Tips to grow your North Korean Startup • Hacker News Board

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#191

Post by wahnfrieden » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:46 AM UTC

germandiago wrote: post #137

perl4ever wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote a comment and then thought "I should really look up where the term consumerism comes from". Because I didn't know and maybe I should. I spent half my life unaware of the origin of "capitalism". In the early 20th century, "consumerism" was supposedly used to mean something like "consumer protection". But in the mid 20th century, it was apparently adopted as a preferred term to "capitalism" in order to contrast…

BTW, some misconception here that I see so often: capitalism is not consuming a lot or too wildly. In fact, capitalism is not possible without saving, literally. In order to raise our lives level there were previous savings that were reinvested in process improvement, which eventually kept raising our life standards. Capitalism is exactly about that: same product at better price or higher quality products. We humans…

capitalism is as much about wealth accumulation via rent seeking behaviors

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#192

Post by germandiago » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:48 AM UTC

malermeister wrote: post #168

germandiago wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Argentina is almost socialist in taxing terms. And 21 million of people are subsidized. I do not see a capitalist system subsidizing 21 million people. That is not capitalism. Call it something else.

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Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#193

Post by remolacha » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:52 AM UTC

cmmeur01 wrote: post #150

germandiago wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what you are describing is part of the misery they are condemned to by the regime. They cannot trade normally, everything is treated as trafficking and the hihger layer has privileges, control and are corrupted and live from spoiling the rest. You want to do something by yourself? Brive me, because it is illegal or you will have trouble. And anyway, if I want, you can have trouble any day, because you did somethi…

Crazy what a blockade by the worlds largest economy 90 miles away for decades can do huh?

The US doesn’t block other countries from trading with Cuba. Only the US itself doesn’t trade with Cuba. Embargo, not blockade.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#194

Post by aspenmayer » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:57 AM UTC

germandiago wrote: post #148

the_af wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A list of socialist or communist governments now: > [...] Argentina [...] No. Source: I live in Argentina and it's neither socialist nor communist. It's currently center-left capitalist. Our immediately preceding government was center-right capitalist. In the 70s we had far-right capitalist military dictatorship (Chicago boys influenced economy wise, School of the Americas trained).

Argentina is almost socialist in taxing terms. And 21 million of people are subsidized. I do not see a capitalist system subsidizing 21 million people. That is not capitalism. Call it something else.

How many people in USA receive food stamps or Medicare due to low income while being part or full time employees?

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#195

Post by lucian1900 » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:59 AM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #109

darkwater wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed to clarify that tourists use pesos convertibles which are artificially tied 1:1 to USD (1USD, 1 convertible) and that are basically what casas and taxi drivers accept. But you can totally go to local restaurants as a tourist (we did it a few times during our 3 weeks stay). And yeah, it can be sad to see how people lives there, and many try to flee but as you said makes you think about the real, deep impact…

Serious question, not trying to start a debate. How does abject poverty in an openly communist country make you think about the "deep impact of consumerism?"

Cuba is under an almost complete blockade, that’s why it’s poor. And despite this blockade, it’s doing better than many other central and South American countries that are capitalist.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#196

Post by aspenmayer » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 2:04 AM UTC

chernevik wrote: post #111

jonway wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't necessarily disagree with your comment overall but there are a lot of problems with your list and your methodology. 1: Why isn't france or china on the former or currently socialist list? There are many others. 2: Consider the volatility and violent turmoil, war, genocide, atrocities from those former and present countries from the timeperiod of german unification under bismarck (somewhat arbitrarily chosen d…

(Really responding to beepbottheory's comment, to which I cannot reply) The downvoting around here is just weird. I thought downvotes were supposed to indicate comments that were against forum rules or just unhelpful; _maybe_ offtopic? But people seem to downvote stuff they just don't like, regardless of how intelligent it might be. It's sad, and it's deteriorating HN.

> (Really responding to beepbottheory's comment, to which I cannot reply)

When that happens, click the timestamp of the comment you wish to reply to to go to that comment’s page, which has a reply box in my experience.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#197

Post by scythe » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 2:07 AM UTC

lobocinza wrote: post #121

camdat wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the quotes around doctor? Cuba has some of the best health outcomes in the LatAm (and arguably the world), it seems like their doctors are of a higher quality than most.

Accordingly to Cuban government or reliable sources?

The user you replied to posted such a source just a few comments down:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29831757

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#198

Post by malermeister » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 2:27 AM UTC

remolacha wrote: post #193

cmmeur01 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crazy what a blockade by the worlds largest economy 90 miles away for decades can do huh?

The US doesn’t block other countries from trading with Cuba. Only the US itself doesn’t trade with Cuba. Embargo, not blockade.

It also bans ships that anchored in Cuba from anchoring in the US. Who's gonna choose lil Cuba over the US right next door?

Blockade seems appropriate.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#199

Post by the_af » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 2:42 AM UTC

germandiago wrote: post #192

malermeister wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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If the only capitalist in Argentina you know is Milei (far right, self-proclaimed "libertarian", worked under a known criminal of our military dictatorship) then you're out of touch.

Really, consider how you're shifting the goalposts: you only consider far right libertarians as capitalists. The rest of the world disagrees with you.

Anyway, I live in Argentina and you don't. You are wrong.

> That is not capitalism. Call it something else.

No. You must use definitions of capitalism compatible with the current consensus. Otherwise you're playing the same game you keep accusing leftists of, "that's not true capitalism, I mean something else!".

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#200

Post by mcculley » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 2:45 AM UTC

remolacha wrote: post #193

cmmeur01 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crazy what a blockade by the worlds largest economy 90 miles away for decades can do huh?

The US doesn’t block other countries from trading with Cuba. Only the US itself doesn’t trade with Cuba. Embargo, not blockade.

The U.S. does prevent trade with other countries.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_...

“In 1999, President Bill Clinton expanded the trade embargo by also disallowing foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to trade with Cuba.“

“The United States has threatened to stop financial aid to other countries if they trade non-food items with Cuba.”

I was there in the brief time when U.S. citizens were permitted by the U.S. government to visit on cruises. During my stay, I was constantly reminded that I was disallowed to spend money there on unsanctioned activities.