afford a house in capitalism until you're 35 (if you can ever afford it) you aren't technically in a waiting list, so even if there's only new housing for 5% of the population every year, there will be no "waiting list" because simply the prices will go up until only 5% can afford it. In socialism, the same 5% of housing can be afforded by 50% of people, so the way to allocate the goods is a waiting list instead of priority through wealth accumulation.

Do you really fail to understand this?

[–] [email protected] -5 points 7 hours ago (20 children)

Access to transport is as important as housing, man. Do you really fail to understand this?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Transport and a personal vehicle are two different things, go to any country outside the US, car ownership is reserved for the upper classes globally.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

So I, a resident of Europe, am an upper class for owning a 2004 1.3 litre petrol engine Toyota Yaris.

We started this comment chain poking fun at the most laughable arguments by tankies.... And you guys keep on giving.

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