Technology

We are totally not going the China way

The thing that allows China (and increasingly Russia) to function is the domestic industrialization and steadily rising standard of living that makes these governments popular back home. Their surveillance states exist to gatekeep access to the higher ranks of industrial control and economic authority.

The NATO block has largely divested of its industrial base and focused entirely on industrial imports to sustain the respective economies. Our surveillance state is far more concerned with enforcing a social caste system and propping up an increasingly fragile financial system.

Russia is a maffia state

I've heard it described as a glorified gas station. But that was 20 years ago, when the Russians were pivoting to mirror the Saudi petro states. Now that they've been cut off from the US/UK banking system and the third world cheap labor import network, they've heavily reinvested in aerospace, automotives, and other manufactured goods.

The end result is a Russian economy that is outpacing all other "advanced economies" according to the IMF, with the fastest industrial growth its enjoyed in 18 years.

They're not just a bunch of aging mafiosos shaking down local businesses for spare change. They're a trillion dollar economy with vast mineral wealth, enormous capital stocks, and a highly educated labor force. And they're reasserting themselves in a way they haven't done since glasnost and the end of the USSR.