I consider as most effective, the system that is most effective for the whole market in the long term, not the system that only works best for a few in that market. And yes, I realize that authoritarian market intervention is great for maximizing short term profits for those few companies/persons, but if the rest of the market suffers in the long term because of it (and they are), then we're dealing with rent seeking and that's pretty commonly accepted to be bad in the long term. Bad for society, but also bad for wealth creation. And if it's bad for wealth creation, then it's definitely not effective capitalism. This is why I consider authoritarian capitalism to not be the most effective form of capitalism.

And yeah, I'm aware that the USA is on this trajectory. Other western democracies are too, but of those that are, I think it's still mostly to a lesser extent than the USA.

About China: China's competiveness has significantly regressed in the last few years. Xi Jinping's authoritarian and imperialistic policies have not been good for business. Under Xi Jinping guanxi is also much more important again than it was under Hun Jintao: companies have no real rights, they too are dependant on maintaining relations and obeying the government. If they fail to maintain relations or if they bet on the wrong political horse, then the company leadership will be gone pretty fast.

Authoritarian capitalism is not the most effective form of capitalism. It is the most effective for those that are already on top, but for the market as a whole (and especially for the society around that market), it's going to be worse in the long run.

Companies that are protected from competition by an authoritarian government will be able to extract higher profits in the short term, but their products and services will become worse in the long term, which not only harms their customers, but also the company's chances of selling their products on actually competitive markets. The American car makers are a good example of this imo.

Companies that are protected from having to pay fair wages and/or providing good working conditions, will be faced with labor shortages if the workers have alternatives, or with a depressed consumer market because the people have less money/time to spend on consuming things.

I really like their pagewide xl printers, but those are purely aimed at businesses. Just to name one thing I like :D

And those xl printers are the only thing that I can think off. I won't even consider buying a current HP computer/laptop/small printer/...

I don't believe for a second that that cop was actually afraid. This reads like he is a bully who grasps at every opportunity to pounce on someone who is in a weaker position than him. Classic bully behaviour that will continue as long as he gets away with it.

Plenty of articles on Trump his private meetings with Putin. A short one: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/us/politics/trump-putin-meetings.html

The CIA circumstantially complaining and warning their agents of an increase of dead informants: https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/575384-cia-admits-to-losing-dozens-of-informants-around-the-world-nyt/

Apart from leaking, Trump also erroneously declassified secret documents, leading to the disappearance (and likely deaths) of some informants. Best case was that the western agency was able to extract their informant in time, but that still means that there is 1 less informant. Here's one case, but there were more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/17/russian-sources-disappeared-after-trump-declassified-ex-spys-evidence-uk-court-told

Trump his public obeisances towards Putin are also clearly recognizable as such. Trump Putin meetings are not meetings of equals, but one is clearly there to do the bidding of the other.

Put 1, 2, 3 and 4 together and there are many who believe that it was Trump who purposefully gave top secret information to his master. Including basically all western spy agencies, who now no longer can trust the USA with secret information. Trump is a traitor and everyone knows it.

It all reads like an onion skit, but it's real. Braxton was officially made mayor in 2020 and now 4y later still has no access to the town's official bank account, post box or even a key to the town hall. How can an ongoing crime that is this blatant, take years to resolve? Alabama I guess.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/26/black-mayor-alabama-town-locked-out

The reason that it's in the news again, is because mayor Braxton and a civil rights organisation are trying to have an actual election take place, which probably isn't easy to organise if you don't control the town's postbox. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/29/newbern-alabama-election-lawsuit-mayor

So after 4 years of this, the anti democratic cliques still haven't faced any negative consequences for their clearly illegal power grab. Completely insane, I would not have expected this to be possible in any western democracy.

Every citizen of a democratic country, who is still inside Russia at this point, is a potential hostage and bargaining chip for the Russian government. There's no independent press or judiciary in Russia and the Russian government has no morals and few scruples. If they need a hostage, they'll take one.

Griner (a basket ball player convicted to 25y in prison for petty charges) was exchanged for Viktor Bout (the person on whom the movie Lord of War was based).

The Russian laws are also a minefield of post truths and petty rules, so it's not hard to find some kind of charge against any individual. Basically everyone will be breaking the law in some way in Russia and the crooks in the Russian government can decide when and where to go after someone.

You can carry white lies, that you were told at a very young age, with you for many years. There's loads of stories of people being told some fairytale incorrect information at a young age and then just believing that for years until they suddenly have an epiphany as an adult.

This has got to be one of the most stupid memes ever.

The percentage of Soviet citizens that were put into prisons/gulag camps/colonies will have far exceeded the percentage of us citizens currently incarcerated in the usa, and in far more inhumane circumstances.

Unless the op is trying to deflect from the problems of the USA penal system by drawing attention to a far worse system, I don't get the point of this meme.

Why was the lawsuit filed in Texas and not in Washington State? The hospital is based in Seattle, the people coming for care received that care in Seattle, ... Surely Washington state courts should have the final say.

So it started with a kid who made up a really tall tale, told it to an adult in the form of completely unsubstantiated hearsay, which the admins for some mysterious reason chose to belief. Those admins must be either stupid or malicious.

I'm leaning towards maliciousness, jealousy and spite as the most likely reasons for why this is happening.

Definitely a perspective trick. The legs are that long to be able to say that the bear is 6.5 feet long. Buyers want to buy a giant teddy bear and instead they get a smaller bear than expected, but with super long legs. The manufacturer and seller knew what they were doing: purposefully misleading buyers.