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Jack Ma: US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

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Re: Jack Ma: US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

#131

Post by mcculley »

Mizza wrote: post #115
mcculley wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not convinced that lack of unchecked eminent domain power is the only thing keeping the United States from building modern infrastructure.

I've been on the train that OP is talking about. It's only possible because they built it through the slums, which are essentially in medieval conditions. The train terminates in the region where the people had enough political/actual capital to object to it going through their neighborhood. But it is very, very fast.

I’m not disputing that other communities benefit from unchecked eminent domain power. I see lots of other problems in the United States more fundamental than land acquisition.

Re: Jack Ma: US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

#133

Post by Aunche »

cpursley wrote: post #32
fit2rule wrote: post #10

Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost, murdered by America's war machine in its lust for total military domination of its so-called enemies. Its not enough that Americans' finally come to grip with the terms of their own scam. The American people must confront the crimes against humanity that their state has committed, time and again. With such human destitution in its midst, as well as at t…

Yeah, it's not that black and white. Despite a pretty spastic and often misguided foreign policy, the US human rights record is much much better than other large political entities (i.e, USSR, China, etc).

> the US human rights record is much much better than other large political entities

While the US treats its own residents better, their human record rights abroad is much worse. If China started the war in Iraq instead, all news outlets would have called it as genocide. The US basically toppled a ruler of a stable country, gave the "good side" a bunch of guns, and told them that anyone who opposes them is evil. Inevitably, the two sides fight and kill each other as well as hundreds of thousands of civilians. The US just feigns surprise and shrugs their shoulders.

While this may be an unfair summary of the war in Iraq, this is about as much nuance as American news outlets give to Russia's war in Ukraine or China's treatment of Uyghurs.

Re: Jack Ma: US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

#134

Post by lacksconfidence »

baby wrote: post #101
Varcht wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helps to have millions of workers willing to work for pennies a day as well. edit: I guess that is redundant under unchecked eminent domain power.

you mean waiters in the US?

Do you live in the us? It's only anecdata but I made about $40/hr in college waiting tables. It's not a bad job.

Re: Jack Ma: US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

#135

Post by etrautmann »

m_fayer wrote: post #127
achou wrote: post #116

Folks, realize that US military spending: - backstops the US dollar as the world's reserve currency, which allows the US to have a large deficit with low risk to its economic system, which basically means the US can ship paper to other countries and they will send real stuff back to us in return. Let's not kid ourselves, this has a lot to do with the US' large military and financial advantage. - makes opportunistic a…

Thinking that this spending is ok based on your reasons amounts to a tacit acceptance of a huge amount of dishonesty, I find it quite cynical. This is a totally ass-backwards way to do stimulus and domestic investing, with the upside that it lets you do stimulus and domestic investing while pretending you're not doing it, but doing something macho and patriotic instead. This is a way to maintain US economic and diplo…

There are multiple points in the parent's post. While I agree that the idea of unnecessary military spending is noxious, the impact of safe global shipping and the unmeasurable deterrent effects for global stability may still be important. It's not clear to me how we measure and assess the value of this vs. hypothetical and more desirable alternatives.

Re: Jack Ma: US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

#136

Post by dsfyu404ed »

celim307 wrote: post #55
donaldknuth123 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh it went to private hands. Hands that owned stock in Halliburton, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin etc...

Dick Cheney is a traitor and has exploited the American people, and murdered countless Iraqi and Afghan lives for personal gain.

And a really dangerous person to go hunting with.

George W Bush had exceptionally terrible taste when it came to his cabinet.

Re: Jack Ma: US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

#137

Post by SamReidHughes »

alexashka wrote: post #33

If you view USA as heavily influenced by corporate interests - waging wars to further global corporate empires seems like a good deal all of a sudden. Education? Infrastructure? Corporations don't benefit from that. Ruining countries and installing 'democracy' to ensure billion dollar contracts? Great business. While most of the world still thinks in nationalistic terms - our country vs theirs, folks who run corporat…

Our education system is the most funded in the world, and corporations build infrastructure and other corporations benefit from it.

Re: Jack Ma: US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

#138

Post by aphextron »

marnett wrote: post #126
achou wrote: post #116

Folks, realize that US military spending: - backstops the US dollar as the world's reserve currency, which allows the US to have a large deficit with low risk to its economic system, which basically means the US can ship paper to other countries and they will send real stuff back to us in return. Let's not kid ourselves, this has a lot to do with the US' large military and financial advantage. - makes opportunistic a…

Sure we can all acknowledge those are all deeply complex and intertwined facts about the U.S. and its military strategy and spending. Foreign policy, both diplomatic and militaristic, are also not democratic - I think some people just want to call out "the worlds exemplar of democracy" spending the largest portion of its budget on undemocratic means. We The People want to see something more meaningful domestically fr…

>We The People want to see something more meaningful domestically from our tax dollars and public debts - if the elite know better, then drop the facades.

I think this is what people don't get about US military spending. From the moment you wake up every single day you are directly benefiting from it as an American. The fact that you, as a normal middle class person, are able to step out of your brand new house purchased with a no money down 30 year mortgage, step into a brand new car you don't own that's financed at 2%, drive to a brand new shiny shopping mall, and buy brand new fancy $200 t-shirts at the shopping mall on your no-limit 0% credit card is because of the fiat-reserve currency system setup by the US fed, and defended by the military.

Re: Jack Ma: US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

#139

Post by m_fayer »

etrautmann wrote: post #135
m_fayer wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking that this spending is ok based on your reasons amounts to a tacit acceptance of a huge amount of dishonesty, I find it quite cynical. This is a totally ass-backwards way to do stimulus and domestic investing, with the upside that it lets you do stimulus and domestic investing while pretending you're not doing it, but doing something macho and patriotic instead. This is a way to maintain US economic and diplo…

There are multiple points in the parent's post. While I agree that the idea of unnecessary military spending is noxious, the impact of safe global shipping and the unmeasurable deterrent effects for global stability may still be important. It's not clear to me how we measure and assess the value of this vs. hypothetical and more desirable alternatives.

If we weren't maintaining safe global shipping and other elements of global stability on the sly and with a self-serving twist, maybe the vacuum would have caused the global community to come together to achieve the same ends, in a more transparent and less lopsided and brutal (one can only hope) way.

Re: Jack Ma: US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

#140

Post by taobility »

floren wrote: post #66
snow_mac wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a crap response. I went to Shanghai about 3 summers ago right when Denver was finishing up the "A Line" train from Downtown to the Airport. This project cost over a billion dollars and the damn thing can't run smoothly or stay operational. Tons of issues. Meanwhile we took the Maglev train from the Pudong Airport to the Shanghai City Center. The Maglev cost $1.2 billion dollars [1]. The train can travel up to…

Remember when they crashed a high speed train and buried all the evidence the next day? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenzhou_train_collision

you remind me of this incident as a joke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Washington_train_derailme...
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