O dear... someone has been stirring the pot.
But a USA territory? Absurd. As much as the people of China may worry about China, the people of Hong Kong are Chinese, and have little interest in be ruled by USA. Cui bono? No one.
Now Hong Kong has a unique pedigree: sociopolitical ideas lost with the fall of Rome were rediscovered by Islam, which in turn shared them with the Christian European conquerers in Spain. The Spanish scholastics worked out free markets, and the French philosophes came up with laissez faire which by the time it got to Scotland, the UK in the late 1700s was looking for administrators for their undermanned colonies in the Americas and Asia. Hong Kong and what was to become USA were informed by the same philosophies and the same people (Scotsmen) at the same time. It took a century to take hold, but sadly, the USA kept evolving and Hong Kong, a city state with the ideal 7 million inhabitants, remains much like it was 250 years ago: quite free.
That a few dozen Scotsmen could plant such seeds is not a tribute to them, or the Americans, or the Chinese. The ideas are universal and work wherever tried. That a Hong Kong is allowed to thrive under communism, and not capitalism, is a lesson for all to learn.
AS the writer notes, Hong Kong as a USA territory is not even contemplated, let alone possible. What is possible, and worthy of contemplation, is a New Hong Kong in USA.
The USA has some unfinished business vis a vis its treaties with American Indians. In Hong Kong no one is allowed to own land, as it was anathema to Indians. In Hong Kong the currency is issued by competing firms, as it once was in USA but is now forbidden. In Hong Kong taxes are negligible, if due at all, as it was among Indians. Good works through charity is far more efficient than through tax and spend.
This is not to fall for the noble savage fantasy, just that given an opportunity to restart, and demonstrable human impulses, and a working model, the port that the Puyallup Indians already own in Tacoma, Washington could become its own country. If earlier treaties were to be honored as well as the newer undisputed amendments, there would be certainly room for 7 million people and a world class airport south of Tacoma.
Instead of talking about Hong Kong becoming a new USA territory, how about the Puyallups gaining their treaty agreed independence? Hong Kong could be a big help as a model, and another 50 years pf freedom as a competitor a benefit to the world.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
Yet another example of political hallucination masquerading as intellectual expression has emerged in Hong Kong recently in the form of a suggestion that the special administrative region should become an overseas territory of the United States.Although the people have an independence little known in the world today, China is a world superpower and a decision to end that freedom could not be protested. Indeed, the "one-country, two systems" policy ends in a mere 30 more years, 20 years of the 50 having flown by.
But a USA territory? Absurd. As much as the people of China may worry about China, the people of Hong Kong are Chinese, and have little interest in be ruled by USA. Cui bono? No one.
Now Hong Kong has a unique pedigree: sociopolitical ideas lost with the fall of Rome were rediscovered by Islam, which in turn shared them with the Christian European conquerers in Spain. The Spanish scholastics worked out free markets, and the French philosophes came up with laissez faire which by the time it got to Scotland, the UK in the late 1700s was looking for administrators for their undermanned colonies in the Americas and Asia. Hong Kong and what was to become USA were informed by the same philosophies and the same people (Scotsmen) at the same time. It took a century to take hold, but sadly, the USA kept evolving and Hong Kong, a city state with the ideal 7 million inhabitants, remains much like it was 250 years ago: quite free.
That a few dozen Scotsmen could plant such seeds is not a tribute to them, or the Americans, or the Chinese. The ideas are universal and work wherever tried. That a Hong Kong is allowed to thrive under communism, and not capitalism, is a lesson for all to learn.
AS the writer notes, Hong Kong as a USA territory is not even contemplated, let alone possible. What is possible, and worthy of contemplation, is a New Hong Kong in USA.
The USA has some unfinished business vis a vis its treaties with American Indians. In Hong Kong no one is allowed to own land, as it was anathema to Indians. In Hong Kong the currency is issued by competing firms, as it once was in USA but is now forbidden. In Hong Kong taxes are negligible, if due at all, as it was among Indians. Good works through charity is far more efficient than through tax and spend.
This is not to fall for the noble savage fantasy, just that given an opportunity to restart, and demonstrable human impulses, and a working model, the port that the Puyallup Indians already own in Tacoma, Washington could become its own country. If earlier treaties were to be honored as well as the newer undisputed amendments, there would be certainly room for 7 million people and a world class airport south of Tacoma.
Instead of talking about Hong Kong becoming a new USA territory, how about the Puyallups gaining their treaty agreed independence? Hong Kong could be a big help as a model, and another 50 years pf freedom as a competitor a benefit to the world.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
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