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The Glass Famine

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Re: The Glass Famine

#31

Post by Mainan_Tagonist »

oblio wrote: post #23
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> despite heavy state intervention in the economy Arguably because of state intervention in the economy. They give generous cash subsidies across various industrial sectors -- and as "investors" they have a remarkably light touch! Their standard modus operandi is to subsidize a number of competing ventures per sector (which number could be somewhere in the dozens or hundreds) and have competition take care of the res…

> Arguably because of state intervention in the economy. More than that. It's the closest thing we have to a successful economic experiment replicated multiple times in real life. It's the Japanese model. Meiji Japan, post-WW2 Japan. South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China more or less followed the same pattern.

On the topic of economic development, David Landes is worth reading, both the Unbound Prometheus and The Wealth and Poverty of Nations provide a solid understanding of the reasons behind the development of Western Europe over the past 500 years.

The 5 Dragons (Taiwan, South Korea, HK, Singapore, Japan) followed pretty much the same recipes that made Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland industrial powerhouses in their days.

Re: The Glass Famine

#32

Post by mrguyorama »

williamdclt wrote: post #22
cestith wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK wasn’t on the metric system during the first world war. https://ukma.org.uk/press/metrication-timeline/

still isn't for most purposes, and most people are still more comfortable with yards than meters for day-to-day stuff (friends are often looking at me blankly when I give a distance in meters)

IMO metric is missing a critical measurement that is roughly the size of "a foot".

Most measurements in one measuring system have very similar equivalents in other measuring systems or useful approximations, like a pound being 1/2 a kilo, a liter being about a quart, or a meter being about a yard. Even various ancient chinese measurements can be similar like this.

Except the metric system seems to have eschewn the common measurement of "About the length of a human foot". It confuses me.

What do you call a footlong submarine sandwich in the metric system? A third-meter-long? A decimeter-long? It wouldn't fit into the power-of-ten based system.

Re: The Glass Famine

#33

Post by cjs_ac »

> The picture above is a clue. In the 18th and then 19th century there was a sequence of taxes on glass. Most famous of all is the window tax of the 18th century which, in fairness, wasn’t primarily a tax on glass. It was mostly a tax on housing (the more windows, the more you paid - hence why people bricked in windows).

Eighteenth century Britain levied a great many consumption taxes on things that were disproportionately bought by the wealthy. These were the taxes that the Boston Tea Party rebelled against.

> Here’s a chart I dug out of the UK National Archives while researching Material World. It shows you optical glass supplies to the UK. And look: the standout thing is how quickly UK domestic production rose.

> The UK didn’t need German glass by the time that deal was done because it was producing plenty by then, and output was rising fast. UK factories had swung into action. They turned around the deficit so quickly that by the end of the war they were producing more than they needed - enough to supply their allies.

> The glass famine, in other words, was followed by the glass feast.

> (the other thing to note is what happened AFTER this chart: having rebuilt its glass industry, the UK allowed it to waste away again. By the post-WWII period it was back in the doldrums. Most of the optical producers shut down. It was a short-lived feast).

There's a strange pattern of Britain performing best when it's least prepared. I think this ties in well with the observation that the British establishment is unconcerned with 'theory' and wholly concerned with practical matters, which I first read in The Sloane Ranger's Handbook. Compare also the discourse surrounding the US Bill of Rights to that surrounding the English Bill of Rights, which includes pretty much the same rights (including the right to bear arms).

Re: The Glass Famine

#34

Post by BoxOfRain »

RugnirViking wrote: post #25
williamdclt wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

still isn't for most purposes, and most people are still more comfortable with yards than meters for day-to-day stuff (friends are often looking at me blankly when I give a distance in meters)

> most people are still more comfortable with yards than meters I feel this is highly context dependant, too. Hanging out with a rural group of people born in the 80s? yards. Anyone in a city and/or born after 1990 is probably more comfortable with meters

When I was a student one of my mates was going on about the superiority of the metric system and how he wished the UK would adopt it fully rather than the heterogenous mix we actually have. The football was on in the background, and shortly after a goal was scored he exclaimed 'that must have been from thirty yards!' Personally I quite like the fact we use both, it underlines that our human systems of measurement are arbitrary rather than baked into the fabric of reality.

