Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Party is over for dirt-cheap solar panels, says China executive

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 100 posts

Re: Party is over for dirt-cheap solar panels, says China executive

#61

Post by politician »

throwaway-oid wrote: post #59
ChuckMcM wrote: post #3

Always over until it starts again. Note that the party is over (in this case) because it is threatening smaller businesses, not because there is a lack of capacity or that the "big guys" couldn't still make money at the reduced rate. In every industry where I have been aware of this this situation coming up (voluntary reduction in production in order to shore up prices), it works for a while and then people "cheat" a…

> The Chinese are notoriously fierce in their desire to make a buck... I wonder, if we replaced "Chinese" with "Jews", if this comment would be so easily thrown around on HN.

It's customary to assume the most positive interpretation of the author's comment; otherwise things tend to degenerate into a flame war.

Re: Party is over for dirt-cheap solar panels, says China executive

#62

Post by gurumeditations »

throwaway-oid wrote: post #59
ChuckMcM wrote: post #3

Always over until it starts again. Note that the party is over (in this case) because it is threatening smaller businesses, not because there is a lack of capacity or that the "big guys" couldn't still make money at the reduced rate. In every industry where I have been aware of this this situation coming up (voluntary reduction in production in order to shore up prices), it works for a while and then people "cheat" a…

> The Chinese are notoriously fierce in their desire to make a buck... I wonder, if we replaced "Chinese" with "Jews", if this comment would be so easily thrown around on HN.

Wow, you have no shame nor sense.

Re: Party is over for dirt-cheap solar panels, says China executive

#64

Post by [deleted] »

tzs wrote: post #38
adventured wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The earth doesn't care, so to speak, about whether it's per capita or not, it only cares about the total global output. The consequence of having 1.4 billion people in your society, is that you don't get to pollute at the rate of a nation with one million people that outputs 10x more pollution per capita. Is that unfair? No. I don't think per capita equality of pollution is the most important factor in this. As a soc…

> The consequence of having 1.4 billion people in your society, is that you don't get to pollute at the rate of a nation with one million people that outputs 10x more pollution per capita. So if China were to split up into a whole bunch of separate countries, it would be acceptable for each of those countries to have a higher per capita pollution rate than is acceptable for current China? As you noted, the Earth does…

[deleted]

Re: Party is over for dirt-cheap solar panels, says China executive

#65

Post by sigmaprimus »

tzs wrote: post #38
adventured wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The earth doesn't care, so to speak, about whether it's per capita or not, it only cares about the total global output. The consequence of having 1.4 billion people in your society, is that you don't get to pollute at the rate of a nation with one million people that outputs 10x more pollution per capita. Is that unfair? No. I don't think per capita equality of pollution is the most important factor in this. As a soc…

> The consequence of having 1.4 billion people in your society, is that you don't get to pollute at the rate of a nation with one million people that outputs 10x more pollution per capita. So if China were to split up into a whole bunch of separate countries, it would be acceptable for each of those countries to have a higher per capita pollution rate than is acceptable for current China? As you noted, the Earth does…

Good argument, maybe it should be based on the area of land controlled by each nation? Population density or Tons of CO2 produced per square mile? The problem with per capita policy is it encourages over population which makes the problem worse.

Re: Party is over for dirt-cheap solar panels, says China executive

#66

Post by manmal »

gurumeditations wrote: post #62
throwaway-oid wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Chinese are notoriously fierce in their desire to make a buck... I wonder, if we replaced "Chinese" with "Jews", if this comment would be so easily thrown around on HN.

Wow, you have no shame nor sense.

No, GP is right, I would feel attacked by this if I were Chinese. Hanlon‘s razor though.

Re: Party is over for dirt-cheap solar panels, says China executive

#68

Post by devwastaken »

throwaway-oid wrote: post #59
ChuckMcM wrote: post #3

Always over until it starts again. Note that the party is over (in this case) because it is threatening smaller businesses, not because there is a lack of capacity or that the "big guys" couldn't still make money at the reduced rate. In every industry where I have been aware of this this situation coming up (voluntary reduction in production in order to shore up prices), it works for a while and then people "cheat" a…

> The Chinese are notoriously fierce in their desire to make a buck... I wonder, if we replaced "Chinese" with "Jews", if this comment would be so easily thrown around on HN.

'the jews' doesn't refer to anything specific, and has a history of psuedo science referring to it as a lesser 'race'. 'china' is almost always referenced for their manufacturing business, and it would be dishonest to leave out the reality that Chinese industrialization is very fierce to make a buck.

Even if we were referring to the people of China, in China, there is a significant problem that money is King and morals be damned in the process. Not all, but an overwhelming trend is dishonest to ignore, if not morally wrong.

Re: Party is over for dirt-cheap solar panels, says China executive

#69

Post by atq2119 »

sigmaprimus wrote: post #65
tzs wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The consequence of having 1.4 billion people in your society, is that you don't get to pollute at the rate of a nation with one million people that outputs 10x more pollution per capita. So if China were to split up into a whole bunch of separate countries, it would be acceptable for each of those countries to have a higher per capita pollution rate than is acceptable for current China? As you noted, the Earth does…

Good argument, maybe it should be based on the area of land controlled by each nation? Population density or Tons of CO2 produced per square mile? The problem with per capita policy is it encourages over population which makes the problem worse.

On the other hand, focusing on controlled area of land seems like a good way to encourage wars over territory. I don't think there's an easy answer.

Re: Party is over for dirt-cheap solar panels, says China executive

#70

Post by ChuckMcM »

politician wrote: post #61
throwaway-oid wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Chinese are notoriously fierce in their desire to make a buck... I wonder, if we replaced "Chinese" with "Jews", if this comment would be so easily thrown around on HN.

It's customary to assume the most positive interpretation of the author's comment; otherwise things tend to degenerate into a flame war.

Its a fair point. I should have specifically said that the manufacturers are particularly competitive, some more than others, and that competitive quality leads to cheating. That all the big sellers of solar panels in the market are Chinese is not relevant to the point and so I should have left it off.
Post reply on HN