Isn't there a new doomsday prediction every week? Why can't any of them be good, like "On June 20th a giant ant will crush New York and proceed to wreck picnics on a gargantuan scale.". I'd believe that, it's more realistic.

[img]http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/oo143/TurboPhoenix/FireflySig.jpg[/img]

the world can die any day
the moment i die it ends with me anyway

its cold down here fam ~

Do not worry, dear children. Think dearly of those around you, and you will be rewarded, no matter how dark things seem to be.

Believe in me, who believes in you.

Quote from Miisa

Do not worry, dear children. Think dearly of those around you, and you will be rewarded, no matter how dark things seem to be.

You really made an account just for that?

"It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

Quote from khh

good, i wont even bother to study for my calculus exam next week then 😀

are u talking about c2 on the 26th? coz im doing that too T__T

Sunday is gonna be a good day. a good, day full of laughs. 😎

Amusingly, if we were to look at the Gini Index, China's income and wealth disparity are both lower than that of the USA and many other countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equalit y
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_distribution_of_ wealth
(Oh... Russia too.)

They are authoritarian, but as far as their military goes, they've been using it for their own national defense. The only countries that have been using their militaries aggressively are the freedom loving ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File 😛 ercentage_population_living_on_less_than_$1.25_per_day_2009.svg

Yeah and amusingly it seems that around 6-20% of those wealthy Chinese live from less then 1.25$ per day. How many Chinese does it make 100 to 200 million people? Yeah very amusing.
And about those peaceful Russians... well I guess those last 20 year in Chechnya they probably spent shooting their ammunition in air to get rid of it.
Oh and when talking about those defense budgets have you actually ever seen those numbers of those peaceful authoritarian countries? I will give you a hint they are counted in tens of billions.

1. We "civilized nations" (heh) go and subjugate them and tell them exactly how to behave, and control everything about them. AKA imperialism.
2. We let them develop their own strong state that has stronger and tighter control over the population. This, unfortunately, runs counter to liberal democratic ideals.

Well I guess then that colonialism is back ehh. So how many countries in Africa are controlled by the West from around 50? And how many of them have democratic regimes? Just give me a number. Judging from your rethoric, probably half of them are occupied right at this very moment.

Different excuse, same irrationality and arrogance. Us enlightened folk are just so eager to help. No time to research the facts or get a complete picture. No need to get to know the other side or learn their language. Calm, composed, rational response is not heroic. We need to do something now now now. Don't think! Feeeeel. We're such generous people. Too generous to care. We just can't keep to ourselves.

I thank you the OHH THE WISE ONE for your enlightenment, as I see now that you truly have researched your facts and you really know what you are talking about, unlike the rest of us.

Anyways OH THE WISE ONE if you haven't noticed the world really does not consist of only the United States of America. As for the rest of the world, some people in those happy places that are supper wealthy actually might have a reason to be worried about those peaceful authoritarian countries.

And if you still haven't noticed the only one who in this post has said anything about "WE MUST DO SOMETHING" is you OH THE WISE ONE.

"Computer games don't affect kids....
I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."
/Kristian Wilson, Nintendo Inc, 1989

Quote from Diokhan

Sunday is gonna be a good day. a good, day full of laughs. 😎

Amen to that. 🤣

See ya!

Feh.

I'm not quite sure how China came into the picture in this thread... But China -will- be passing up the USA in economy within five years. Maybe less. Too many Fortune 500 companies / major executives have relocated there for it to be any other way. Not to mention the Chinese government has been focusing the efforts of its massive population into technological advancement for the benefit and survival of its nation.

If in doubt, go visit one of its twenty cities that have over a million people. It's incredible how advanced it feels there. It may not include their entire population yet, but the time will come when it will. And considering their population will continue to decrease for some time, the quality of life will continue to increase.

Wish we took a few leaves from their book.

Quote from mattai

Quote from Miisa

Do not worry, dear children. Think dearly of those around you, and you will be rewarded, no matter how dark things seem to be.

You really made an account just for that?

That's a crap account, the whole 'Miisa' thing. Read the sig.

@Spawnblade - While I agree with you on the point that we should learn something from the Chinese, I'll add that this 'learning' should be limited to sectors such as industries, academic research, so on. No way in hell should any government's judicial, executive and military sectors take any leaves from the Chinese government's book. Just look at the number of massaceres China has supported in the past few decades. Innocent lives are not worth scientific or ecnomic advancement. The government should be about the people, not the other way round.

