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ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

english.martinvarsavsky.net

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Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#111

Post by vacri »

spindritf wrote: post #58
vacri wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gross world product is about 72 trillion dollars. Alabama's share of that is 0.2%. In order to 'come close to Alabama', a historical power would have to be close to 0.2% of the world's GDP at the time. And I don't think any of the ones in that list went that low.

0,2% of the world's GDP in 2012 is a good measure for a comparison of Alabama to other modern countries in 2012, not a comparison of Alamaba 2012 to Rome 12 AD. That's like saying that the last person on Forbes 500 is not really rich because they barely have 0.05% ($3 billion / $6 trillion) of the group's net worth.

Wealth is a relative measure, not an absolute one.

"That's like saying that the last person (blah)"

No, because relative to other people, they have more stuff. The proportion they have of the group's net worth is significant greater than almost all other members, who have generally have five or more orders of magnitude less wealth (0.0000005% and less).

The reason why you're having trouble converting from countries to individuals is because there's currently only 200 countries, but 7 billion individuals. That's why the individual's percentage looks lower.

Also, your comparison makes absolutely no allowance for inflation. GDP rises for everyone over time simply due to inflation. Your shekel could purchase more in the time of Herod than it could in the time of Netanyahu. Zimbabwe's GDP went through the roof in recent years in their own dollars; but it didn't as a comparison to the rest of the world's output.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#112

Post by alaskamiller »

mgirdley wrote: post #110
replicatorblog wrote: post #76

This has very little to do with national moods/prejudices and much more to do with boring/atypical industries vs. hot consumer ones. ONO got no attention largely because it's "boring" to a mass audience. There are plenty of examples of this domestically, e.g. + Child focused ecommerce company Zulily filed a $2.6B IPO, but got very little attention. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6740927 I'd also note that there…

Notice the pattern of blindness: If something ain't happening in one of big tech hubs (SF, NYC), it's invisible to the media.

Seems like you're still not quite getting this. News happen because the community around it want it to happen, because news is a signal to be broadcasted only if there's a medium in which to broadcast. It's one big circlejerk. I can't do bizdev with some company far away.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#113

Post by vacri »

genofon wrote: post #83
jessaustin wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many disagree with this proposition because it does not convey the meaning you apparently intend. "Most powerful" might conceivably be a relative measure, but there's no way that "richest" is. Most nations of Europe (probably not Moldova, Slovenia, and a few others), on both a total and per capita basis, consume much more than anyone on that list. In a military contest most modern European nations would by more co…

as technology improves and time pass seems obvious that mankind is richer and have better military than the past. You can probably say that nowadays Slovenia could win against 1600 Spanish empire, so the only comparison that is reasonable a relative comparison, that's why I didn't specify. I agree that it wasn't the main point of the post i was replying to but I found that point just smug and incorrect, backed-up wit…

Of course it's relative. Power is about asserting your will, and inherent in that is having someone to assert it over. Saying that a modern country could beat a historical one in a war is silly.

It is interesting to note that in the 60 years that the US has been the ascendent world power, they've withdrawn from all sizeable wars with objectives unmet. If you're using actual active warfare as the yardstick, then the US is not powerful at all on comparison to historical powers. If you're using sensible measurements of power, then of course the US is powerful, most of it from projection of force and cultural/soft power.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#114

Post by vacri »

ivanca wrote: post #18
spindritf wrote: post #3

If you primarily rely on sources of information in English (of which I'm guilty, too) then obviously you will be mostly getting information from the Anglosphere dominated by the US because it's, oh you know, richest and most powerful country in the history of the world. This is not some "Americans cover their successes" thing. It's that they matter more. There is an underlying economic reality in which we are lagging…

>Anglosphere dominated by the US because it's Is because is perceived as such, regardless if it's true or not. Because under measures such as the GDP is far from the top[0] [0] http://travel.fyicenter.com/Country/List_of_Countries_by_GDP...

