If they're subject to the same laws as established media outlets, does that mean that they basically get all of the benefits without any of the risks? Because there's no standard for blogs to fact check their work.

Unlike poker, the rules of the games are altered based on the current knowledge about the state of the game.

Poker, like baseball, hockey, and every other game, alters its rules based on the current knowledge about the state of the game.

I find this comment facetious. It's not like the Chinese don't value their athletes in the same way, just look at people like Yao Ming or Liu Xiang, two huge household names in China who make hundreds of millions off of sponsorships. Hell, they treat OUR NBA athletes like we do. Kobe is probably the most popular person in China. They only got more people because more people entered, and because it's very likely many more of them had the time to do this because they were unemployed.

Back in the day, and I mean way back when, work in the US government was considered a service to the country and not a means to make oneself rich.

Back then, only those who didn't need to work for a living (literally aristocrats) could participate in government. Unless you'd like to deny participation in the government to anyone who isn't already rich, there is no alternative.

The introduction of capitalism has managed to rocket China from an impoverished post-WWII and post civil-war famine-plagued disaster into the modern China of today in under thirty years.

Fixed that for you.

Right, because the solution to a ridiculously expensive problem is another problem that is equally ridiculously expensive and far more likely to result in hazardous filings.