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

Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

mrsteinberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 328 posts

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#211

Post by perl4ever »

mrtksn wrote: post #171
perl4ever wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You paint a good picture of Cuba, but what is life as a jaded resident of The City like?

I would definitely not want to live under that regime. Cubans are generally happy people with good lives but they lack the opportunities for higher ambitions. Corrupt, planned economy is not something to be excited for nor is the being the lowest class in a “classless” society. They are also missing out about the world outside of their borders due to the restrictions on their communications. It’s just that the wester…

Yes, but since I have never been to London, I am curious about this western consumerist lifestyle.

You're being coy, in not describing the things you find so tiresome.

Before Brexit, I worked for a company that opened a branch near London, in order to access the European market. I didn't make it my overriding goal to go there, but I probably could've, and a co-worker went there and subsequently got married and stayed.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#212

Post by ModernMech »

ModernMech wrote: post #156
fallingknife wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But all of that is allowed under our current capitalist system, so then you have to answer the question of why steel mills have owners. Why is it that to have a "workers collective" or whatever, seems to require heavy handed government intervention to prevent competition with privately owned businesses which seem to just spring up and thrive all on their own.

> Why is it that to have a "workers collective" or whatever, seems to require heavy handed government intervention to prevent competition with privately owned businesses which seem to just spring up and thrive all on their own. Let's investigate this claim a little bit. First of all, when I think about heavy handed government intervention, I think about the use of lethal force. Labor history in the United States is r…

Sorry forgot the last reference and missed the edit window:

[5] https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/940196997/amazon-reportedly-h...

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#213

Post by germandiago »

opportune wrote: post #179
germandiago wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The corollary to random consumer goods being in constant shortages is that other things are much more “affordable” than they’d be in a market economy. No way for their wealth, to begin with, and why you should choose how people choose? They are animals? Everything that is cheaper than its possible price is literally being paid by someone, with their labour or by others. Free things, literally, do not exist. And thi…

Lots of things in the US are subsidized too. We still have taxes that pay for “free” things like using public roads. I am just describing the structure of the Cuban economy where market forces are less involved in how many of something gets produced for consumption. I don’t think it’s great either because it leads to food shortages. Just pointing out (having been to Cuba myself) they aren’t in abject poverty and in s…

The market is the will of people. Any alternative thing is going to be more incorrectly adapted to the demand from people.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#214

Post by bernawil »

sudosysgen wrote: post #87
lisper wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never met a DPRK supporter, but I have met Cuba supporters. They were white, non-Cuban, and leaning so far left I was surprised they could remain upright. (And I'm pretty far left myself by contemporary U.S. standards.)

There are massive amounts of Cuba supporters outside of the Western world. From our point of view Cuba sucks, but for a lot of people the basic guarantees that Cuba gives and the lifestyle is actually not so bad at all. Their government also isn't much more corrupt than in the rest of the world. I'm sure that, unsurprisingly, if you live in a majority white country, most Cuban supporters would be white and left-leani…

> If you were a Cuban that supported the Cuban regime and were happy, why would you leave, taking on so much risk and expense?

I met a Cuban like that. Simply put, to make more money. He knew the nuances of their system and was thankful for the good parts and the opportunities he had, but at the end of the day knew that for him individually it was more convenient to leave when he had the chance. It's just something that doesn't work for everybody by necessity.

I think he had a relative abroad that sponsored some sort of student visa, and he just never went back.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#215

Post by germandiago »

lucian1900 wrote: post #195
pc86 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No. The reason is the regime they have. More than anything else.

How better? No economic data here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_American_and_Car.... I can say there were riots last July due to a lack of medicines and food.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#216

Post by pessimizer »

e-clinton wrote: post #182
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?

What makes you think it’d be any different if the embargo were lifted?

What makes you think that the US would blockade Cuba if it would have no effect?

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#217

Post by ncmncm »

perl4ever wrote: post #188
malermeister wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cuba gives free healthcare to its people and runs the largest medical school in the world [1] for free, with the explicit purpose of training foreign doctors so they can help their underprivileged communities. Meanwhile, in the US, the richest country in the world, people are dying because they can't afford life-saving insulin. [2] Life expectancy is higher in Cuba than the US! [3] It's not all black and white. Every…

>Every country does good things and bad things. You just choose to ignore the bad things one country does and solely focus on them for another one. I agree. Comparing two countries in an unbiased way is very difficult. >people are dying because they can't afford life-saving insulin If I develop type 2 diabetes, do you think my life expectancy would be longer in Cuba? Who can I trust for relevant statistics and inform…

If you develop type-2 diabetes, you may be able to cure it by not eating any sugar for a few weeks. And, keep it off after, if you never eat sugar except with enough fiber. I.e., apples ok, donuts & froot loops not. That is good advice for all of us: there is never a good reason to give yourself type-2 diabetes.

For many people, cinnamon is a good temporary treatment for type-2 diabetes. But some people have a bad reaction to enough cinnamon, so start light.

Type 1 diabetes is much bigger trouble: you need to inject insulin, because your pancreas is damaged, probably forever.

Probably few Cubans have type-2 diabetes. It is a 1st-world problem; another name is Processed Food disease.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#218

Post by malermeister »

perl4ever wrote: post #188
malermeister wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cuba gives free healthcare to its people and runs the largest medical school in the world [1] for free, with the explicit purpose of training foreign doctors so they can help their underprivileged communities. Meanwhile, in the US, the richest country in the world, people are dying because they can't afford life-saving insulin. [2] Life expectancy is higher in Cuba than the US! [3] It's not all black and white. Every…

>Every country does good things and bad things. You just choose to ignore the bad things one country does and solely focus on them for another one. I agree. Comparing two countries in an unbiased way is very difficult. >people are dying because they can't afford life-saving insulin If I develop type 2 diabetes, do you think my life expectancy would be longer in Cuba? Who can I trust for relevant statistics and inform…

> If I develop type 2 diabetes, do you think my life expectancy would be longer in Cuba?

I think that depends on your socioeconomic class and your insurance in the US. I'd say for the median citizen, life expectancy in Cuba with diabetes is probably higher as insulin cost isn't an issue and they do very frequent health check-ins that would be prohibitively expensive for a lot of Americans.

But seeing how you post on HN, chances are you have better healthcare available to you than the median American...

Then again, it seems like Cuba has some pretty cool homegrown diabetes treatments available: https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/Let-s-open-the-d...

> Who can I trust for relevant statistics and information?

That's a good question and I don't have a good answer. Consensus internationally seems to be that the Cuban healthcare system is legit, but I must admit i haven't dug all that deep.

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#219

Post by scollet »

germandiago wrote: post #187
malermeister wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you do not have basic notions of economy and what you just said is just propaganda. There's no two kinds of humans - from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. The doctors will get free healthcare too, if they need it. Trying to put market value on medical care is inhumane and prioritizes an economic system over human life. I'm not sure why you're talking about rich people here, but b…

I will explain to you again, I have researched this topic deeply and for a long time. "will get free healthcare too". In order to get healthcare, someone provides it. 1. if a doctor spends time to provide free healthcare because a regime says they must, they are exploited. This is one option. 2. if a doctor does it and is paid, someone has to pay that bill for the doctor. If the doctor is free for you, someone else i…

"Free" as in "my neighbor has an apple tree".

Re: Tips to grow your North Korean Startup

#220

Post by solveit »

throwaway2331 wrote: post #203
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…

How is this any different from the U.S., except the level of material available is slightly greater?

Who's the last government official you had to bribe?
Post reply on HN