311–320 of 378 posts
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But where lies the middle ground? Soviets having one sort of butter vs. 20 sorts of butter (yoghurt, drills, ...) many of which were produced abroad? Maybe we can correct (economic) future by simply insourcing some goods and therefore work and forget about the knowledge society boloney?
You'll be called a fascist if you develop this view.
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I think it's a bit harsh to call them xenophobic, but I did have a similar thought recently. What's worse, manufacturing cheap junk for pay, or filling your home with cheap junk?
Maybe it was harsh. However I think it makes the Chinese people look bad, where they aren't really to blame. The CCP keeps labor prices low, and we exploit it, and then we sit here and complain the stuff they make is junk.
When someone says "Chinese junk" you're not really insulting the people IMO. Just the cheap grade disposable crap you can find in corner bazaars. That stuff that breaks after 2 uses.
Like someone else said, in the 80s "made in Taiwan" was a rubbing joke and before that Japan. But it has nothing to do with the people, just the phase their industry is in.
It's like people here in Europe saying American cars are gas guzzlers (which they mostly are compared to EU models). You wouldn't take that personally.
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>Furthermore, talking about the defense of Russian borders is kind of ridiculous in the context of the current attack on Ukraine, where Russia is trying to expand its borders which would otherwise just remain stationary. It's expanding at the points where the Nazi advance almost succeeded in breaking the USSR, where Russia has its only warm water ports and where, long term, NATO, the alliance that destroyed Libya on…
You're no longer talking about defense, but rather trying to justify an offensive war. Those lines on the map are Schelling points that had enabled a great deal of peace. And frankly they were much more defensible through their legitimacy with other nations, than whatever geographic obstacles are hoped to be obtained.
Right, just like the legitimacy of Libyan, Iraqi and Afghan borders conferred all the protection they needed.
Putin was the one who tried to explain to America that it would be better if everybody respected each other's sovereignty in 2003 but in 2003 we decided that this principle can go fuck itself.
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Just did a trip to Loblaws in Toronto yesterday. I disagree. Organic groceries -- sure -- median income people can't really afford it. The traditional, raw items common to the Anglo-Irish diet like potatoes, corn, flour, butter, cabbage, etc are super cheap in Canada. Meat pricing has been super challenging since the pandemic started. Canada don't really have the same kind of agricultural subsidies that the United St…
>"potatoes, corn, flour, butter, ... doritos" Making those your main source is highly unhealthy. It does not matter if it is called "Anglo-Irish". Greens, veggies, decent fruits, meat, fish - through the roof. In Loblaws in particular as I often shop in one. Vine tomatoes - $5 (used to pay $2). Fucking green onions - $2 for pathetic bunch (used to pay $0.5 for a bunch at least 3 times as big). Smaller box of mixed gr…
Potatoes are cheap because we have an industrial supply-chain for potatoes that developed and grew for a hundred years. This is linked to the whole "Anglo-Irish" thing. Potatoes are also cheaper to grow and store.
Greens and fruits are super-perishable and require lots of packaging and protection.
> Making those your main source is highly unhealthy.
I hope nobody is eating green onions as their main source of food. (I am being faceous)
Civilizations have since the dawn of time had some kind of staple cereal crop that provided the majority of the caloric intake. It can be rice, millet, maize, wheat or potato. If you don't use one of these as your main source of calories -- yeah, your grocery bill is going to be expensive in any place and in any time.
For sure -- food price inflation has gotten way more expensive this year and I have no idea how anyone lives in Toronto at the median household income. I think I agree with you, but maybe we have a different way of expressing things.
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A single meal at McDonald's is still pricier. What junk food is cheaper?
What is your point? I've heard that fast food places had become way more expensive. So yes average Jane/Joe would have nothing left after covering basic expenses. Myself I do not go to places like this at all. We either cook at home or on very rare occasions go to some restaurants where I can get some really good food.
I think that this is big distinction between USA/Canada.
Few years into our emigration to USA, my family brought my grandfather over to USA. He was a blue collar worker, electrician at the cement factory, entering that profession right after the war, which he spent under the occupation and mostly I think as a shepherd for cows and pigs in what is now Belarus. He has built several houses in his life and was always incredibly handy with tools. We took him to Home Depot. He l…
Gorbachev's take was "let's think it through and hear all opinions and then decide what should be done about long term future of USSR". Yelsin dropped "let's think it through". Although privatisation of state enterprise by distributing vouchers to all citizens has merit on paper, one must ensure that population is educated about realistic ups and downs of stocks and is given some basic security to make long term rati…
Definitely should have. However, it would have fell into the lap of the US to give the lion’s share and I remain unpersuaded the US had at that time the economic strength to pull that off without putting itself into an existentially compromising posture. Politically I doubt the Russian Federation would have consented to the kind of terms Germany and Japan did for the Marshall Plan and GARIOA respectively.
The Marshall plan was offered to and declined by the USSR, and they declined on behalf of USSR Eastern European satellites, so there were marketing hooks to revive a Marshall Plan. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out informal overtures were made for a similar plan and rebuffed by the Russian Federation; after all NATO membership was briefly and informally broached.
I suspect the Cold War wore out both opponents, and for the US it was a closer call than many admit today. Much like WW2 in the first half of US involvement was a pretty close call that was only admitted much later.
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I have no idea about Bucha. I do know that US media has lied or propagandized numerous aspects of this war — from the origins to the current status. My question was that broader one: How do you know this isn’t like Iraq (where the media lied about reasons) or Afghanistan (where the media lied about status, until the sudden collapse)?
> have no idea about Bucha Maybe start with international accounts of war crimes?
Both sides have presented evidence of war crimes and I already believe that soldiers do brutal things in conflicts.
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It is also xenophobic to believe that Chinese are not able to design junk by themselves. They have a huge internal market and have a lot of reasons to do so. Also, a lot of the junk in question is white label, with pretty much no western engineer or designer involved even when it is sold in the US or Europe. But the bottom line is, it is junk that comes from China, ergo Chinese junk.
Much of the really well made stuff that we buy here in the US also comes from China. They are now quite capable of very high end manufacturing as well.
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> while I don't know about Ukraine intentionally shelling civilians, I can imagine that at least there were civilians killed as a result of Ukrainian fire in that area since 2014 Ukraine has intentionally shelled urban centers for a decade — and you think Russia is wrong to protect ethnic Russians from that? > Russia did not take steps to de-escalate the conflict. There were so many things Russia could have done if i…
So to protect the people of Donbas, Russia fires missiles at Kiev, Kherson, Odessa, Lvov? To protect those people it launches an invasion and calls on the Ukrainian army to overthrow its government? To protect those people it annexes Kherson? To protect those people it tries to decimate the energy infrastructure of Ukraine so that people will freeze in the winter and beg their government to stop fighting? Do you hone…
> To protect those people it tries to decimate the energy infrastructure of Ukraine so that people will freeze in the winter and beg their government to stop fighting?
This is the brutality of war — and why Russia tried to make the Minsk agreements work.
> Do you honestly believe that Putin actually has the best interests of the people of Donbas at heart? Do you really think that's what this is about?
Yes — I believe that a substantial reason for this is what happened in Donbas. Russians are angry at Putin for being weak and allowing this violence against ethnic Russians.
I certainly believe that this is more about protecting Donbas and Russia than the past decade of events has been good faith by NATO — Russia’s story makes sense, while NATO is openly lying by pretending this was an unprovoked attack.
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You didn’t answer:
What specifically should Russia have done when a decade of diplomacy failed?