So in other words, you agree with every point I've made but couldn't care less.

Fair enough, just don't complain about the stuff you're happy putting up with. Obviously the armed forces are not for me. I'm just not interested in fighting other people's wars for them. Armed forces for me are for defence only.

China has the beginnings of a very prosperous economy. But remember, economics is not a zero sum game. It's not that if they become richer we become poorer. This is something politicians don't understand. The 'communism' they have is only a name really, and in some aspects of control over their citizens. But economically they are more free... even despite having a pegged currency. I'm talking about setting up a business without literally thousands of employment laws, regulations, legislation, etc., etc.

It's definitely not about 'beating' us. We need to worry about making ourselves better off, not the Chinese being better off that us.

Your post makes some good points though. Reminds me of a survey that was done years ago in the U.S. where they gave people two options:

A) You earn $110,000 and everyone else earns $200,000.

or

B) You earn $100,000 and everyone else earns $85,000.

The income figures represented real purchasing power, meaning that with option A you would have 10% more to spend on the stuff you wanted. The majority chose option B.