I wouldn’t even try to equate ourselves with China. Do you have a good sense of how much corruption is going on over there and how much background poverty you are not seeing?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Yep there is no corruption in the USA. Enron? Just a good business model that got screwed up by a couple of bad apples. And certainly there isn’t any background poverty here in the US. Appalachia? What’s that? South Texas colonias? Never heard of ’em. Mississippi? Isn’t that a kind of pie?

I told my extended family that I have absolutely no interest in wasting my vacation time in visiting relatives in China when I can be hiking down in Peru or Ecuador and not be caught up by the crass commercialism and culture of excess that you currently see over there.

Yes, you’ll be much more comfortable in Peru and Ecuador where all of the wealthy people are protected by high fences and private guards with machine guns to keep the teeming masses of impoverished, malnourished poor from tearing them limb from limb. It’s not all Macchu Picchu and Cuzco down there, trust me. Actually I do recommend travel to South America because it will prepare you for the future of this country. Privatized everything. Rampant corruption. Massive numbers of dispossessed poor people. Old diseases you thought didn’t exist anymore, like leprosy, cholera, and typhoid. Coming soon to your town! Hopefully you’ve got enough money saved up to hire some private guards…