Quote:
Originally Posted by being teri
Very interesting. I know only about Chinese labor in North America, and even there history recorded little. Which countries imported the guano, do you know? And was that guano also used as a source for saltpeter to make gunpowder in the 19th century before the Haber process commercialized production of nitrates and nitrites from ammonia?
The relationship between the USA and Latin America is marked by corruption, exploitation, and support for dictators. I actually heard a Latin American "old hand" say that dictators are what people in Latin America culturally understand best. That is like saying Reagan and Bush type leadership is what people in the USA culturally understand the best, which has, unfortunately an element of truth to it. Do you think people in Latin America function best with strong, authoritative rulers?
What is China's policy going to be like, such as there agreements with Venezuela that you mentioned?
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The only reason that latin american "old hand" says that, and I have a gut feeling that he's part of an elitist class, is because the elites in Latin America have spent a LONG TIME ensuring that the top 5 or 10% own at least 75% of the country. Middle classes are small in Latin America, so having an educated majority to maintain an effectively functioning democracy is practically impossible. Most people don't realize that in order to have a functioning democracy, you MUST have a majority, educated, middle class with an independant media. That's why China, for example, SHOULD NOT become a democracy now, or in the near future, until it's established a majority, educated middle class with an independant media. That's the role of the dictators in Latin America. Each time the dictator came to power, they've always done the following, quell chaos, reestablish the effectiveness of the government, stabilize the economies, and begin the growth of a middle class.
If you look at Brazil, which is the best example of a dysfunctional democracy, it has the worst divide between rich and poor, a small middle class, and a majority poor, uneducated population, and talk to the people, you'll hear over and over again how their democracy doesn't work. Or Chile, before Pinochet took over, Chile was a chaotic country, that was corrupt, poor, and incapable of functioning as a democracy. When I talked to chileans, they agreed, Pinochet was bloody, and controversial, but he did stabilise the country and economy to start the process of building a middle class. The same with Fujimori in Peru. Toledo was the beneficiary of Fujimori's policies.
And then you have the rare example of Venezuela, where they actually elected a very effective president, Chavez, and he cared so much for the poor, that the poor now have more access to education than they ever had in the previous hundreds of years of democratic dictatorships, and are becoming educated at a higher rate than ever before. And I say democratic dictatorships because the USA dictated who could get elected in Venezuela, and made sure that those presidents kept the 90% poor of the country from benefiting from even 1 cent from the oil revenues. But Chavez is a rarity, and almost never seen.
That's why dictators, on occaision, are a necessity. You can just look at the history of Taiwan, and South Korea as excellent examples of this.
Now if you take what I just told you, and look at where our country is heading, the USA, then you should be very concerned about the welfare of our country. We're losing the middle class, we don't have an independent media, and the education of the middle class and lower classes is diminishing by leaps and bounds. Functional illiteracy is growing at an alarming rate. By doing this, we're effectively setting up our country for the following situations:
1.) A possible quasi or overt coup d'etat towards a latin american style dictatorship.Some would argue we're already in that situation.
2.) A complete restratification of classes, so that instead of a pyramid representing class structure, you have something that appears more like a slender needle, with a large base, the poor and lower middle class, a slender middle, and a small top. Whenever this happens, society becomes a plutocracy. If you look at the financial system, and rate of inflation that we're getting hit with, I'd say we're about half or 2/3's of the way there.
3.) A structural setup for social revolution, that, I think, for the first time in history, will be instigated by the baby boomers, with factions of boomers against generation X, Y, and Z. This will be generational, and it won't be a pleasant revolution.
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