Originally Posted by
FastFarmer
Ian, I think your view is out of date, old world, and full of propaganda.
Last time I was in China, we travelled from Shanghai to a garden village 600kms away that took 1.5 hours in a train that did over 500kph. The village itself was a nightmare. No english, no food we could relate too, no toilets, but the air was cold and crisp, and the people were friendly and non threatening. We felt a little unsafe and scared, but not too bad.
Living standards in the village were much less than in the big city, and the people were poor, but lets quickly compare that to Australia.
The fastest train we have does a top speed of 160kph and even then it's only for about 5 minutes because we have very little infrastructure that can support it. China infrastructure everywhere across the country is simply amazing. Australia is fully dependant on digging big holes in the ground and shipping dirt with no value add... and yet you criticise another country for engaging in simplistic agriculture? I would ask you to seriously review who's acting simplistically.
Maybe you should get your grey nomad caravan and go to somewhere like Port Headland? First just check out how much gob smacking dirt is going out on ships each day, and then go have a look behind the hospital. Get a cab and ask to go there. You think Australia doesn't have poor people or people living in the stone age? Australia has more than its share of people living poorly... and they are everywhere.
It's actually funny you don't think China produce quality. They have more than quality... they just don't sell it to the West, because the West demand cheap. If you go shopping for cnc in China, you can buy the best quality produced locally - they just don't export that. So just to be clear, it's not China that is cheap, it's the western countries who are all chasing efficiency and productivity... the things that you promote as progress.
There is one very true thing I can say about China that I cant say about Australia. Never have I been a tourist in China and been called a c***t, racist f**k, d***head, w**ker, been spat on, had beer poured on me be by drunkards, been truely scared for my families safety, or seen overly aggressive people approach me and say "what the f**k you looking at?