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How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]

nytimes.com

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Re: How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]

#61

Post by ademup »

tigershark wrote: post #48

Inflation in Venezuela is over 25k%. People are jailed during demonstrations when they are not shot in cold blood. Children are dying of malnutrition. But for everyone on HN the biggest problem is the article format. Utterly and completely unbelievable...

A large number of people (most?) in the HN community are contributors/authors/creators to web sites such as that linked. I love HN people for their ability to respect content while simultaneously addressing how it is delivered. I believe that ~how~ the message is conveyed is extremely important. If the UI is such that people click 'next' and never get to the content, then all of the breathless exasperation in the world will be directed at the uniformed.

Re: How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]

#64

Post by lisper »

TheCowboy wrote: post #56
lisper wrote: post #33

This is not an article, it's a movie with subtitles. (It should have a [video] tag.) And it doesn't address how to survive when money is worthless, it just shows some vignettes from Venezuela that illustrate how hard it is to survive when money is worthless.

It's a hybrid article. Mixed media. Interactive web page. The categorization of movie seems to imply some dismissiveness as well. The article isn't so much an instructional video on how to survive, and could be interpreted as ironic on some level. I don't think the title is beyond critique, but the content addresses how people are surviving by showing people who are surviving, even barely. If people think conditions…

> seems to imply some dismissiveness

Well, yeah, I actually thought it was pretty devoid of content even on its own terms. It spends a significant amount of time showing a barrista making a panda face out of the foam in a latte. It was very pretty, and in a different context I might even have enjoyed watching the craftsmanship, but that was an awful lot of screen time to make the point that coffee gets expensive along with everything else when you have hyperinflation.

Re: How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]

#65

Post by jstewartmobile »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #27
CptFribble wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Trump != capitalism Capitalism is: - freedom to own property - freedom to use or trade property you own - freedom to trade services for property or other services Of course that's not enough to create a viable society. Whatever else you add to the sauce is not capitalism, it's something else.

libertarian edition of "we've never achieved true communism"

Re: How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]

#66

Post by TimTheTinker »

jstewartmobile wrote: post #65
TimTheTinker wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump != capitalism Capitalism is: - freedom to own property - freedom to use or trade property you own - freedom to trade services for property or other services Of course that's not enough to create a viable society. Whatever else you add to the sauce is not capitalism, it's something else.

libertarian edition of "we've never achieved true communism"

True communism is impossible without perfect (i.e. morally incorruptible) people.

People who hate on "capitalism" are often (I think) troubled by the behavior of rich/powerful people. I am too. But the solution isn't to remove property rights.

Re: How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]

#69

Post by russdpale »

tigershark wrote: post #48

Inflation in Venezuela is over 25k%. People are jailed during demonstrations when they are not shot in cold blood. Children are dying of malnutrition. But for everyone on HN the biggest problem is the article format. Utterly and completely unbelievable...

Well I mean honestly I couldn't even watch it. It kept repeating and freezing. Classic case of pushing a browser where it shouldn't go. I don't even see an option for text only.

Re: How to Survive When Money Is Worthless [video]

#70

Post by MichaelHawaii »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #44
ManFromUranus wrote: post #16

[flagged]

> This is what socialism does. No, this is what a power-hungry dictator does. But socialism/communism creates an environment where such leaders can easily take power and thrive. That's why democracy can be so powerful - it often successfully removes the power vacuum that creates dictatorships.

This is a very good explanation, specifically in regard to "creates an environment" although I'd make a few distinctions.

Democracy and dictatorship are systems of government. Capitalism and socialism/communism are economic systems, intertwined with the former political systems.

The formers are normally decentralized and driven by markets, the latters are centralized and driven by a few politicians.

Venezuela has failed because the government consolidated its power over economics which is fundamental to the application of socio-communist policies, which created the ability to monopolize state control in almost every aspect of its citizens life.

The exception here are countries like Singapore. Singapore and other examples illustrate that at the end of the day, the most efficient economic system is the best to have. Centralized control of small countries may work, but applied to larger populations, land mass, and economy, actual humanitarian crises from real dictators (Stalin, Castro, etc) come about.

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