How the "Kill Line" Redefined the American Dream in China - FPIF
fpif.org
The growing holes in America's safety net reveal the insecurity at the core of the world's richest nation.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/59579417

The term, borrowed from competitive gaming, refers to a health threshold where a character is vulnerable to an instant, unblockable finishing move. In the context of American life, Chinese observers use it to describe a terrifyingly low “margin for error.” This is the point where a single stroke of bad luck—a $3,000 ambulance ride or a sudden layoff—triggers a terminal collapse into homelessness.

This shift in perception is driven by radical transparency. For the first time, the “American Dream” is being filtered through the lens of real people rather than Hollywood studios. Through international students and overseas Chinese on TikTok and Weibo, the “unfiltered” America has been revealed.

Instead of the manicured suburbs of Desperate Housewives, Chinese netizens see the sprawling tent cities of the West Coast. They witness the “Great Reckoning” on Xiaohongshu, where American users share medical bills that look like mortgage statements.

  • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    Well at gunpoint to choose one to live in, I’d sure pick China without much pondering. Despite many concerns.

    • Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Well at gunpoint to choose one to live in, I’d sure pick China without much pondering.

      Really? When do you leave?

      Just look at the linked website and you will see that literally all articles by this author echo the Chinese government’s propaganda narratives without providing verifiable and independent sources (OP’s post history has the same propaganda spin).

      Xi Jinping has been advocating against social welfare on many occasions arguing that it would make people ‘lazy.’ It comes as no surprise that China’s social system is far behind compared to European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and many others. Inequality has also been rising in China in the last 10 years and is much higher than in all Western countries.

      There is also ample evidence that China’s future for a fairer social system is bleak under the current regime as social and health policies are heavily skewed toward the urban, formal, and state sectors. As one report says,

      In a system devoid of free elections, and where agriculture and rural areas have only a weak bureaucratic voice, farmers and migrant workers have minimal political clout and remain politically inactive at the national level. Consequently, social and health policies are heavily skewed toward the urban, formal, and state sectors, which are the loudest, best connected, and most articulate groups in Chinese society.

      This bias is perpetuated by a political regime that places a high premium on maintaining stability … Autocratic leaders deliberately uphold a social welfare regime biased toward government officials and urban employees in the state sector and providing only limited social welfare to other urban dwellers and rural workers in the informal sector […]

      Looking forward, as economic growth slows and the burden of providing the necessary social services for the elderly mounts, the expansion of the Chinese welfare state is likely reaching its limits.

      And this report highlights just one major weakness of China so-called welfare system. Framing China as a welfare state, even if just better than the US, is a very bad joke.

      [Edit typo.]

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Really? When do you leave?

        Why should I leave? I was already lucky enough to be born in one of the “better” countries.

        And dude, I don’t doubt that China is far from a great nation. Hence I said if I had to choose at gunpoint. That this article is probably just silly propaganda…who cares. Most of everything is just dumb propaganda nowadays and should be ignored.

        Yet, I don’t know enough about China but enough about the USA to surely pick the lesser known evil. If forced at before mentioned gunpoint.

        In the end, evil is evil, no matter where. It’s humans that destroy everything good. Everywhere.

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        Not yet. But I would (And will). But surely wouldn’t visit the USA. Despite speaking much better English than Chinese 😁

        • dieICEdie@lemmy.orgEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          Well, i wouldn’t recommend either haha. Be sure not to express your opinions in China. Speech is not free. And don’t wear a shirt that says “I heart Uyghurs” or you’re going to be reeducated. Unless you don’t heart them… then you’ll fit right in.

            • dieICEdie@lemmy.orgEnglish
              1·
              1 day ago

              Ummmm…… Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group, historically rooted in what is now the Xinjiang region of China. They are not specifically a religion.

              So, same question again?

              • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
                1·
                1 day ago

                They aren’t specifically an ethno religious group, but the vast majority of them is sunni. So again: why would i heart them? I despise religion, and Islam most of them all.

                For those not in a cult I feel sorry. Same as I do for every worker in China or the Tibetans. Or the debt-crushed muricans. Or whomever is oppressed in whichever way in whatever country.

                Also, never said China is perfect or anything. If forced to choose China or USA at gunpoint I’d pick China. I know more about the USA than I do about China, so I’d pick the lesser known evil.

                • dieICEdie@lemmy.orgEnglish
                  1·
                  1 day ago

                  So you despise an ethnic group based on them largely being a specific religion? You are okay with genocide based on religious views?

                  Yikes.

                  And by lesser known, you know they lock shit down… you you’re literally saying they’re a gamble.

                  • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
                    1·
                    23 hours ago

                    I despise religious people. Simple as that. What happens to them isn’t my concern and I couldn’t care less. That’s what their god is for.

                    And I still don’t get your point. I know in very many ways how the USA sucks bigtime and I know a bunch of what is wrong in China. Hence I’d pick the lesser known evil which MIGHT be even the worse evil, but I don’t know that yet. Hence my life or death, A or B choice. Not on preference. What do you do? Choose the USA? If you’re loaded, religious (enough to pretend tho) and hate the poor, then it’s probably a great place to be. But so is every other country too then. China included.