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Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

mrsteinberg.com

11–20 of 328 posts

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#11
post #2

In 2018, I got connected to 5 refugees who escaped North Korea to the USA. What surprised me was all 5 were able to escape by different variations of saving up enough money to bribe people along the way. The only way to save up money for their ages (16-23) was to become "entrepreneurial" EDIT: If you are interested in North Korea, check out the stories by some friends of mine: Charles - North Korean refugee turned pr…

Back in the 80s when I was a scientist in the old USSR's Academy of Science we've had few Koreans in our lab. I think they were studying in the Universities and later had somehow managed not to return to Korea.

They were all insanely nice.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#12
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems universal to authoritarian states where corruption is the only viable strategy to get ahead. Unfortunately, it also seems to consistently produce an entrenched, corrupt power class that persists long after the regime is overthrown. See also the former Soviet Bloc.

Quoted post unavailable.

Erm, no? That's unnecessarily reductionist. "Can compel you to pay taxes" is not the same as "authoritarian". Go ahead, criticize the President online in the United States. Notice how you weren't jailed or executed? Now try something similar in an authoritarian nation.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#13
post #11
post #2

In 2018, I got connected to 5 refugees who escaped North Korea to the USA. What surprised me was all 5 were able to escape by different variations of saving up enough money to bribe people along the way. The only way to save up money for their ages (16-23) was to become "entrepreneurial" EDIT: If you are interested in North Korea, check out the stories by some friends of mine: Charles - North Korean refugee turned pr…

Back in the 80s when I was a scientist in the old USSR's Academy of Science we've had few Koreans in our lab. I think they were studying in the Universities and later had somehow managed not to return to Korea. They were all insanely nice.

Did they prefer USSR to DPRK?

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#14
Really interesting article!

On a related note, one oddity I often see online (and, once, in person) are the die-hard groups of westerners who insist that North Korea is actually a paradise on earth and any claim to the contrary is some kind of evil capitalist propaganda. Utterly baffling, when there are so many sources like this article indicating otherwise.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#15
> Be careful where you store your money. One of his puppies (obviously Sam kept several for himself) ended up digging up one of his stockpiles and started eating his money.

I imagine this isn't a common problem, even for North Korean startups, but was funny to read nevertheless.

Interestingly, there's a whole generation of startups that help startups store their free cash better than normal bank accounts in the US nowadays. The markets!

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the 80s when I was a scientist in the old USSR's Academy of Science we've had few Koreans in our lab. I think they were studying in the Universities and later had somehow managed not to return to Korea. They were all insanely nice.

Did they prefer USSR to DPRK?

Seemingly, right?

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#17
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the 80s when I was a scientist in the old USSR's Academy of Science we've had few Koreans in our lab. I think they were studying in the Universities and later had somehow managed not to return to Korea. They were all insanely nice.

Did they prefer USSR to DPRK?

Trying to imply they were the same? Make a wild guess. While not a shining citadel of freedom USSR in the 80s was infinitely better than North Korea. Their words, not mine.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#18

Really interesting article! On a related note, one oddity I often see online (and, once, in person) are the die-hard groups of westerners who insist that North Korea is actually a paradise on earth and any claim to the contrary is some kind of evil capitalist propaganda. Utterly baffling, when there are so many sources like this article indicating otherwise.

I've seen this too. Their mantra is usually something along the lines of "don't believe everything you see in the corrupt Western/South Korean media".

What gives?

I can understand different countries have different pros and cons, different people value different things, and something an American might find unpalatable might not be considered so bad somewhere else.

But North Korea seems to stand out as being one of very few countries that has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Odd that anyone who wasn't born there would willingly and voluntarily pledge their allegiance to such a regime.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#19
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Erm, no? That's unnecessarily reductionist. "Can compel you to pay taxes" is not the same as "authoritarian". Go ahead, criticize the President online in the United States. Notice how you weren't jailed or executed? Now try something similar in an authoritarian nation.

Laws are enforced through use of force or literally denying freedom of movement, or by threatening to do the above to subjects who do not obey.

It’s a spectrum. How violent are the reprisals, how lethal, how indiscriminate. How egregious are the prison terms, how outsized are the fines and fees. But all governments are inherently authoritarian, unless they allow subjects to instead choose punishment by exile instead of strongarm tactics. I’m not aware of any that do. Mostly because there’s nowhere to be exiled to. All governments have claimed all of the available land, so you can’t even choose exile independently. Societies vary on the freedoms they allow; all governmental bodies are by nature authoritarian. If no one were to submit to them, nations would have no standing to declare binding authority over members of the public. Governments are systems of control, and that control is allegedly by consent of the governed. However, if one is never given a reasonable alternative or opportunity to object, they are not free. They are only as free as their society allows them to be. This one-sided state of affairs makes freely-given consent to be governed impossible.

I am open to being convinced otherwise, though. We’re freer than we’ve ever been, but we’ve only changed the window dressing. We’re still beholden to government representatives that themselves have multiple competing interests. Full direct democracy with vote delegation for those who want it is a start. Proportional representation instead of first past the post elections would also be necessary.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#20

Really interesting article! On a related note, one oddity I often see online (and, once, in person) are the die-hard groups of westerners who insist that North Korea is actually a paradise on earth and any claim to the contrary is some kind of evil capitalist propaganda. Utterly baffling, when there are so many sources like this article indicating otherwise.

I've seen this too. Their mantra is usually something along the lines of "don't believe everything you see in the corrupt Western/South Korean media". What gives? I can understand different countries have different pros and cons, different people value different things, and something an American might find unpalatable might not be considered so bad somewhere else. But North Korea seems to stand out as being one of ve…

My guess is that most of the people who profess to believe that everything in the DPRK is hunky dory are on the extreme political left. The right does not have a monopoly on crazy people.
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