RSSWhy is everyone so happy?
Jul 02
That’s interesting considering how gloomy things look if you pay attention to the media. According to them the end of the world is upon us thanks to the mortgage crisis and terrorism. It’s nice to see the realities are a bit different.
The article does note that Zimbabwe ranks last for happiness, which is especially prescient considering the recent craziness there. Finding a good solution for Zimbabwe will obviously be difficult. On the one hand I’m generally not in favour of outsiders messing with the internal political establishment of a country. However, with such a clear abuse of power something needs to be done. The international community needs a way to force Mugabe into a new vote.
Yet, even with Zimbabwe as an example, deciding when action is called for is a massive grey area. Mugabe hasn’t done anything different than most dictatorships have to maintain power. Couldn’t the same argument be made against China? The only difference I see is that in China there isn’t a massive (> 50% of population) uprising against the dictatorship, although that’s at least partially due to fear.
Jul 03, 2008 @ 06:48:43
Good discussion on the freakonomics blogs – link to part 1 – http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/the-economics-of-happiness-part-1-reassessing-the-easterlin-paradox/
Don’t think you can compare China vs. Zimbabwe; China’s got a MUCH more competent dictatorship (not benevolent by any means, especially if you don’t share in the party view). And at the end of the day, as long as you have the conditions for economic growth, aren’t you doing an OK job governing?
The problem with a dictatorship is the dictator you get; maybe China totally lucked out with Deng Xiaoping.
Think of some of the crazier policies in China – suppressing dissent, Tibet, the one-child policy; but it makes sense if you’re the government – to try and keep a country tightly clustered around a set of values so you’re not herding cats and managing your population growth; which in turn lets you do things like centrally plan cities with infrastructure and move millions of people around and have resources to go around. Of course, TANSTAAFL; you sow what you reap. But its a path, and its “progress” compared to Mugabe.
Jul 03, 2008 @ 07:00:24
I generally agree. I’m not saying that China’s dictatorship is horrible, although I wouldn’t classify it as good either. They seem to be doing competently given their realities.
However, if one were to decide to overthrow the government of Zimbabwe because of their oppressive actions, most of that reasoning would apply to China as well. So, what’s the difference? Why don’t people intuitively jump to the conclusion that China’s government should be overthrown? Is it merely because it wouldn’t be possible? Or is the “oppression” in China limited enough compared to the relative good being done for the majority of the population, that it’s acceptable?
Aug 27, 2008 @ 04:48:50
After having a student from China in my class, I would classify China’s dictatorship as horrid. She had friends killed by the government for having more than one boyfriend — the scenario goes like this.
Government finds out you’ve dated more than one person. Government arrests you to execute you. Government calls your family and demands payment for bullet. Government executes you in the head…with the bullet. If you don’t die, they shove a stick through the bullet hole…
These are ‘normal’ people living ‘normal’ — not dissenters, just 20 year old kids being teenagers. She brought me some underground newspapers detailing the atrocities of China’s regime. After seeing all of it, I’d put it on par with the oppression in Zimbabwe, I just think China has an excellent cover story. Just look at EVERYTHING they covered and attempted to cover during the Olympics!