You do not understand how a mixed economy works. Neither does America anymore, and that's why you are losing your wealth and hegemony.

Yes but after this crash rather than bailing you out, again, China takes over.

Chinas strategy is built upon a combination of state directed provision of the inputs to production (such as electricity supply, skilled labour, transportation etc) and private enterprise.

The Chinese government provide enterprise with low cost inputs and this enables them to be the most competitive value added economy in the world. Meanwhile the neoliberalised west has forgotten how to make things instead drunk upon the false wealth of financialisation.

The west is now so far behind that its legacy hegemony built up over 500 years is crumbling.

The west can be paralysed by China if China ceases supply of any of many basic inputs required to sustain the wests already much depleted ability to build things. Without rare earths the US military monetary combine cannot fight a war.

The USA has taken decades to build one new nuclear power station, while China using the same blueprint, but improved, can build dozens of new nuclear power stations for a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time.

With electricity supply growth now vital to powering the data centres required for AI China once again is poised to beat the west in this final race to gain global economic supremacy.

China has the mix about right and is swiftly gaining dominance over the tired, corrupt and entitled west.

Micronesia

Guadacanal

Marshall Islands

The AI bubble is Americas desperate last ditch gamble to try to stay ahead of the Chinese mercantile juggernaut. On just one metric alone it is very clear that the USA will lose this gamble upon empire. Electricity Generation Capacity. The USA cannot build enough new electricity to power the already planned AI data centres. And what it can build is hugely expensive and uncompetitive. Its all talk, all froth, hoping to perpetuate the image and fraud of empire a little longer. Good luck with that.

In China the government literally owns many of the power generators building them and supplying the electricity at the lowest possible cost knowing that the free market of manufacturers and processors will utilise the electricity and produce wealth and competitively priced exports. It is a case of the government enabling its industry to be the most competitive in the world. Chinese manufacturers enjoy electricity supply at less than half the cost western manufacturers pay. All due to proactive Chinese economic management and understanding of the crucial enabling role government can play in the wealth of nations.

You're the one throwing around inane memes to avoid and debase the process of reasoned debate. Fucking hypocrit.

Maybe the Solomon Islands?

Palau?

Northern Mariana Islands?

Guam?

The US military industrial combine are scared that China has beaten them on yet another front.

The AI race is the last hope for western imperialism...and its mostly hype.

It is depressing to hear you feel so defeatist and cynical about the state of US democracy.

I can understand it but do not buy into it.

Such defeatism only plays into the hands of despots and entrenched corruption.

Crony capitalism is an innate human tendency.

Trump is an example of it writ large and blatant with his meme coins, corporate sponsors pardons for a price and multiple other rentseeking conflicts of interest.

Good government is the only thing that can sometimes reduce its manifestation and undermining of free markets.

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”

China has the USA/West over a barrel. Without rare earths supply the US military industrial combine is broke. The US cannot fight a war with China or anyone without rare earths. Trump started a trade war with China but China had prepared by investing in dominating global rare earths supply chains and now Trump must Beg for continued access to rare earths supply chains. Libertarian nonsense that free markets always deliver better results than government involvement and investment in strategic markets has been demonstrably proven complete and utter bullshit.

You are out of touch with the real world economic and military realities of power projection and economic systems and their intertwined nature and I wager you 10000 sats you cannot convincingly refute the above.

Sometimes government must get involved in the provision of strategic supply chains and to not to is negligent.

Rare Earths for example- and there are many more examples in addition to rare earths too.

No this is an alternative to the divisive and crooked crony capitalism Trump and his corporate sponsors are selling.

Trump is not Making America Great Again- he is simply coping with the fact that US empire power and hegemony is in irreversible decline...using divisive scapegoating populism to divide and rule while feathering his own nest and those of his sponsors.

There are some. Like rare earths. USAis fucked without them and can only ever build an alternative supply chain if it spends trillions of dollar on SUBSIDIES.

Another is electricity generation- the Chinese do this very well via government led strategy to provide the productive sector and consumers the cheapest power to stimulate generating jobs and businesses that can compete globally.

This is a key part of how China has come to dominate global manufacturing and as a consequence commodity markets- while the crony capitalist west wallowed in financialisation and abstractions that are ultimately only paper.

There is a cost in using public transport. Inconvenience. Using a bus will rarely be as convenient as driving your car. There is also a significant benefit to others whenever someone uses public transport...reduced road congestion and reduced GHG emissions. Conversely using a car imposes costs on others and relies on heavily subsidised road networks. Car users are usually not paying thew true cost including externalities/consequences of their car use.

Therefore it is perfectly reasonable where possible to provide free to use public transport (funded by taxes on other road users who benefit from the reduced road congestion) to maximise public transport utilisation.

The ideal mix will vary depending on the market but in large already congested cities the benefits to most people from free public transport can be significant. Currently we often have the worst possible mix with substantial tax subsidisation of public transport but minimal use of it because there is still an entry cost similar to taking your car.

There is a difficulty in neoliberal Libertarian ideologs in recognising that sometimes pure market forces do not deliver the best outcomes.

China is huge in the South African economy as it is in most of Africa. China offers most commodity exporting nations the best deal- the best prices for their commodity exports and the best priced manufactured goods to import. Good to hear S.A. has a growing Bitcoin circular economy and hopefully that continues to grow. What Trump is talking about is Bitcoin/crypto/stable coins both as speculative commodities and stable coins as an alternative to CBDCs. Also Trump sees crypto as a way to personally profiteer and avoid/evade tax/hide wealth and for his associates and sponsors to do the same. Trump knows the US empire is in decline- MAGA is a joke played on his gullible followers. The reality Trump is managing the decline of US imperialism and crypto is a convenient means of hiding wealth just as the Brits=ish built their globa network of tax havens as their empire declined.