but it's also thanks to protectionism, and their strictly controlled (not freely traded) cheap currency.

if china had to play by the same rules as japan or germany it would not be quite as successful. but the west walked into this trap, hoping their win-win proposal would be satisfactory for all. now the west is too dependent on chinese production to enforce equal standing.

of course the US has its own unfair advantages, e.g. the global reserve currency and the massive post-WWII headstart.

as a borrower who's not allowed to compensate for your lenders' risk monetarily, your access to loans is severely restricted. Essentially you have to rely on your extended family. and instead of paying for the risk with interest payments, you have to pay with loyalty and subservience.

it restricts social mobility far more than the western model. it incentivizes clan structures. which incentivize cousin marriage.

power concentrates in the patriarchs of a million little family kingdoms. which causes all kinds of economic inefficiencies.

in the US, even if you're born without any family connections, as a healthy 20 year old you can find a job (hard work) that allows you to save $70k per year and invest it. when you're 30 you have $1M and a good credit history, you can easily leverage that to get a $2M loan at low interest rates, which allows you to start any kind of productive venture you want.

and you can do all this without owing your clan's patriarch access to e.g. your most profitable clients, or your daughters hand in marriage to his retarded son, or anything else he wants in exchange for his generosity.

And now the regime wants them to voluntarily sacrifice their lives for it.

A functioning "fourth estate" would have reported on this *before* the law was passed.

On top of analyzing vast amounts of surveillance data, AI also has to write HN comments defending the mass surveillance! Busy life.

A group of people who were elected by nobody, should, without any accountability or due process, be able to ban any website they don't like from the internet? And not just for Italians but globally?

Even if you think this is a great thing for Italians (I have no idea why anyone would think that), you expect the whole world to surrender to this absurd demand? Categorical imperative???

yeah but that's an accusation without basis in reality.