On Sep 5, 11:34 pm, BretCah...@peoplepc.com wrote:

Then so is the official China news agency Xinhua. What's your source?

" Last year, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew
11.4percent year-on-year to 24.6619 trillion yuan (3.43 trillion U.S.
dollars), but the risks of spiraling inflation and economic
overheating were also rising."

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/05/content_7720892.htm

It would take zero growth in the USA *for decades* for the Chinese to
catch us. Decades, Brat.

Do the math.

So what were you saying again about "free speech on economic issues"?

Btw, here's a list of GDP growth rates by the authoritative CIA
Factbook.

Among other things note the relatively low growth rates of the vaunted
W. European welfare states. According to you that must mean that
France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, etc. don't have "free speech on
economic issues" whereas they do in Afghanistan, Angola, Ethiopia, and
Sudan.

Also note the high growth rates of the former Eastern European
communist countries and the former Soviet Republics. Some of them are
as high or even higher than China's with one notable exception -
Hungary. You of course will not choose to recall that I made a
comparison between Hungary and its neighbors with regard to an
important issue - their willingness to embrace low and/or flat taxes,
i.e. a tax system which doesn't penalize the rich. Hungary was the
one country resisting it.

So, are you prepared to acknowledge that low and/or flat taxes, i.e. a
tax system which doesn't penalize the rich is a good prescription for
"free speech on economic issues"? That was also the case prior to the
1930's in the USA when we experienced our highest growth rates and our
middle class was growing most strongly. Since even you have
acknowledged this, maybe we should return to low taxes - even lower
than they are now. Ya think?

Fred Weiss