North Korea second happiest country in the world, China's #1

[Tokyoni]

http://www.stopfbi.net/

Happening as we speak to a number of people I know whose only "crimes" were criticizing the policies of the US government.

So... What you're saying is that people in the U.S. get shot?

So?

People in China get shot, too. It's absurd to say they're the happiest country on Earth. End of story.

Err, who said anything about anyone getting shot? 0_o

The site I linked to is regarding some rather McCarthy-like political repression that is going on right now, as we speak in the "free" United States of America.

[Tokyoni]

umm north korea is ranked like that because if people said they weren't happy then they would be here.

(Image)

They have prisons. Whoop-de-fucking-do.

The United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world both in total numbers and per capita. As well as Guantanamo Bay, Gitmo, etc. There's really no comparison.

[The Rich Port]

Err, who said anything about anyone getting shot? 0_o

The site I linked to is regarding some rather McCarthy-like political repression that is going on right now, as we speak in the "free" United States of America.

Whatever.

It's absurd to say China or the U.S. are the happiest countries on Earth, and that North Korea is the second happiest.

The Chinese study is biased, the ones that you say are from the U.S. are not.

[Jagalonia]

Hitler's mustache looks weird. Adam Smith was a drunken fatass. There, I've just pwned fascism and capitalism by such "logic".

Totaly sigging this. lol.

[Tokyoni]

Err, who said anything about anyone getting shot? 0_o

The site I linked to is regarding some rather McCarthy-like political repression that is going on right now, as we speak in the "free" United States of America.

Whatever.

It's absurd to say China or the U.S. are the happiest countries on Earth, and that North Korea is the second happiest.

The Chinese study is biased, the ones that you say are from the U.S. are not.

So... Let me see if I got this

Chinese/DPRK-based studies saying good things about their nation are biased.
US-based studies saying good things about their nation are not biased.

Yeah, that makes perfect fucking sense. >_<

[Parti Ouvrier]

I liked these comments:
'This happiness index refers to the government officials' happiness index in every country'. - Leshanman

'Kim Jong Il is a real sycophant today'. - baimaojin

It's a good joke! - zengfugui

[The Rich Port]

Whatever.

It's absurd to say China or the U.S. are the happiest countries on Earth, and that North Korea is the second happiest.

The Chinese study is biased, the ones that you say are from the U.S. are not.

So... Let me see if I got this

Chinese/DPRK-based studies saying good things about their nation are biased.
US-based studies saying good things about their nation are not biased.

Yeah, that makes perfect fucking sense. >_<

Give me one happiness study from the U.S. that says the U.S. is the happiest country on Earth.

[Outer Chaosmosis]

Get over it.

You may be able to "just get over" the horrors perpetuated by the system for which you are so unabashed and irrational and apologist. I, however, am not fettered by such a willful moral bankruptcy.

It's a taxpayer funded organization.

...Which serves the cause of global capitalism and neo-colonialism. Who cares where it gets its funding? It is the blunt instrument used by corporations and Western nations to economically brutalize the world.

Deregulation, helps.

That's it, Sibi. Just close your eyes, stop your ears, and say that over and over again and everything will be all right. It will magically become true and all of my arguments will disappear.

The west does not depend on it.

It certainly does for cheap goods and funding for its debt. China is not the only nation exploited in this way, but it is certainly an increasingly vital part of a complex of exploitation upon which the West is, indeed, dependent.

Are you that dense? Industries change. Economies change.

Indeed they do, and I have observed as much in my points. The density is in the fact that you continue to fail to observe that those changes are, oftentimes, for the worse. Thriving, localized, eco-friendly, traditional economies are "changed" into ecologically devastated corporate sweatshop playgrounds.

The USSR was not capitalist and did far more environmental damage. It would help, if you actually knew what the fuck you were talking about.