There are times when you will miss what you never had. I wonder how you will find what you so desperately need.

... Can't it wait until all my favorite manga/manhwa series are over?
It'd suck if the world was just destroyed without the ending ever being known. ):<

Quote from ForteAtrox

... Can't it wait until all my favorite manga/manhwa series are over?
It'd suck if the world was just destroyed without the ending ever being known. ):<

Crap! I forgot all about that!

The doomsday will not come before One Piece, Naruto, Dresden Files, Eragon, and all he other series I'm forgetting come to an end!
In fact, it will never come, because if it comes, I won't be able to read my favorite stories anymore!

Doomsday be damned, nothing comes between me and my stories >:-(

There are times when you will miss what you never had. I wonder how you will find what you so desperately need.

I'm really glad you responded. I can see there's a huge gap in understanding.

Quote from RexIX

Amusingly, if we were to look at the Gini Index, China's income and wealth disparity are both lower than that of the USA and many other countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equalit y
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_distribution_of_ wealth
(Oh... Russia too.)

They are authoritarian, but as far as their military goes, they've been using it for their own national defense. The only countries that have been using their militaries aggressively are the freedom loving ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File 😛 ercentage_population_living_on_less_than_$1.25_per_day_2009.svg

Yeah and amusingly it seems that around 6-20% of those wealthy Chinese live from less then 1.25$ per day. How many Chinese does it make 100 to 200 million people? Yeah very amusing.

(Your broken URL can be fixed by replacing Colon-P with %3A. Your welcome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3APercentage_population_living_on_less_than_$1.25_per_day_2009.svg )

Look back to the original point made,

China have 200million ppl that live by sucking the other 750millions dry
not to mention it being a dangerous millitant dictatorship

The problem is obviously not that 6-20% of those wealthy Chinese live from less than 1.25 USD per day. Your own infographic shows that large swathes of the world are doing worse. The point isn't that "they are poor", otherwise, we'd be complaining about those other countries as well (India --democratic--- and the African countries -- many of them democratic). Re-read it: "200million ppl that live by sucking the other 750millions dry".

The complain is over economic disparity. The better measure we have of that is the Gini coefficient, not "overall number of poor people in a country", because poverty can be caused by numerous factors, not just economic slavery within the country. If I have to explain that to you, then we might as well end this conversation since it won't go anywhere.

I pointed out that the USA and numerous other countries have a worse Gini score than China... that we have greater income AND wealth inequality than the Chinese. Does that not suggest to you that we're being reamed by our rich more so than the Chinese are being reamed by theirs?

Even if we were to trust TaoPaiPai's own assessment of the situation (whether that be true or not), we take 200 million people out of the total 950 million that he talks about (what happened to the other hundreds of millions? I don't know where he put them, 🤣 ), and that's really slightly under 20%.

So we're to believe that about 20% of the population is living off the backs of the other 80%. Boy that sounds bad... I can guarantee you that it's a far smaller and far more influential group of people here in the US that live by leeching off the work of the hypermajority. Why in the world should I worry about the Chinese when our inequality is greater, and the level of economic slavery being complained about is far more advanced and severe here? (Compare China's financial instruments vs USA's, and you'd see that they are 20 years behind in ways for the rich to screw their poor and middle class. They have a lot of work to catch up to us.)

Have I explained it in a way that you can finally understand?

So tell me why China was brought up when:

1. It's clearly not the poorest country in the world. Especially now, not by far.
2. Using our own measures, its income and wealth disparity aren't significant.

Is it really that we are concerned for the Chinese poor? Bologna. 🤣

If I were to guess, a lot the concern stems from political motivation and fear, not genuine sympathy. That's fine and all, but I wish people would be more honest rather than mask their real concerns.

Quote from RexIX

And about those peaceful Russians... well I guess those last 20 year in Chechnya they probably spent shooting their ammunition in air to get rid of it.
Oh and when talking about those defense budgets have you actually ever seen those numbers of those peaceful authoritarian countries? I will give you a hint they are counted in tens of billions.

Oh no! TENS of billions. 🤨

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

The amount we spend on military is about the amount the rest of the world spends... put together. As for military expenditure as a % of GDP, no other country in the top 10 has a higher percentage than us except Saudi Arabia (a role model for us?).

