Comment on How does the Chinese government even work
marcos@lemmy.world 7 hours agoChina seems very stable to me. Their government is afraid of making people angry, and removing basic help like that is very likely to make people angry.
But also, it seems to me that the “generally” in “generally free” is doing some work. AFAIK, some care is free, some care isn’t. And the pretty good quality of life doesn’t seem to be universally distributed. Both of those seem to be improving quickly, but the “people are better than in the US” impression one may take from that comment seems to be a misrepresentation.
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 7 hours ago
At the end of the day all governments are desperately afraid of making people angry (at them), from the healthiest democracy to the most totalitarian dictatorship, because the people are always the overwhelming majority, creating all the goods and services, creating the surplus that the rich and powerful exploit and enjoy, and therefore ultimately holding all the real power no matter how much legal, policing and enforcement structure is built around them. Some governments are just extremely creative at making people forget that or preventing them from learning it in the first place, while finding ways to manage their expectations to either convince them to be happy enough, or to make sure they’re always going to be angry at somebody else (or each other), or some combination of the two. They usually turn to the latter when they fail at the former. When they fail at both, it tends to become a revolution.
marcos@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
One would think so. But a quick glance at Russia, or even the current US one would show you otherwise.
Most governments don’t seem to pay a lot of attention to it. Democracies tend to be the most concerned ones, but it still varies a lot.
TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub 3 hours ago
That’s because people can take a lot before becoming truly desperate. A revolution means risking mass death, and few are willing to sacrifice so others can have a better life.