Yeah, I have already addressed that point but, since you are obviously a (ahem) selective reader I will indulge you: The USSR was prompted to damage its environment by desperation occassioned by its mistreatment at the hands of the West. Both Soviet and outside observers noted this state and affairs both at the time and in retrospect.

Of course, you are still incorrect. Throughout the Cold War, the US was the largest producer of carbon emissions, the largest consumer of oil, the largest consumer of coal, the largest consumer of disposable goods (plastics, styrofoams), the largest producer of nuclear waste, and the largest user of aerosolized products (which destroy the ozone). This is, indeed, all still the case! Likewise, of course, the West does massive harm through its exploitation of other nations, forcing deforestation through the collapsing of local economies (forcing people to clear ancient, precious forests just to survive), allowing companies to strip-mine whole regions while forcing environmental deregulation throughout the third world.

Yes they do. The economy does not grow because people spend more. People spend more because the economy grows.

So where does the impetus for growth come from? Supply and demand are too closely related for your sort of infantile "one causes the other" platitudes. Consumer spending is an accepted standard of the state of an economy and prompting it has been a policy imperative in Capitalist countries for centuries.

1) Source of laws and a source of them being enforced.
2) A meaningless ritual, that pales in comparison to the indoctrination that takes place in socialist countries.

1)Just one interesting case of teacher regulations causing controversy: http://www.lvrj.com/news/37788029.html
Some of these statutes are indeed being cleared away, only to be replaced by less legislative forms of pressure. Recently, a lecturer in Labor Studies was forced to resign after being smeared in the national media daring to teach about violence as a labor rights tactic in one of his classes. http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2 ... louis.html

2) Not so meaningless that people don't make cases out of it.

Damn, that kind of logic makes you a genocidal maniac.

....what?

There was trade. They didn't exactly want to trade either.

No, there wasn't. The European powers, by and large, supported what was left of the White Russians in an effort to undermine the new state. The US did not even engage in anything like large scale trade until FDR's administration, and even that was on a highly limited basis (and met with heavy opposition). The USSR, for its part, sought trade wherever it could find it.

1) It was all goods.

But there was only one main good being sold by the West and that was opium. Point, set, match. Thanks for playing.

2) Did I say they don't? I'm just pointing out the blatantly obvious reasons for the decline of the Middle Kingdom.

...The Canton System caused the decline of China because and only because the West didn't like that system's restriction of their drug trade and, as a result, proceeded to carve up the country.

Where the fuck is the bit about Mao? You're a revisionist and incapable of intellectual debate. You're just as dishonest as the tyrants you keep defending.

Mao left the situation in shambles. Market and property reform, along with trade with the west has led to an 800% increase in incomes in 3 decades. Those are facts. Something you seem to not understand.

Yes, because Mao's regime was given the utmost support from the start. Oh, wait. Like every other viable alternative to Capitalism, it was attacked by the West from the word "go." Trade restrictions, saber-rattling, sabotage, support of enemies, the usual tricks of the neo-colonialist trade.

You sound like a broken fucking record, you know that? Mao was a capitalist too, right? Save it. Your garbage does not work here.

What are you babbling about?

OMG the world is ending! The world is not being destroyed. It got a little warmer.

Environmental crisis? What environmental crisis?

Sibi, you are living in a denialist fantasy land. Shouldn't you be off with your tea part friends throwing bricks through a democratic congressman's windows or something?

I'm not contradicting myself. You are contradicting facts.

Actually, I have pointed out several places in which you have contradicted yourself.

Maybe you have memory problems? Perhaps that's why you think capitalism is the devil? Maybe you should go see a doctor.

Hey, look everyone! Sibi is, once again, refusing to support his points!

The economic system you support is pathetic.

Again, when you run out of arguments, you resort to name calling.

They restricted trade in everything. Trading =/= stealing.

Drug dealers provide a product. Nothing more.