The Anglosphere is dominated by the US because it is dominated by the US. US population is 300M. UK is 60M. Canada 30, Aus 20, Ireland 6, NZ 4.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#115

Post by the_cat_kittles »

replicatorblog wrote: post #76

This has very little to do with national moods/prejudices and much more to do with boring/atypical industries vs. hot consumer ones. ONO got no attention largely because it's "boring" to a mass audience. There are plenty of examples of this domestically, e.g. + Child focused ecommerce company Zulily filed a $2.6B IPO, but got very little attention. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6740927 I'd also note that there…

nice comment- how do you stay apprised of these in light of the media bias towards the "sexy", are there any websites, youtube channels or blogs that are good for this kind of information? thanks!

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#116

Post by colevscode »

mjburgess wrote: post #69
bogs_carut wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post contains a lot of loaded rhetoric. Are you implying that the sort of people who assume the degree of risk required to build a financially-successful business (specifically of the "home-run" magnitude implied by a multi-billion-dollar acquisition, IPO, etc) are merely "self-aggrandizing money-chasers?" Companies of that scale sometimes have the ability to improve society. There's also the potential for abuse…

> Are you implying that the sort of people who assume the degree .... are merely "self-aggrandizing money-chasers?" Yes. That's very often the mentality, however you'd like to dress it up. There's a distinction between small-businesses that arent pre-occupied with growth and "success" and those which are. Sure, if you have your own bakery/etc. then you're probably doing that because youre interested in the craft of b…

First, thanks for your refreshing perspective. I agree that the focus on wealth and growth isn't going to help us create interesting things as a society. However I do think there's a craft to building a business that can stand along side the craft of baking or the pursuit of art.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#118

Post by colevscode »

mjburgess wrote: post #82
melvinram wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The American Dream", self-motivation, entrepreneurship and "pushing the frontier" are all good things IMHO. However, they aren't the same as "unreflectingly capitalistic" and "pre-occupied with monetary success". I'm not going to address the rest of your America bashing because the response requires a nuanced answer that I don't have the time to write today. I'll leave that to others.

> However, they aren't the same as "unreflectingly capitalistic" and "pre-occupied with monetary success". They have become inextricably linked. Maybe early in the 19th C. you'd be right. After the rise of american industry and maufacture and its corresponding propaganda (edison, etc.) AND after the cold war, "capitalism", "democracy", "patriotism" all became intertwined. Such that today The American Dream is almost…

I don't think it's a two way link. That a pre-occupation with monetary success implies self motivation and entrepreneurship doesn't mean that the reverse is also true.

Also I think it's OK that the American Dream is about individual economic mobility. But I don't think it's about the individual, rather it's about the idea that any individual can achieve their dream. Or perhaps that there aren't a set of people who can and others who cannot.

Whether or not American politics have been faithful to the American Dream is a separate discussion.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#119

Post by sliverstorm »

mkr-hn wrote: post #106
sliverstorm wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly he means expressions, e.g. idioms and that sort of thing. It's time to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu Quick, without using Google tell me what I mean.

> Clearly he means I wouldn't have posted if a different interpretation were clear.

Ni Hao is not an expression any more than Hello is.

Expression: a word or phrase, esp. an idiomatic one, used to convey an idea.

Re: ONO sells for $9.5 billion and nobody cares

#120

Post by wooter »

jdietrich wrote: post #105
melvinram wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bullshit. What is crass is the perspective that Americans are unreflectingly capitalistic and pre-occupied with monetary success. Most business owners I know started their business because they saw a need for something and they wanted to deliver what was needed. Financial success is important because it allows their organization to continue functioning but it's hardly the top motivator for business owners I've spoken…

The most generous American employers barely meet the minimum legal requirements in Europe. Americans tolerate conditions of employment that would be utterly unthinkable to most western Europeans. EU workers are entitled to a minimum of four weeks paid holiday. The EU requires 20 weeks of paid maternity leave, mandates a maximum working week of 48 hours for most employees and enshrines a great deal of protection again…

> The most generous American employers barely meet the minimum legal requirements in Europe. Americans tolerate conditions of employment that would be utterly unthinkable to most western Europeans.

Yea, googlers live like shit. Oh and work visas for Europe aren't in huge demand and don't run out early every single time. Also, we don't have dramatically more immigrants from Europe than visa-versa. OH OH and italy, spain, and greece don't have a huge unemployment problem - all those riots are celebratory of that fact.

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