If Russia couldn't beat NATO in a pitched fight against the rest of the world, neither can China.
Maybe in western media depictions it would seem so, but eg china invests more and more in europe over the years. Moreover, BRICS are roughly half of world's population. Perceptions of what "the world" or "international relationships" mean are sometimes distorted in the west.
The fear of the "Red Sun Rising".
The fear that Japan was going to own most of the valuable real estate in America.
The forcing of Japanese car companies to onshore to protect American jobs.
Blaming of Japanese industrial policy as being unfair competition.
It was the collapse of the Japanese growth engine in the mid 90's that finally ended the American panic.
The U.S. and U.K. are a dual world power.
Whenever powers rise to threaten that duality there is a lot of hand-wringing in Washington.
Wait, how did the UK get in there? Especially in this post-brexit century...
Correction: If it accepts the stationing of U.S. troops and succumbs to U.S. financial policies, it's not a big deal
Japan and Germany have paid a huge price to demonstrate their friendship to the U.S. That was not 'just fine'
The situation has waxed and waned but in general West Germany and Japan at the government level have been pretty happy to have US troops stationed there while facing off against the Soviet Union (now Russia) and China. The Ukrainians and the Baltics would love to have some US troops stationed there right now.
you are not mature enough to discuss such topic if you believe the US will be happy to be taken over by some democratic friends.
My perception is that Japan, after some great success, went through a normal semi-inevitable asset bubble, but their response was uniquely Japanese. Rather than letting firms and the social contract of lifetime employment (particularly for older workers) go bankrupt, their firms and country decided to absorb the losses for a generation and stagnate.
Economically it was a very suboptimal approach but socially/morally I'm less confident it was the wrong call.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Japanese_sentiment_in_the...
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/06/us/resentment-of-japanese...
No it was not. The US had taken whole bunch of steps to prevent this from happening and those steps were anything but "let's free market decide" and "compete on merits".
It is a real problem for any country or block. As soon as it looks like it threatens leading position of the US all the gloves come of. Obviously not specific to the US. Any other country would do the same given a chance.
Albeit US cannot speak as US-centric paranoia/"exceptionalism" may do the same thing...and the electorate voted to self destruct the government despite US economy being the strongest in decades.
The vast majority of its people do not share in that success and have seen a declining standard of life relative to prior generations whereas in China, the opposite is quite demonstrably true, despite increasingly similar concentrations of wealth and political power.
> Average age of first-time homebuyers is 38, an all-time high.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/11/05/the-average-age-of-first...
> U.S. homelessness rose 18 percent in 2024, continuing multi-year upward trend
> https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/u-s-homelessness-rose-18...
> analysis of government data estimates that people in the United States owe at least $220 billion in medical debt.
https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/the-burden-of-m...
And why is this a problem?
What is wrong with renting for life, exactly? I’m seeing more and more people own rental properties, but do not own their primary residence by choice.
As a free person I want to own my place. I have better ways to spend my money rather than feeding some asshole
https://www.kiplinger.com/real-estate/buying-a-home/renting-...
>"In 21 U.S. metros, the monthly cost of owning is at least 50% more expensive"
I am not in the US. 21 metros do not constitute country. When I bought house in major metro (Toronto) it was $200,000. So please do not feed me this pathetic propaganda.
To add to the irony there are also self-made landlords who do similar work on similar scale on their own! They are usually available for defects and damages day and night.
Back when the people owned the non profits they build and fixed everything asap on the cheap. It might even be better than owning the home directly.
Nobody wants to be your serf until they're 38, bozo.
Ways forward are a) continued denial (status quo), b) YIMBYs defeat NIMBYs, c) change policy (incentivize renting) or d) <insert radical policy proposal here>.
You may think that expensive gasoline and cartons of eggs are a meme, but the reality is that the economy has become pretty damn Shite(tm) for the commons. Costs of living are objectively higher than they were just a couple years ago and incomes haven't kept pace either.
The stock market is having the time of its life (and as a small time investor I find that nice) but it's completely detached from the economy.
Yes, he won by a landslide and the biggest factor was the bad economy.
Anyone who thinks 49.9% of the vote (vs 48.4%) is a landslide will quickly find them in negative approval ratings if they think that gives them much political capital (if trump focuses and spending rather than earning capital, that is, which he definitely will).
Recall that GWB declared a mandate (to reverse all progressive social programs since the New Deal) when he squeaked out a victory over Kerry.
2024 election: Trump 49.7% 77.3 million (312 electoral), Harris 48.4% 75 million (226 electoral). Republicans control of House (but lost 1 seat) and control of Senate (gained 4 seats).
1972 election: Nixon 60.7% 47.2 million (520 electoral), McGovern 37.5% 29.2 million (17 electoral). Democrats control of House (but lost 13 seats) and control of Senate (gained 2 seats).
1984 election: Reagan 58.8% 54.5 million (525 electoral), Mondale 40.6% 37.6 million (13 electoral). Democrats control of House (but lost 16 seats). Republicans control of Senate (but lost 2 seats).
Source: many Wikipedia links
That's not what "landslide victory" means.
In fact Trump's electoral total was scarcely different from Biden's in 2016, and his popular vote margin was far narrower. Historically speaking, both of these are much closer to dead heats than they are to what are generally considered to be landslide victories (like Clinton's wins in 92-96, and Reagan's in 84-88).
You're only saying it's a "landslide" because Trump keeps saying that in his speeches.
But as usual he's either simply lying, or has no idea what he's talking about.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/biggest-trade-partner-of...
Whether China can beat NATO in a head to head military contest is one question, but separate from whether they can take Taiwan, for example.
The "rest of the world" is not limited by NATO. And China is not fighting "the rest of the world". It trades with it, invests and does all kinds of other things. But sure keeping one's head in a sand is a nice position.