[sean] split from:     I'd love to see the military budget highly trimmed.  Hate to win a non-existent war and lose the country's wellbeing due to spending and taxing trillions on gun powder.    On the other hand, Jimmy Carters statement about 'China ahead of us in almost every way',  Is because China became increasingly Capitalistic.  Before allowing for free markets they were 3rd world in everything in many of the statistics where they're not ahead of us.  imo, Its Capitalism that allowed there boom, lifting 100's of millions out of dire poverty, creating a middle class.    We have problems, so does China, it's allowed some of the worst pollution to go on, but when it comes to freedom we're ahead.  They are Orwellian and getting worse in many ways (see abolition of presidential term limits).  <interestingly enough you can buy a copy of '1984' but you typing it into a social media post, in context, is criminal!?  (https://boingboing.net/2019/01/13/laobaixing.html & https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/why-1984-and-animal-farm-arent-banned-china/580156/)     <wait, why are we discussing this on the mass shooting thread?? <seems like it should have its own thread.>