"Trade in everything" is a bit misleading given that all the West was selling were drugs. So you admit to supporting drug dealers. How, pray, do you sleep at night? Drugs are a product that kills people, ruins lives, and created dependency and you see no problem with it.

As for theft, the Canton system restricted Western movement within Chinese borders. This made sense as a means of keeping Westerners from stealing valuables from China (as, indeed, they had before and as, indeed, they would once the interior of China became accessible).

[Jericho Republic]

There are a ton of American stories that are against the US that are considered good. They bring corruption to light and they help the people know what is going on. If people so much as say that they don't like the government, they will be silenced (that is in China, the DPRK, and other nations that lack political and personal freedoms).

[Jericho Republic]

umm north korea is ranked like that because if people said they weren't happy then they would be here.

(Image)

They have prisons. Whoop-de-fucking-do.

The United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world both in total numbers and per capita. As well as Guantanamo Bay, Gitmo, etc. There's really no comparison.

Ikr? The US doesn't even compare to the DPRK imprisoning people. Why? Because the US court system, while extremely far from being perfect, tries to put the guilty people behind bars. People serve their time, and they get out.

You protest the government or do something the government doesn't like in the DPRK, you are sent to one of these camps. IDK if you get out, I'll have to read up on them.

[Outer Chaosmosis]

Ikr? The US doesn't even compare to the DPRK imprisoning people. Why? Because the US court system, while extremely far from being perfect, tries to put the guilty people behind bars. People serve their time, and they get out.

Actually, recidivism rates are very high in the US. Once you go to prison, you are exponentially more likely to end up back behind bars than the average citizen.

[Jericho Republic]

Ikr? The US doesn't even compare to the DPRK imprisoning people. Why? Because the US court system, while extremely far from being perfect, tries to put the guilty people behind bars. People serve their time, and they get out.

Actually, recidivism rates are very high in the US. Once you go to prison, you are exponentially more likely to end up back behind bars than the average citizen.

That's more-so the person's fault than it is the court systems. I'm not saying our judicial or prison systems are perfect; they could definitely use some tuning up. However, blaming those two systems of law for criminals not changing is not really fair.

[Outer Chaosmosis]

Actually, recidivism rates are very high in the US. Once you go to prison, you are exponentially more likely to end up back behind bars than the average citizen.

That's more-so the person's fault than it is the court systems. I'm not saying our judicial or prison systems are perfect; they could definitely use some tuning up. However, blaming those two systems of law for criminals not changing is not really fair.

Why not blame them? Don't you think it is possible that people can become "institutionalized" by the prison system, that, indeed, it makes people more criminal (and, indeed, better at being criminal)?

[The Rich Port]

Give me one happiness study from the U.S. that says the U.S. is the happiest country on Earth.

Just in case you missed it, TOKYONI

[AlexJacobii]

Ikr? The US doesn't even compare to the DPRK imprisoning people. Why? Because the US court system, while extremely far from being perfect, tries to put the guilty people behind bars. People serve their time, and they get out.

Actually, recidivism rates are very high in the US. Once you go to prison, you are exponentially more likely to end up back behind bars than the average citizen.

Of course you are, you get 3 meals a day, a bed, a toilet, shelter from the weather, free heat, sometimes free air conditioning and even TV, free education opportunities, etc. It's better than being a kid in the public school system again! That is if you don't mind the rape.

[Sibirsky]

Outer Chaosmosis purposely leaves out points I make out of his responses, and continues his ridiculous revisionist tirade.

If you say so.

Please note, dear readers, that Sibi once again refusing to cite any examples of this supposed misconduct (thereby substantiating still further my own observation that (s)he is not in the habit of actually supporting positions with reasoning or evidence).

You know exactly what I'm talking about.

[Laerod]

Whatever.

It's absurd to say China or the U.S. are the happiest countries on Earth, and that North Korea is the second happiest.

The Chinese study is biased, the ones that you say are from the U.S. are not.

