4.9 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
This is a free preview of the episode "(Chinese) Socialism vs (U.S.) Capitalism." You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast
As a Patreon subscriber you'll get access to at least one bonus episode a month (usually two or three), our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, early access to certain episodes, and other benefits like stickers and bumper stickers—depending on which tier you subscribe to. access to bi-weekly bonus episodes ranging from conversations to readings and more. Signing up for Patreon is a great way to make Upstream a weekly show, and it will also give you access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes along with stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers. You’ll also be helping to keep Upstream sustainable and allowing us to keep this project going.
In this episode in our reading series, Robbie reads a piece written by Indrajit Samarajiva titled "How Communism Is Outcompeting Capitalism." Why is the entire techno-capitalist class, along with their loyal handmaidens in the media, freaking out about DeepSeek—a Chinese AI company's an open-source large language model? Why are electric vehicles (EVs) so much cheaper, efficient, and better in China? Why is the United States ramping up anti-China hysteria in this country? And why are living standards and life expectancy in China overtaking those in the United States?Â
The answer is simple: socialism is better than capitalism. On every single front. And in this reading series, Robbie reads and reflects on Indrajit Samarajiva's piece as it provides a brief history of the rise of communism in China, the period of Deng Xiaoping's market reforms, and the superiority of socialist economies over capitalist ones.Â
Further resources:
Related episodes:
Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support
If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at  upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship
For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky.
You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | Hey everyone, Robbie here with another episode in our Patreon rating series. |
0:04.8 | And I just upfront want to acknowledge, I know my voice sounds like shit. |
0:08.9 | I'm like dealing with some kind of weird throat laryngitis thing. |
0:13.6 | I think I'm not really feeling sick, but my throat has just been like in a lot of discomfort and I haven't really been |
0:22.7 | able to speak very well for the last like over a week now. But that's not going to stop |
0:29.2 | me from coming on here and talking to you guys a whole bunch. So today's episode is going to be |
0:36.3 | a reading on something that's been in the news a little bit more |
0:41.2 | recently, which is sort of the rise of China, especially in terms of the rise of China as a competing |
0:51.2 | entity to the United States. We all know about the TikTok ban and of course it was |
0:57.4 | reversed and we all know about at this point, I'm assuming Deep Seek and China's forays into the |
1:04.1 | AI world, which are putting the United States's AI world into shame. And yeah, so I figured I would talk a little bit about that. |
1:14.4 | Before we have some actual experts come on to the show, I'd never like to promise anything |
1:20.5 | with interviews because sometimes things fall apart or just don't end up working. But I am talking to Jason Hickle right now about |
1:30.3 | potentially coming onto the show to just talk China. And he has a research paper that recently |
1:36.6 | came out, but also just more broadly too. Jason actually has quite a bit of knowledge when it |
1:42.9 | comes to Chinese political economy. |
1:45.7 | And so I think he would be a great guest to just sort of pick his brain about some of the recent developments and also ask him some bigger questions like, is China capitalist? |
1:55.5 | Is China imperialist? |
1:56.9 | That kind of thing. |
1:58.4 | And then I'm also waiting for publisher of the books to send me the media copies, |
2:04.6 | but Kenneth Hammond is going to hopefully be on the show as well to talk about a couple of his books on China. |
2:11.2 | He's really great. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Upstream, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Upstream and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.