281–290 of 316 posts
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Have you ever read about people burning piles of German currency because it was better than using it to buy firewood with? Not to say we would get there, but allowing inflation to run is not kinder.
Have you ever tried to start a fire with a bunch of paper? It doesn't work great, and what a mess.
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I think these days folks typically use Zimbabwe or Argentina as examples.
Those are more recent examples, but I think Germany is still a more visceral example for a lot of Western nations because Germany was a high tech, educated industrial nation that was hit with such massive problems from government policy. It's closer to home. Other countries are (wrongfully) easier to dismiss as being just too different from our wealthy and enlightened selves.
Tariffs are great. They protect the struggling domestic IT industry and gives it time to ramp up its production of vintage computer parts.
And herein lies the rub: It's been like this in many countries for the longest time. In Thailand, say, you receive an order from abroad, the post office sends you a slip and you have to pay the assessed duties to receive the package. It often ends up feeing arbitrary; some stuff comes through, others get assessed at a higher value and you have to show receipts and convince them that no, this isn't that expensive of a…
As an American, I always smirk when people in the US say that gas is expensive.
And people in US drive much more. I spend 50€ per month on gasoline for 1.5L SUV for example.
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I think these days folks typically use Zimbabwe or Argentina as examples.
Those are more recent examples, but I think Germany is still a more visceral example for a lot of Western nations because Germany was a high tech, educated industrial nation that was hit with such massive problems from government policy. It's closer to home. Other countries are (wrongfully) easier to dismiss as being just too different from our wealthy and enlightened selves.
A point. Economists like people to believe that hyper inflation lead to Hitler. When it was austerity policies at the start of the great depression 10 years later that lead to the Nazi's winning in 33. Same austerity policies in the US lead to FDR and the Democrats winning.
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> Americans are responsible for an insane amount of pollution So does Canada. > far more per capita than any other people in the history of the world Not even remotely close to true. Aside from that it's down 20% from it's peak 40 (!) years ago. > much of which is tied to how easy/cheap it is to order shit we don't need. The data does not support this conclusion. > pretty bad if ya care about the next generation. Spe…
> Speaking of trends.. care to guess which country has doubled it's pollution in the last 10 years? I really don’t. I genuinely have no idea and I have zero interest in guessing. Just say it and stop wasting everyone’s time.
I didn't waste your time. I posed a question. Your options were to ignore it, answer it, or complain about it. You've decided to complain and thus have maximally wasted your own time.
The point was, perhaps instead of saying things that are absurd, one should look at the graphed data to draw conclusions. I didn't /want/ you to guess, I wanted you to just go look. Or probably just admit to what you almost certainly could have guessed or already know is true.
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> Americans are responsible for an insane amount of pollution So does Canada. > far more per capita than any other people in the history of the world Not even remotely close to true. Aside from that it's down 20% from it's peak 40 (!) years ago. > much of which is tied to how easy/cheap it is to order shit we don't need. The data does not support this conclusion. > pretty bad if ya care about the next generation. Spe…
> > Americans are responsible for an insane amount of pollution > So does Canada. it's not as good of a comeback as you think it is...
This forum loves to invent negative facts to justify it's default misanthropic positions. I find this pathetic.
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I stopped buying vintage cameras from Japan on eBay. Well, there's always the next administration…
I'm sure JD Vance administration will be more vintage-camera-friendly.
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I think these days folks typically use Zimbabwe or Argentina as examples.
Those are more recent examples, but I think Germany is still a more visceral example for a lot of Western nations because Germany was a high tech, educated industrial nation that was hit with such massive problems from government policy. It's closer to home. Other countries are (wrongfully) easier to dismiss as being just too different from our wealthy and enlightened selves.
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> Speaking of trends.. care to guess which country has doubled it's pollution in the last 10 years? I really don’t. I genuinely have no idea and I have zero interest in guessing. Just say it and stop wasting everyone’s time.
> Just say it and stop wasting everyone’s time. I didn't waste your time. I posed a question. Your options were to ignore it, answer it, or complain about it. You've decided to complain and thus have maximally wasted your own time. The point was, perhaps instead of saying things that are absurd, one should look at the graphed data to draw conclusions. I didn't /want/ you to guess, I wanted you to just go look. Or pro…
So you don’t know what country doubled their pollution in the last 10 years? Was that a genuine question?
> The point was, perhaps instead of saying things that are absurd, one should look at the graphed data to draw conclusions.
What graph? What are you even talking about?
> Or probably just admit to what you almost certainly could have guessed or already know is true.
As I already said I genuinely don’t know. I could find sources for any answer if I interpret the question appropriately. As you posed the question any answer could be correct. Is it China? The United States? A developing African nation? Who knows! You brought it up. It’s on you to answer.
To those of us with more than a passing interest these details matter a lot. I don’t have the energy or desire to go back to first principles on this with you.