We're seeing increased pressure in the imperial core to reinvest in public funding for industry and social programs due to competition from a large socialist project.
This happened throughout the first cold war, so it's telling to see the same patterns re-emerging.
Something I missed a couple months ago - The Senate Overwhelmingly Passed a Bill to Bolster Competitiveness With China
Passed back in June, the "Innovation and Competition Act" only really picked up support when it was renamed from the "Endless Frontier Act" and positioned as being an anti-China bill.
The more than 2,400-page bill greenlit almost $250 billion in funding for U.S. manufacturing and technology. It passed with a 68-32 vote in a Senate that has otherwise been mostly gridlocked by electoralist excuses (parliamentarian, manchin, fillibuster, etc).
Really telling quote from a Republican senator at the end of the linked article:
“Frankly, I think China has left us no option but to make these investments,”
Another quote with Schumer saying the quiet part out loud again:
“They [China] believe that squabbling democracies like ours can’t come together and invest in national priorities the way a top-down, centralized and authoritarian government can. They are rooting for us to fail so they can grab the mantle of global economic leadership and own the innovations.” - source.
A spokesperson from China's foreign ministry said that bill was “full of cold war zero-sum thinking” that “distorts the facts [and] smears China’s development path and domestic and foreign policies". - Source
In a strange way, this could result in some benefits for those workers trapped in the Imperial Core as it could potentially lead to renewed spending on social programs, especially as China's standard of living continues to improve.
I unfortunately don't view that as a net positive since we're already experiencing a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, but it is interesting to see Capitalism's ongoing response to its global power being challenged for the first time in decades.
What other examples of this have you noticed? Were benefits like the (still underwhelming) stimulus payments also caused by this pressure?
deleted by creator
Make sure we are not talking about owning the latest worthless techbro gadget when we are talking about living standards. When westerns think of living standards they think iPhone and a car while someone in the third would would think do I have access to good public transportation, fridge, a TV.
I think there was a UN report a few years ago that determined most of the US is actualy living in third world standards when it comes to things that actualy matter. I remember reading this report back before I was fully an ML and it helped me bring home the point about actual material conditions.
For example when interacting with Latin American equivalent gusanos they shit on Cuba because no iPhone or shit when their own country e.g Brazilian favelas people barely have beds/TVs/able to get outside without having their children die due to a stray bullet.
I would gladly pick a remote Chinese village over 80 or 90% of the US(if we go by state e.g Florida definitely 100%), heck if anything because at least I can hope my future will improve.
deleted by creator