To be fair our capitalist hellscape contemporaries in east Asia have fared much better. This thing doesn’t seem to be driven as much by a particular economic system as much as a total lack of empathy and deep culture of selfishness. Of course capitalism primes the pump for these conditions.
I think economic concerns can explain why e.g. South Korea had a better response, in the same way economic concerns explain why Nordic social democracy was conceded due to the USSR being right next door
Same with Taiwan. They want to be as good as the mainland/CCP in managing it. There’s real pressure even in just the optics (they also benefited materially from China’s lockdown early on)
To be fair our capitalist hellscape contemporaries in east Asia have fared much better. This thing doesn’t seem to be driven as much by a particular economic system as much as a total lack of empathy and deep culture of selfishness. Of course capitalism primes the pump for these conditions.
I think economic concerns can explain why e.g. South Korea had a better response, in the same way economic concerns explain why Nordic social democracy was conceded due to the USSR being right next door
Same with Taiwan. They want to be as good as the mainland/CCP in managing it. There’s real pressure even in just the optics (they also benefited materially from China’s lockdown early on)