Why war is coming, in our lifetime • Hacker News Board

Re: Why war is coming, in our lifetime

#31

Post by vixen99 » Wed, Jul 06, 2016, 5:48 PM UTC

Let's take one of the 'signs', taken to be 'Brexit in the UK'. For most people the issue came down to asking that vital political question that has to be considered in any country: who has the power and how can it be removed if the demos so decides?

Brexit concluded (among other issues) that letting 28 un-elected commissioners decide EU law and preventing elected members of the European parliament (MEPs) from initiating new legislation or repealing existing law was not acceptable. As to removal of the governing body, unless I'm mistaken that's not possible. You can only vote for MEPs. Thus, UK citizens opted by a majority for control returned to Britain.

Was nationalistic xenophobia on display? Short answer, no! New research from ICM for British Future finds that 84% of the British public supports letting EU migrants stay – including three-quarters (77%) of Leave voters. Among Conservatives, support for protecting the status of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in Europe is even higher at 85%, with 78% of UKIP supporters in agreement.

Aggrieved peoples within a trans-national entity may not contribute towards a recipe for a peaceable environment.

Re: Why war is coming, in our lifetime

#32

Post by ulrikmoe » Wed, Jul 06, 2016, 6:49 PM UTC

dctoedt wrote: post #30

ulrikmoe wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how the economy works. Without savings/investments you cannot produce goods or services. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule_savings_rate

> Without savings/investments you cannot produce goods or services. Savings \neq investments. It's been said that one reason the U.S. economy hasn't picked up as much as we'd like in the past few years is that gun-shy banks and corporations were sitting cash instead of investing it. In theory the optimal economic policy is one that balances (1) creating incentives for investment against (2) encouraging demand for the…

The US savings rate is still historically low and on a downwards trend. The savings rate is definitely lower than the optimal capital/labour ratio, but economists disagree on how much.

Re: Why war is coming, in our lifetime

#33

Post by exelius » Wed, Jul 06, 2016, 7:57 PM UTC

natrius wrote: post #25

exelius wrote: post #13

War is coming, but military power is also more asymmetric than ever. The US fared relatively poorly in the skirmish-like proxy wars of the last 50 years, but that's a different type of warfare than another world war would be. The goals aren't to win and hold territory, the goals are to create a stable environment. All the opponent has to do is create chaos with guerrilla warfare and the US loses. When you're talking…

You're thinking about the old kind of war. If China wanted the US to suffer, they'd just create versions of ISIS for each minority group—persuasive ideologies that present violence as the only option—and watch as the country tears itself apart.

The article is making the point that the proxy wars we've seen are peanuts compared to "real" war. What you're describing is a proxy war situation; which is the current status quo.

The future probably looks a lot more like Russia's takeover of Crimea (say, China decides its military is big enough to take over Taiwan). Until eventually one of the big powers decides that enough is enough and it becomes a shooting war. That's how both world wars started and how the next one will likely start as well.

Re: Why war is coming, in our lifetime

#34

Post by lintiness » Wed, Jul 06, 2016, 9:07 PM UTC

SteveNuts wrote: post #14

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #2

The end has been nigh nigh on forever.

Yup. I'm honestly sick of it. Everyone I talk to seems to think "the country has gone to shit" or another world war is just around the corner. Maybe I just don't see how bad things are from my little bubble, but the people I hear it from seem to be doing fine. My guess is it's caused by consuming too much media, watching CNN or Fox News for too long seems to put fear into people.

>My guess is it's caused by consuming too much media, watching CNN or Fox News for too long seems to put fear into people

bingo!