• pudcollar@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    If a billionaire is in actual trouble, he’s in China. US would have bailed out Evergrande.

    • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I have pretty severe concerns about how the Chinese government operates, but this is one thing they do right.

      • Crikeste
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        3 months ago

        I have pretty severe concerns about the way the American government operates.

        • skozzii@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          We have traded the literal genocide and opression for corporations performing economic genocide and opression on us.

          But hey, aren’t billionaires cool?

        • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          Yeah, well, I like having rights so we’ll just have to accept that everything can’t be perfect.

          • n3m37h@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            3 months ago

            You know the majority of the world has the same if not more rights than you. Take Canada, I can go to any hospital without worrying if I will become bankrupt. I can own the majority of firearms this world has to offer and if I get pulled over, the police can not legally rob me because the money I have on hand isn’t drug money unless there is difinitive proof that it is.

              • n3m37h@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                3 months ago

                What the previous comment to yours was criticising the US govt. I didn’t move any goal posts was just pointing out that your freedoms is to do what your are told. Not much difference from China tbh

                That’s the hypocrisy that we’re pointing out

          • orcrist
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            3 months ago

            I don’t understand. You think that if the United States stops bailing out mega corporations and starts to enforce laws on white collar crime, that we will also lose civil rights?

            Or maybe you’re trying to say that while the US has many faults, at least it’s not as bad as China. That is of course true, for some of the people some of the time, but certainly not all of the people all the time.

          • Crikeste
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            3 months ago

            Typical American Exceptionalism take. Hey buddy, there are hundred of free countries that provide their citizens with inalienable rights.

            How about you take your “America can do anything” attitude and apply it to GOOD instead of killing others?

            American CAN do anything it wants, like helping its citizens.

            It chooses not to.

  • Blizzard@lemmy.zip
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    3 months ago

    Fun fact: his last name means a ‘dick’ in Polish (the most vulgar version of that word).

  • filoria@lemmy.mlOP
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    3 months ago

    Gee it sure sucks that Evergrande collapsed. What a horrible sign for the Chinese economy!

  • Kusimulkku
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    3 months ago

    Man all these bad news about Chinese property market, hopefully there isn’t a collapse there as predicted.

    • orcrist
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      3 months ago

      I hope that the property market collapses and property prices go way down. Surely there are large numbers of people who would like to buy property but cannot afford it at the moment. I hope that happens in many countries.

      • Kusimulkku
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        3 months ago

        I mean, that sector is also a huge employer with lots of construction companies and jobs tied directly and indirectly to it. If the construction section comes down, that’s going to cause a lot of hardship on a lot of people. So even with cheaper houses (for a while, if the construction sector doesn’t improve you’ll get high prices again later) I’d say it’s a huge net negative for people and their lives.

          • Kusimulkku
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            3 months ago

            I don’t know if you are using the word differently but property market includes stuff like construction companies, development companies, architect companies, material suppliers, engineering companies and stuff like that. Building a house seems fairly productive, for example.

            • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Building a house is productive.

              Taking payment in advance before building a house and buying a yaught, then having no budget to build the house so you take payment for another house and use that money to build the first house

              is not productive.

              • Kusimulkku
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                3 months ago

                Unfortunately all of that is included in that sector. So while that is shit and wouldn’t mind them being punished, there’s also all the other jobs and economic considerations. A lot of workers are working directly or indirectly within that sector.

                • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  No all of that is included because Evergrande is a ponzi scheme. They can undercut their competition by selling houses for such a low price that they can’t build them.

                  So they run on people pouring more and more money in and putting more and more projects on hold. That’s a ponzi scheme.

                  Building houses doesn’t have to be a ponzi scheme. Evergrande is.

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    How do you recover that? How the hell are they going to recover what is essentially multiple time the sum of the wealth of all the top 10 richest individuals on earth???

    • naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      By locking up the rich, seizing their wealth, and using SOEs to take over incomplete projects for pennies.

      • Kusimulkku
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        3 months ago

        I just hope the collapses won’t pull others with them and the whole construction sector. I think the fear of that and the effects rippling to other sectors and to trust in the economy is why bailing out is sometimes done.

        • sibachian@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          yes, it’s a good reminder that capitalism doesn’t actually work and needs to be propped up with bailouts to ensure it doesn’t collapse and gets replaced.

          • Kusimulkku
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            3 months ago

            Well China is trying to not bail them out, at least for now. And some others have done it before too. It’s just people fear the risk of doing that, hoping that by bailing them out things won’t be as bad.

        • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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          3 months ago

          Except that the Chinese national government is trying to reign in the domestic construction market and export as much as it can.

          It was the right strategy to keep building for a generation, but it isn’t right strategy any more.

          • Kusimulkku
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            3 months ago

            I’ve read that they’re trying to lessen the share of the GDP but an uncontrolled crash would still be horrible. Hopefully whatever they do that is avoided.

            • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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              3 months ago

              It is more than that. China significantly invested in infrastructure for a generation, which was generally good. However, China has hit a point where infrastructure investment won’t produce the returns it used to or any at all. China also needs to figure out a way to find municipal governments, which it hasn’t before. China also has to deal with a significant drop in economic growth, something it hasn’t dealt with for a generation.

              These are novel problems for the Chinese government.

    • cbarrick@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      multiple time the sum of the wealth of all the top 10 richest individuals on earth???

      Do you mean the $78B fine or the $300B debt?

      In either case, you’re way over exaggerating. All of the top 14 wealthiest people have over $100B each. Jeff Bezos (#2 richest) has close to $200B alone.

      https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires

        • cbarrick@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Right!?

          These people have more wealth than the GDP of some nations.

          Jeff Bezos has more wealth ($190B) than the GDP of Ukraine ($170B).

          • SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            In theory, but if he tried to liquidate all of his Amazon stock at once it’s very unlikely he would get that much for it. The price of the stock would crash.

            • sibachian@lemmy.ml
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              3 months ago

              except in theory they can borrow from the bank with their stock as leverage and would never actually need to liquidate anything (and they do just that).

              • cbarrick@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Yep. This fucking loophole in the American tax system.

                You borrow against your existing wealth, then the cost basis of your investments resets upon inheritance. So your estate can sell the investment to pay off the debt, and no capital gains tax is ever paid.

                Because of this, in America, capital gains tax only applies to the middle class. The rich have a clear and obvious loophole.