Virtually no one except Americans themselves seriously consider threats from any other large countries to the US. Even recently the Chinese top military official Chen Bingde came over here and ... bah... never mind. I'm not even going to go into the geopolitical details. I highly doubt anyone else in this room needs to be convinced aside from yourself. That tells me you need to finish school first before we continue this.

Quote from RexIX

1. We "civilized nations" (heh) go and subjugate them and tell them exactly how to behave, and control everything about them. AKA imperialism.
2. We let them develop their own strong state that has stronger and tighter control over the population. This, unfortunately, runs counter to liberal democratic ideals.

Well I guess then that colonialism is back ehh. So how many countries in Africa are controlled by the West from around 50? And how many of them have democratic regimes? Just give me a number. Judging from your rethoric, probably half of them are occupied right at this very moment.

"Control" is fairly subjective and is a qualitative measure, even so, if you can't understand the influence we've had over Africa "from around 50" (I'm assuming you mean from 1950) then I don't know what to say. I don't even think you've understood my point, so let me rephrase it.

What do you think should be done to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa, as per TaoPaiPai's complaint? How do you think WE should deal with human trafficking?

I thank you the OHH THE WISE ONE for your enlightenment, as I see now that you truly have researched your facts and you really know what you are talking about, unlike the rest of us.

Anyways OH THE WISE ONE if you haven't noticed the world really does not consist of only the United States of America. As for the rest of the world, some people in those happy places that are supper wealthy actually might have a reason to be worried about those peaceful authoritarian countries.

Yes, the world does consist of more than the USA, but as for global influence, I think it's fair to say that no country has as much influence or has had as much influence as us. We are at the economic heart. The economic hegemony is ours.

That is why most other countries pay more for their gas. That is why the dollar is, almost without exception, regarded as the world reserve currency. It's stable and backed up by the most influential country in the world. Everyone recognizes that (except perhaps a few like yourself).

That is why we can even abuse our position with the Federal Reserve (printing as much money out of thin air as needed), and the only thing limiting its ability to do so is how willing the rest world (including American citizens themselves) is to take it.

I assume you meant that Europe fears Russia and other East Asians fear China. That is true, but I don't sympathize. A state busy controlling its own nation(s) and minding its own business is by far safer for the world than one that can't keep its hands to itself. Ironically, for the most recent and significant event in Russian aggression, in Georgia, back in 2008, the excuse was to protect the South Ossetians and other regions of Georgia during their efforts towards self-determination/freedom from Georgia. You get that? The aggression was started in the name of freedom and self-determination, not authoritarianism.

Get this, wars are started for noble causes, not the laughable idea that they want to "defend authoritarianism". Very few people actually buy that. People naturally want to fight for the right causes. Imperial Japan used the excuse that they were freeing East Asia from imperialism of white man. Nazi Germany started off with the excuse that they were "liberating" areas that originally were German states to begin with, that were wrested away from them from in earlier wars (like the first WW), as well as itself.

So while I don't consider authoritarian states to be peaceful, I do think that if ever a war is declared in the near future, the reasons for going to war will be in God's name, Freedom, or some other feel-good reason. Any country is capable of that, not merely authoritarian ones. It just takes stupid, impressionable, overemotional population to get things rolling.

I kind of have researched my facts, and I don't doubt that many others here have as well. I only doubt your own knowledge on the subject.

And if you still haven't noticed the only one who in this post has said anything about "WE MUST DO SOMETHING" is you OH THE WISE ONE.

Let me spell it out for you, if you don't want to put effort into extrapolation.

I was drawing a parallel in the sense of urgency exuded by both Harold Camping (our May 21st doomsayer) and TaoPaiPai. Do we need an explicit definition of "urgency" for all of us to be on the same page here?

TaoPaiPai and yourself have merely expressed that urgency need be redirected from Camping's urgent apocalyptic warnings to "things that matter". Sure, if you guys had your facts right, and if, indeed, people were fully informed on those matters, it might be productive. I expressed my pessimism over that, and joked, "You know what... it's probably better if some of us wasted our time on religious doomsday predictions than those issues that matter, lest they risk exacerbating the situation. 😛 " (Forget "fully informed". I'd be satisfied if most people were capable of basic reading comprehension and extrapolation.)

Quote from N0x_

Impenetrable wall of text

tl;dr

All this arguing about GDP's and hunger and crap needs a topic of its own... So I can immediately lock it.

[color=#ff0000]"“That's the difference between me and the rest of the world!
Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!” "[/color]