So... Let me see if I got this

Chinese/DPRK-based studies saying good things about their nation are biased.
US-based studies saying good things about their nation are not biased.

Yeah, that makes perfect fucking sense. >_<

When a study puts the US at dead last for happiest, you know it's off. Americans love complaining, but not that much.

[The Rich Port]

So... Let me see if I got this

Chinese/DPRK-based studies saying good things about their nation are biased.
US-based studies saying good things about their nation are not biased.

Yeah, that makes perfect fucking sense. >_<

When a study puts the US at dead last for happiest, you know it's off. Americans love complaining, but not that much.

The point I was making is that ANY study conducted by a nation that puts itself as the top, by DEFAULT, is biased.

China, France, U.S., it doesn't matter.

Important questions to have: Why the fuck did they do this? What were they trying to accomplish with this?

[Jericho Republic]

That's more-so the person's fault than it is the court systems. I'm not saying our judicial or prison systems are perfect; they could definitely use some tuning up. However, blaming those two systems of law for criminals not changing is not really fair.

Why not blame them? Don't you think it is possible that people can become "institutionalized" by the prison system, that, indeed, it makes people more criminal (and, indeed, better at being criminal)?

Why not? It is up to the prisoner himself to change his mentality. I have always been of the opinion that while people can help you make your mind, it is only you that can make your decisions. That basically means that the sessions that prisons have can help prisoners be rehabilitated, but it is really up to the prisoner if they want to change or not.

[Zhugyu]

Ugh. It sickens me to see the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) abused in this way.

The Happy Planet Index is more objective. The United States is far from being number one, but it's not at the bottom of the pile, either. Somehow I think countries like Somalia, Zimbabwae, and, um, North Korea would be at the bottom of a more accurate survey. Things like starvation and persistent levels of violence tend to make for an unhappy populace.

[Jericho Republic]

When a study puts the US at dead last for happiest, you know it's off. Americans love complaining, but not that much.

The point I was making is that ANY study conducted by a nation that puts itself as the top, by DEFAULT, is biased.

China, France, U.S., it doesn't matter.

Important questions to have: Why the fuck did they do this? What were they trying to accomplish with this?

Probably trying to quell any civil unrest that there is and possibly prevent the democratic wave that hit the Middle East from hitting China by telling the people that they are happy.

[The Rich Port]

Probably trying to quell any civil unrest that there is and possibly prevent the democratic wave that hit the Middle East from hitting China by telling the people that they are happy.

... But how would this do that?

Ugh. It sickens me to see the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) abused in this way.

The Happy Planet Index is more objective. The United States is far from being number one, but it's not at the bottom of the pile, either. Somehow I think countries like Somalia, Zimbabwae, and, um, North Korea would be at the bottom of a more accurate survey. Things like starvation and persistent levels of violence tend to make for an unhappy populace.

Can you imagine Somalia doing this?

"SOMALIA, HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH: NOW WITH HAPPY AIDS AND HAPPY TERRORISM!"

[Zhugyu]

When a study puts the US at dead last for happiest, you know it's off. Americans love complaining, but not that much.

The point I was making is that ANY study conducted by a nation that puts itself as the top, by DEFAULT, is biased.

China, France, U.S., it doesn't matter.

Important questions to have: Why the fuck did they do this? What were they trying to accomplish with this?

This is pretty routine for the DPRK. They put out propaganda like this on a regular basis, largely for domestic reasons. I don't know much about the origin of the study, but "Chaoxian" is the Chinese term for "Chosun" which is what North Korea calls itself. So obviously this is some kind of Chinese-based front group. There are groups in Japan that serve a similar function.

[Jericho Republic]

Probably trying to quell any civil unrest that there is and possibly prevent the democratic wave that hit the Middle East from hitting China by telling the people that they are happy.

... But how would this do that?

Huge emphasis on trying...

[Backstabing Ninjas]

lets see. North Korea made this. of course its going to love communist.