this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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chapotraphouse
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Or... we actually did something about it, and as a result enjoy some of the highest standards of living on the planet. But sure, we should strive to live more like the Chinese do.
Yes, your legislators renamed it lobbying or consultancy. Now corruption doesn't exist.
I don't really care what they've done. All that I know is that the parties I've voted for generally vote in my interests, and that actual noticeable change comes from it. As a result I enjoy high standards of living. The impression I get from my government is that they're genuinely trying to make things better for their citizens (even if it doesn't always work out). That's all I really need to know.
If corruption/lobbying is somehow rampant, it hasn't stopped many legislative measures to protect my interests. A good recent example is the many actions the EU has taken against anti-consumer tech giants. I lobbying was a thing here, do you think that would've happened? God knows these companies have the money.
I'm not omniscient, but I think we're doing quite alright.
So by the same standard, if China, for example, were to lift 800 million people out of poverty, a little corruption would be okay?
As lobbying is a fact throughout Europe, yes, I think the fact of gains and the fact of corruption can happen at the same time.
For another look at a contradictory unity of opposites, here's a look at how the corrupt EU is willing to fund research into combatting excessive PFAS in water while at the same time allowing companies to pump excessive PFAS into the water: https://www.uva.nl/en/content/news/news/2023/02/pfas-in-drinking-water.html?cb
Right, that’s why you have this standard of living, not centuries of colonial exploitation of the Global South
We were prosperous long before that and are prosperous long after that.
Oh wow, "Museum of mercantalist past"?
Wonder what exhibits they have...
Huh, so that's how they got prosperous.
Theft.
Laughable. Europe outside of Constantinople was a backwards shithole that needed to purchase all its manufactured goods from the superior civilizations of India and China. Absolutely nothing before colonialism.
Ekhem.
Istanbul.
You don't want to be called a :LIB: by me, the one true leftist, now do you? :smuglord:
Europe was a backward hellhole before the 1500s and wasn’t really “modern” by any standard until the 19th century, which very curiously coincided with the Scramble for Africa. Hmm, interesting.
Edit: so you’re Dutch. Isn’t the Netherlands’s wealth built on slavery? Why didn’t you guys give all that stolen money back?
Didn't you hear? They spent it and everything they have since the 1960s is due to hard work and intelligence (just don't ask whose).
After? It's ongoing
What do you think China is doing now?
Arresting one man instead of changing the system that lead to his corruption in the first place. Classic.
China has actually been doing a mass anti corruption campaign for about a decade to root out corruption throughout the country; this guy is just the latest guy to get prosecuted.
ahh but the system that legalizes corruption and bribery -- that's ok and doesn't need changing because it protects your interests.