Afaik, no one's ever done an actual quantitative analysis, but if the US was barred from exploiting the global south tomorrow the standard of living for all US Americans (other than the rich) would plummet. It wouldn't even be a recession, more like all of capitalism just seizing up. iPhones now cost like $5k and no one could afford them anyway. I think it would be orders of magnitude worse than what the Russians had to deal with in the 90s with their "shock therapy". It's truly astounding how dependent we are on exploiting labor and resources in the global south. Like... damn near everything we own was made by people making shit wages and living in conditions that would make US Americans cry after living in them for a few hours.

It pisses me off so much that 99% of US Americans think their lifestyle of cheap, plentiful treats is the ultimate evidence that capitalism works. They say "look how much stuff we have" and compare it to what folks in AES states had. They never think about there are like 100+ countries out there that are every bit as capitalistic as the USA. And yet they are living in crushing poverty. Why is the US a symbol of the success of capitalism but poor countries don't reflect it's weaknesses?

The standard of living that most people in the US enjoy is more thanks to the exploitation of the workers and resources of the global south than it is to some inherent positive quality of capitalism. Take that away and US Americans would have a very different life from what they have come to expect. For the working class in the US, without all that exploitation I don't see how our lives would be materially different from workers in the global south.

And I haven't even gotten into how much of our lifestyle is driven by environmental exploitation! US Americans consume resources at something like 5X what is considered a sustainable rate. Force us to live sustainably and that would be another huge blow to treatflow and the "success" of capitalis.

  • doctor_sociology [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    They are not as rich as the suburbanites of Burgerland but most have their basic needs covered and surplus for luxuries. I

    Let's break down the chinese middle class:

    • Indoor plumbing and heating, but AC still remains room by room for most people if they have it at all.

    • Car ownership is insanely expensive, just from the licensing and fees alone. Most people can only afford to drive a compact if at all

    • Fast casual dining out that's a staple of US food spend doesn't exist, its street food or noodle stands for most people with nice restaurants being something reserved for special occasions.

    • Consumer electronics is a given considering how much the country manufactures, but high end gaming PCs and luxury computing devices still remain off limits for most people. The most popular games aren't Crysis or the latest EA tech demo but far older titles.

    • Single family homes are rare and mostly in the domain of the extremely well off or people in rural areas.

    Just in terms of sheer material consumption nobody dwarfs Americans. The top 10% of chinese incomes have a much lower carbon footprint than the bottom 10% of americans.

    • NaturalsNotInIt [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Everything you just described was a normal middle class life in the United States/Europe in like 2001, other than the car and single family home ownership for Americans (and to be fair to China, the vast majority live in apartments, but they own them without a mortgage), but in 2022 we have the internet and numerous entertainment options plus the wonders of modern medicine (which has made strides, it isn't all wasted Cadillac treatments). Was the average person in say Italy or East Germany in 2001 that deprived? Fuck no, $20k PPP per capita GDP is plenty to live a decent life.

      • doctor_sociology [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        lol 87% of US households have AC, 75% of them central AC units. and prepandemic 60% of US food spend was on restaurants!

        • NaturalsNotInIt [any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Good job reading where I said "20 or 30 years ago". Central AC was not that common back then.

    • star_wraith [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I know you're not necessarily disagreeing with SoyViking, but everything you described seems perfectly compatible with:

      a safe and comfortable although modest lifestyle

      Assuming that we have as good of public transportation as China, then car ownership is not relevant.

    • Quimby [any, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      the street food and noodle stands are like 10000x better than the fast food shit you get here.

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      That doesn't sound too bad. I basically live like this already and the only thing that makes it suck is being surrounded by people who are visibly better off and living in a culture that looks down on those who can't live up to the standards of consumption.

      For lots of people living like this would be an utopian dream.