Another fine mess the Chinese have gotten us into?

I agree Mike, My criticism of the Chinese regime in no way condones or defects from the bad behaviour of others. I don’t mince my words about them ether. In fact, I’m totally even handed in my Victor Medrew tirades.

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But you seem to have damaged your keyboard with overmuch use! :laughing:

I tend to go at it in bursts and I switch between the iPad, the laptop and the desktop. You can tell when I’m using the iPad because my fingers press all the wrong virtual keys :slight_smile:

But, you’re right. I better go and find something useful to do.

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Me and my “not velly crever” gob ditto :frowning::roll_eyes::joy:

The GDP of China is second only to the USA . It is the second richest country in the world and the wealth inequality that exists there is entirely due to the policies of its government.
It keeps its people poor in order to make cheap products to sell to the rest of the world.
If the Chinese people are “undernourished” it is China’s doing and buying more of their products will only line the pockets of the rich rather than benefiting the poor.

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"GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services—that are bought by the final user—produced in a country in a given period of time (say a quarter or a year).

Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of each industry or sector of the economy.)
The ratio of GDP to the total population of the region is the [per capita GDP] and the same is called Mean Standard of Living.
GDP is considered the world’s most powerful statistical indicator of national development and progress"
*** But not of individual wealth within the nation. ***

Don’t see how one’s values can be threatened by China. Seems to me the perceived threat of China should serve to strengthen them, unless they are built of straw to begin with. :thinking:

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Fair enough Mike. Perhaps this is a better measure as it effectively takes account of the standard of living. Using the IMF estimate for 2020 it puts France 25th, the UK 27th and China 67th. It’s not a poor country any more by any measure.
I attach an interesting article about increasing wealth in China as well.
Izzy x

My reading of that is “Hasn’t got there yet.”

Somewhere between Belarus and Dominican Republic. You wouldn’t be rushing to take a share in the wealth of any of those countries!

But still slightly better than the UK State Pension that is worth $8,493.

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I know I’ve said this before. Western consumers are just as culpable as their governments for helping the rise of China to become an economic superpower. I’m hoping that in the aftermath of the CV pandemic we see a shift away from the flood of cheap crap produced in Chinese sweatshops/factories to a situation where consumers insist on better quality products that are made either in their own country or at least in Europe.

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Looking at my wife’s new iPhone I have to say Tim that some of the “cheap crap” they produce is of excellent quality. I need a dual SIM so no iPhone for me, instead a Chinese designed and manufactured One Plus which is an excellent price and superb quality. It’s only Android that lets it down but their bloatware free implementation is one of the best.

The new iPhone SE has dual sim - 1 physical sim slot and an eSim.

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Iphones might be seen as cheap in Scully Towers but here in pauper’s cottage they’re viewed as bloody expensive. :wink:

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I’ve just bought a Samsung Galaxy A40 which has a dual SIM. Most definitely NOT made in China.
Izzy x

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I would be very surprised if it didn’t contain components that were sourced in PRC.

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Yes Mat but I don’t think anyone except Orange has rolled out ESIMs yet. I like my Free deal. Our landline is at the very limit of ADSL so the performance was 1MBS, at best and cost 40 odd quid a month. We now have three Free SIMS one of which is dedicated to a GSM router. So for 60 quid we’ve two mobiles and 300GB PM high speed internet.

I think it depends how often you replace them Tim. Amongst my techie bits I’ve a ten year Apple Macbook which was expensive at the time but is still perfect, I even upgraded the disk to 1TB myself with nothing more than a screwdriver. A Samsung laptop I bought for my daughter at the same time because we though she needed Windows for her course died in no time at all. We moved her to a Macbook and it’s still going strong too.

That’s supply chains for you :slightly_smiling_face:

They do seem to be in very short supply, my android phone can use eSims but almost no mobile providers supply eSims.

I was hoping to have my French number and UK number (PAYG) both on my phone - but one of them would need to be an eSim. So far I don’t think any UK PAYG providers offer them - perhaps they will be more common in 6 months, until then I will have 2 phones - one either side of the mobile phone battle lines one android and one iPhone (ooooh get me for being inclusive!)