'You won't see any large degree of prosperity among what passes for the Chinese "middle class".'

Of course the Chinese middle class is not as wealthy or large (proportionally) as our middle class - but simply being able to eat more than just rice is a huge improvement. Consider that poultry production in China has increased 900% over the past 30 years - that represents more than a small improvement in people's lives as a result of the de facto adoption of capitalism. You have no idea how poor most of the world is, and how much poorer it was just 20 or 30 years ago. What you dismiss as meaningless has been an enormous improvement for the people who live there, and 20 years of capitalism did far more than 40 years of communism in improving their living conditions. That is simply fact, whether you acknowledge it or not.




Baldur