Global Capitalism: What Trump 2.0 Means

I haven’t watched the whole thing, I might do later. The video is a bit long though. This is my 2 cents based on the first ~15 minutes. Measuring a country’s success only on GDP is not the whole picture. Human Development Index (HDI), quality of the environment, basic human rights and liberties are just as important. BRICS doesn’t score well there. Wealth is also not well distributed and corruption is high.

Furthermore, the guy talks like China is the best place to go for loans because they have more money. This is false. Contrary to the general criticism to the World Bank, when the World Bank hand out loans, there are some conditions. Such as:

  • Environmental impact assessments
  • Social safeguards for affected communities
  • Anti-corruption measures
  • Regular project monitoring and public disclosure
  • Labor rights protections
  • Gender equality considerations

China doesn’t bother with that, because China doesn’t care, like they don’t care about these things in their own country. That’s why autocratic regimes go to China for loans. They are more aligned, because both are autocratic regimes and don’t care about their people.

Other than that, the same game of Monopoly is played, or Economic Hitman as we know it from Zeitgeist Addendum. When you cannot pay back your loans, you have to repay in other means. Such as with your natural resources. The elite that got the loan doesn’t care and will just enjoy their spoils while the population suffers, because there is no democracy or an independent court that can prosecute them. Unlike in the West.

We laugh at Trump when he said “we’re gonna build a wall and Mexico will pay for it”. But what China actually is doing is creating a global infrastructure and lets the 3rd world pay for it. These countries cannot pay these debts back and thus China will build infrastructure and can then claim the local natural resources. It’s quite brilliant.

I’m just posting this because we should be skeptical about the East and their ambitions. Do you really think they are going to do a better job than the West? I highly doubt it. Just check how they treat their own. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. As I mentioned in a previous comment today.