China has less of a welfare state than Massachusetts or Minnesota. It's a capitalist country run by a kleptocratic communist mafia with a flag and party princeling aristocracy.

Chomsky had a great phrase about capitalism: "a purely private market wouldn't last five minutes."

Libertarians who believe otherwise about mixed economies are evidence-free fools.

Shrinking public goods with free market fundamentalism is paving the road to populist demagogy and fascism.

The USSR was a state of equality in poverty, not out of it. Chinese growth has been built on debt pushing real estate up to being 29% of GDP.

I'd like to have governance in 90% of the world's countries outsourced to the Finns, Norwegians and Icelanders.

German proverb: In Berlin the situation is serious but not hopeless. In Vienna it's the reverse.