One theory I’ve heard about the accelerating of the worsening conditions of western proletariat is that the USSR used to provide a bulwark against things getting too bad. People would point at the USSR and the illusion that capitalism was better for individual prosperity would collapse in comparison. Then, with the USSR gone things have been deteriorating for the past ~30 years.
If that is true, even somewhat, why haven’t we seen a similar effect from China’s example? Is the theory simply wrong? Maybe western capitalism is just unable to even offer scraps from the table at this point. Maybe people are unaware of how things are in China? Could we dare to expect that China’s example will force a lifting of the boot from our necks?
This may sound kind of silly, but part of me wonders if geography is a component here. China is a distant, exotic state in the far-east. There is a definite ignorance of what is actually happening in China, but that might be a consequence of general ignorance of China’s past. People know about eastern Europe and its history, so there’s a point of reference for how things changed under socialism. China might as well be the moon.
We always hear about how great and perfect and wholesome pre-socialist China was, with the peaceful monks and what not. Could the West really sell this lie about the Soviet Union?
Orientalism definitely plays a role