I'm too old to be a zoomer and too young to be a millennial, but I'm more or less bilingual with unit systems. Useful for a European who deals with the US often!

Re: The Glass Famine

#35

Post by ninalanyon »

mrguyorama wrote: post #32
williamdclt wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

still isn't for most purposes, and most people are still more comfortable with yards than meters for day-to-day stuff (friends are often looking at me blankly when I give a distance in meters)

IMO metric is missing a critical measurement that is roughly the size of "a foot". Most measurements in one measuring system have very similar equivalents in other measuring systems or useful approximations, like a pound being 1/2 a kilo, a liter being about a quart, or a meter being about a yard. Even various ancient chinese measurements can be similar like this. Except the metric system seems to have eschewn the co…

In the UK 300 mm is, or at least used to be, referred to as a metric foot.

Re: The Glass Famine

#36

Post by polotics »

This gives me sickening vibes of the "War is a racket" take.

Both side's agreeing to enable each other's massacre of their own country's downtrodden young masses, while all sorts of profiteering going on at the back no doubt.

Re: The Glass Famine

#37

Post by petesergeant »

It's annoying that Trump squandered a political opportunity to help America reindustrialize key areas. He had political support to use protectionism and general Trumpiness that could have enacted some useful onshoring reforms, and instead ended up setting illegal tariffs on the Heard Island and McDonald islands.

Re: The Glass Famine

#38

Post by BigTTYGothGF »

abirch wrote: post #8
paleotrope wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably obvious to say, but I think a nation's most important resource is people. And if you can just order them around and kill the dissenters and not care about what individuals want, then you can achieve quite a bit, be it industrialization or war or agricultural surplus.

I'm not saying that the economy or markets are everything; however, if you don't have dissidents you don't as much friction. If China wants to move your mother's grave for a factory, there's not a lot you can do. Whereas in democracies you can try to draw it out with legal action, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London

Re: The Glass Famine

#39

Post by CDRdude »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #34
RugnirViking wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> most people are still more comfortable with yards than meters I feel this is highly context dependant, too. Hanging out with a rural group of people born in the 80s? yards. Anyone in a city and/or born after 1990 is probably more comfortable with meters

When I was a student one of my mates was going on about the superiority of the metric system and how he wished the UK would adopt it fully rather than the heterogenous mix we actually have. The football was on in the background, and shortly after a goal was scored he exclaimed 'that must have been from thirty yards!' Personally I quite like the fact we use both, it underlines that our human systems of measurement are…

I find it mildly amusing that fully metric countries are seemingly stuck with some standardized measurements based on imperial units. Like how a soccer/football goal is 8 feet x 24 feet / 7.32 m x 2.44 m. Or how a standard shipping conatiner is 40 feet x 8 feet x 8 feet 6 inches/ 12.192 m x 2.438 m x 2.591 m. Or standard gague railways being 4 feet 8.5 inches / 1.435 m.

Re: The Glass Famine

#40

Post by kamma4434 »

mrguyorama wrote: post #32
williamdclt wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

still isn't for most purposes, and most people are still more comfortable with yards than meters for day-to-day stuff (friends are often looking at me blankly when I give a distance in meters)

IMO metric is missing a critical measurement that is roughly the size of "a foot". Most measurements in one measuring system have very similar equivalents in other measuring systems or useful approximations, like a pound being 1/2 a kilo, a liter being about a quart, or a meter being about a yard. Even various ancient chinese measurements can be similar like this. Except the metric system seems to have eschewn the co…

I lived all of my life in metric countries and I never felt that was missing. One foot is 30cm, two is half a meter, three one meter.
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