China 2nd Largest Economy

The US does monitor the sales of certain materials very closely. They won't bother with small time stuff but if you're buying materials that are used in making the big time stuff you can expect them to come knocking. Especially in this social climate.

Also alot of older stuff we used to use is very radioactive. Like old paint I think was pretty bad. Find/build some sort of geiger counter and shouldn't be too hard to track down.

Then of course there is smoke detectors, radium dials, some current paints, divers watches just some stuff off the top of my head

That's a good theory... but it's being debunked on a pretty regular basis nowadays. For example: California has proposed and/or passed at least three legislative actions in the past two years that attempted to supercede federal law. The justification is that the issues in question (e.g. the use of marijuana for non-medicinal purposes) should be mandated and regulated at a State level as opposed to a Federal level.

Even if there is an existing federal agency with jurisdiction over the specific issue in question (see: the FDA).

orz.

For many other issues though, where the regulation occurs is not so black-and-white as it should be.

The only "real" power the federal government has over individual state governments is to withhold federal financial benefits; they cannot legally impose any form of financial or legal sanctions on a state government itself. The US Supreme Court can step in and deem a state law federally unconstitutional, but a state can also deem the same law as valid under the state constitution. At that point, the state legislature has its hands tied, as it (apparently) can neither grant nor repeal the law in question. If it is a financial reform issue, the federal government can withhold grant or incentive money from the state, but cannot in any way force the law into non-existence.

I am not sure exactly how criminal law is handled when this occurs... but I guess we'll find out when homosexual marriage and/or recreational marijuana use hit the US Supreme Court.

... Getting back on point, I don't see how this is much different than the differing laws of the EU nations.

Your feedback has been noted.
I will not link to other sites anymore when people ask for evidence.

And I'm not trying to make a point about a country I know nothing about, I'm trying to say it's ok to compare the EU to the US economically.

which was where the argument started. The point that stuck out to me was it takes nearly three times the US population for EU to barely surpass our economy.

Yeah, the Federal superseding State is a joke to me, the way things are played out. I did only mean that that's how it's supposed to be, not really how it is.

I do like your point about the Federal Government's ability to enforce that, though. I like it because you're right, but also because it lets me think that if/when a state is finally fed up with... things... they could actually try to split from the Union. Which I would really respect. (But don't really expect.) You're right, too... back on topic time!

plz check that - its wrong ^^

Population of the full EU: 501 million
Population of the EU in the euro: 328 million
Population of the USA: 308 million

The total EU population is less than twice the USA population and the population of the single currency (euro zone) and the USA is close (6% difference)

So I am not sure where you are getting "nearly three times" from.

Jaerik,

If that headline really interested you I have a book suggestion for you. Its called "In the next 100 years" by George Friedman.

He actually devotes a good section of the book to China, and referring to it as the paper tiger. Without ruining too much for you, he discussed in depth about challenges China faces in staying a stable economic powerhouse. One main reason is the friction between the rich coastal areas of China and the rest of the country which is dirt poor. He also adds in the historical politcal cycles in that country, including their policies on trading with the rest of the world. It gets even more complicated once he starts talking about Japan one day again looking towards China for their natural resource needs.

I really didn't read much of the thread tbh. But the book also addresses labor shortages worldwide later this century, which is fascinating due to his hypothesis of an eventual population shrinkage crisis.

In case anyone is curious the other predicted super powers in the 21st century (besides the US) will be Japan, Turkey, and Poland. Its sounds very very funny, but he's got some very good supporting arguements in the book.

Again, highly recommended, from a galka that doesnt read much ^^

That's what you get for not reading the whole thread--on page 4 we talked at length about Friedman's book and already refuted the notion of a geo-economically-stratified China, vis-a-vis the economic zoning found in late 20th century US and Russia's coastal regions.

Just joking. On page 4 we talked about making drugs out of cough syrup and on page 5 how to make home-made nuclear bombs.

831.4 million total. Over 500 million currently use euro or currency pegged to the euro. You can't pick and choose which parts of EU represent you financially if you're speaking as a whole. Us population is 307,005,000. So even if you got nit picky its still over a 200 million person difference.

Well hell, you might as well add the population of China to the US since their currency is pegged to the US dollar.

Lol I like the cut of your jib.

The currency pegged to the Euro are from "Countries" that are a part of EU. China is not one of the recognized "States" of the USA.

Not going against you, but to reinforce your post.

Some countries in the EU do not have the Euro and wish to not be on it (I don't blame you UK).

Some countries are trying to get on the Euro, for whatever reason (hi2u Czech Rep.).

Some countries are on the Euro and are bringing the whole system down (hi2u Greece).

What Cata is saying is that the countries in the second category are the ones who are technically not being counted by Argettio's numbers, but are still using the Euro for it's currency, or accepting it for various transactions in hope of being one of the nations to use it only. There is a reason why the Euro has such high expectations of a country before it gets accepted as the "national" currency.

But that doesn't mean that the country can't "accept" Euros. While visiting Prague a couple of summers ago, I was able to buy stuff with the "local" and "Euro" currencies. Even though at the time Czech Republic wasn't currently (if they have been accepted by now, I don't know) under "Euro" standards, the businesses and country still accepted them for transactions...

I would like to know where you are getting your numbers from.

As I am using: Link to EU commission's own stats site

Edit: and I am not sure why you are talking about currency pegging as that isn't used in the calculation for the size of the economy.

Unless said state succeeds from the union, which I hope Arizona does cause then I'd be first in line to move there, but that's a bit off topic.


China has a huge economy because you can do morally and politically incorrect things and get away with it. Which I find quite amusing that they're a communist nation but have no qualms about supporting and implementing capitalist ideas.


I think with the right laws, incentives, and the deportation of all the bleeding heart liberal environmentalists the US would be a industrial powerhouse that would put China to shame.

Unfortunately, real life isn't so polarized and easy to explain. A lot of those bleeding heart liberal European countries have higher per capita GDP's than the US. And a lot don't.

I would be that liberal environmentalist you mention. You are welcome for helping you guys not live in a shitty polluted place like



or



or

Clearly you haven't been to Fresno... and some other parts of cali

I've been to LA, SF, Houston, Dallas, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Pollution in China's cities is incomparable.

A decent standard of living is the goal of the regular person right? A strong economy and industry should be a means to that end, not an end in itself. China can have the highest GDP in the world and I wouldn't want to live in its cities, not just because of horrible pollution, but also because of lack of basic human rights and freedoms.

But I guess I'm on a tangent, since most of this discussion is about national pride and not about practicalities like utilitarianism and standard of living.

this thread makes no sense. China doesnt have a seperate economy, they need our money funneled thru Walmart or they are where they have been for 400 years, up to their knees in a rice patty.

Awoken*

Reasons why I passed my English classes with a D.

"has awakened" also works; the verbs "to awake" and "to awaken" are conjugated separately to confuse pretty much everyone:

Infinitive	Past Tense	Past Participle
To awake	Awoke	Awaked or Awoken
To awaken	Awakened	Awakened

I see what you did thur.

I see it.