Jaime Hoerricks, PhD

speaker

1,523 appearances 8 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 11 Jul

Jaime Hoerricks, PhD’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 8.

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Reset Your Thinking Podcast · Book: Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future · 11 Jul 2026 podcast

Well, the author points out that seventy five percent of Chinese citizens pay no income tax. voice-verified

There is no broad property tax to fund local services. voice-verified

And the welfare state is actually incredibly stingy. voice-verified

Really? voice-verified

Yeah. voice-verified

They spend about ten percent of GDP on social spending compared to twenty percent in the US and thirty percent in Europe. voice-verified

Unemployment insurance is very hard to get. voice-verified

In fact, the text quotes Xi Jinping in 2021 explicitly warning against giving too much welfare because it might make people lazy and give them a sense of entitlement. voice-verified

It traces back to Deng Xiaoping's interpretation of Marxist theory, which views history in distinct stages. voice-verified

Deng argued that a state cannot simply mandate a socialist utopia out of thin air. voice-verified

Right. voice-verified

It must first push through a hyperproductive, capitalist-style infrastructure phase to build massive material wealth. voice-verified

Only after reaching a state of post scarcity can true socialism be attempted. voice-verified

Therefore, the state views welfare as mere consumption, a waste of resources, whereas building high speed rail and forty-five of the world's highest bridges is investment toward that post-scarcity future. voice-verified

Socialism in China simply means the state has the absolute power to concentrate resources to accomplish these great infrastructural tasks. voice-verified

The catch is a mountain of local government debt. voice-verified

Gizou is drowning in it. voice-verified

Yeah. voice-verified

The central government sets aggressive GDP growth targets for the provinces. voice-verified

If you are a local mayor or a party official, your promotion depends entirely on hitting those raw GDP numbers. voice-verified

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