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Greg Costigan's avatar

Noah. We need much more:

1. Skilled immigration

2. An industrial policy

3. Housing and transit

4. STEM education

We need all of the above. And the time is now. Much much more needs to discussed, and actioned Into policy on all fronts.

Abundance agenda + industrial capacity + Growth mindset.

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CS's avatar

Noah, I'm really puzzled as to why you so consistently frame Russia and China as an "axis" with common interests and requiring a common response. The two countries look very different to me. Russia is a declining petrostate with a weak manufacturing base. The poor performance of its armed forces in the Ukraine is consistent with a government which doesn't depend on a functioning economy or skilled workers for power because it can fund itself on raw materials. China, on the other hand, is a functioning industrial economy with a fairly strong technical manufacturing base and an increasingly skilled workforce. Importantly, because it is not a resource extraction based economy, China requires a functioning society and the Chinese political elites have to bring their population with them in a way that is not the case in Russia.

True, both countries are somewhat hostile to the USA at the moment, but this seems to be fundamentally different in nature. Russia needs foreign enemies to fight (and cheap successes) as the government has no other real source of legitimacy. Russia is also no a serious geo-political rival to the US (if you are failing in an invasion of a poor neighbouring country of c40m people with a weak military by definition you are not a great power).

China, on the other hand, is a geopolitical rival to the US and has the economic and military power to match. However, although its interests run counter to those of the US in a bunch of areas, there are also significant areas of common interest. Trade, for example, remains central to the health of the Chinese economy (and therefore the Chinese government).

I see little evidence of a China/Russia axis against the US (and the West more generally). This is partly simply because the relationship is so uneven (China + Russia might be a viable competitor to the US, but this would also be true of China + Lichensten - China is doing all the work in both cases).. There is little evidence of China offering Russia much active support in the Ukraine and China's interests don't really seem to align with Russia's here. I doubt that China's government is particularly sad that Russia is giving the US and Europe trouble, but I also doubt that China would make any significant sacrifices for Russia or for any "common cause" with Russia.

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