471–480 of 812 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
...and about twice what it was 50 years ago. How have Sweden, Japan, France, etc. managed to keep income inequality around postwar lows while America hasn't?
> How have Sweden, Japan, France, etc. managed to keep income inequality around postwar lows while America hasn't? They didn’t import millions of poor people to do all the dirty or unpleasant jobs in their countries.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
is there any reliable source for that "going to jail in europe for posting memes"? I keep seeing this argument in online arguments, but can not find a credible source
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bMzFDpfDwc https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-43478925 https://www.cheshire.police.uk/news/cheshire/news/articles/2... These things seem abhorrent to Americans who have nearly unlimited free speech protection.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also consider that the US is now threatening direct (even neighboring) allies with military intervention (Canada, Denmark). It is very hard to drain brain which considers the US an enemy country. Meanwhile, China is playing the long game and is building infrastructure projects all over the world, including the EU [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelje%C5%A1ac_Bridge
>Also consider that the US is now threatening direct (even neighboring) allies with military intervention (Canada, Denmark). You have a source for this? I haven't heard of any threat of military intervention for Canada and/or Denmark.
"Trudeau more recently suggested behind closed doors that Trump’s sustained annexation calls may not be just light talk and appear to be “a real thing.”" [1]
"Trump refuses to rule out use of military force to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal" [2]
"US will take Greenland ‘one way or the other,’ Trump says" [3]
[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddy2q2z8dzo
[1] https://apnews.com/article/how-canada-could-become-us-state-...
[2] https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-offshore-drilling-gul...
[3] https://www.politico.eu/article/us-will-take-greenland-one-w...
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> Do you think people in Sweden or Denmark are upset their countries aren't hegemons? Funny that you chose those two countries. Denmark is a founding member of NATO. Sweden is one of the two most recent admitted, almost a year ago. My point is that it's U.S. hegemony that has protected its own democracy and that of liberal democratic Europe to a large extent. Sweden and Denmark haven't been hegemons because they have…
U.S. hegemony has also destroyed and subverted democracies and propped up very illiberal dictatorships. Protecting democracy for white countries only isn't exactly what I think of when I think "world protector of liberal democracy".
And, I'd say protecting democracy for "white countries only" is a simplification. If you're talking about Europe, then we have to consider that the U.S. has also pretty famously fought against European nations and that our subsequent "protection" there was to serve as a bulwark to maintain a world order that benefited the U.S. and democracy.
And, you have to consider that we later "protected" the non-white Japan, Korea, and Vietnam at great cost.
In some of the countries wherein the U.S. could be said to have propped up dictators, there tended to be other geopolitical realities. For instance, many of these were in the Middle East and the U.S. elected to align with the most pliable of the available alternatives. And, in spite of this, the U.S. has also promoted democracy in the region.
You have to also consider the sentiment in many of the countries or regions is/was decidedly anti-American and the choice to support regimes less hostile to U.S. interests is a practical one. Many do not want democracy and the alternative for the U.S. is frequently to topple regimes and attempt to stand up completely new governments (i.e. nation-building). This is an extraordinarily costly endeavor with a high failure rate.
And, all of this in the context of adversarial nations doing the same to promote their own interests.
Again, we're not perfect but the world is a messy place.
This started out interesting but then the red flags started to pop up. Going to jail in Europe for posting memes, gold standard, salivating over doing something that benefits the US and hurts countries that are already poorer than the US. He has strong opinions on economics, but doesn't understand it. His points about economics are partially true but either subtly incorrect or interpreted incorrectly.
is there any reliable source for that "going to jail in europe for posting memes"? I keep seeing this argument in online arguments, but can not find a credible source
https://reason.com/2024/10/17/british-man-convicted-of-crimi...
(An example of something that might be perceived by some as a judicial over-reaction based on perceived offensiveness to others.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two quick thoughts… one, because every transaction in theory happens because the purchasing party values the good or service more than the money, every transaction does — in theory — create wealth, velocity of money is sort of measuring a proxy for growth. But I agree it’s weird. Second, “GDP/watt” is absolutely an economic metric, and it captures something about energy efficiency but also the mix of an economy. Soft…
I don't buy the argument that every transaction in theory creates wealth. The only way that holds true, is by using a subjective/arbitrary meaning of wealth, which would imply, I can become wealthier/poorer by merely changing my mind. In such a case, I can be the wealthiest man in the world, and the poorest 10 minutes later, when no transaction or anything really even happened. Sure mind over matter, but I'd prefer u…
It even infected the tech sector and turned it from something that actually produces value to a casino that bets on 'potential' balloons to profit from bloated, overvalued stocks and valuations. Why produce anything when you can just make gobs of cash by shoveling the infinite amount of free cash that is entering the economy anyway...
All of this was at the cost of the physical goods and services. Now that the dollar has tangible competition, the entire scam is coming crashing down.
This started out interesting but then the red flags started to pop up. Going to jail in Europe for posting memes, gold standard, salivating over doing something that benefits the US and hurts countries that are already poorer than the US. He has strong opinions on economics, but doesn't understand it. His points about economics are partially true but either subtly incorrect or interpreted incorrectly.
is there any reliable source for that "going to jail in europe for posting memes"? I keep seeing this argument in online arguments, but can not find a credible source
From what I hear from acquaintances and social media, the UK is even worse.
This started out interesting but then the red flags started to pop up. Going to jail in Europe for posting memes, gold standard, salivating over doing something that benefits the US and hurts countries that are already poorer than the US. He has strong opinions on economics, but doesn't understand it. His points about economics are partially true but either subtly incorrect or interpreted incorrectly.
It didn't even start out interesting. The main product of the US is weapons not "the dollar". Electricity generation is a metric for what exactly? China's popoulation is rapidly urbanizing. That's all that shows. But the killer is the gold standard. The author seems to be confusing this with fractional reserve banking. Interestingly, they're anti-crypto, which is kinda odd because most gold bugs became crypto bros. C…
> Back the dollar by gold (not socially constructed crypto)
Gold is worth so much in dollars because everyone thinks everyone else also wants it. Sure you can process it for some industrial use, but most of the worth is because "Someone else will also find this worthy").
I have a 100 trillion dollar note (Zimbabwean) in my wallet, is it worth anything? Just the novelty value. Is the $100 (US) note worth anything? Well I can buy $100 worth of groceries, which at the moment is probably 20 cartons of eggs, but the way Musk is doge-ing the nation, it could be only 4 cartons in the near future...
This started out interesting but then the red flags started to pop up. Going to jail in Europe for posting memes, gold standard, salivating over doing something that benefits the US and hurts countries that are already poorer than the US. He has strong opinions on economics, but doesn't understand it. His points about economics are partially true but either subtly incorrect or interpreted incorrectly.
It didn't even start out interesting. The main product of the US is weapons not "the dollar". Electricity generation is a metric for what exactly? China's popoulation is rapidly urbanizing. That's all that shows. But the killer is the gold standard. The author seems to be confusing this with fractional reserve banking. Interestingly, they're anti-crypto, which is kinda odd because most gold bugs became crypto bros. C…
Really? Because the vast majority of "Belt and Road" destinations connect China to raw resources. I'm sure that's just a coincidence. China is making it pretty damn clear that they do not intend to pay for those resources, or at least not in money, especially now that the "Belt and Road" initiative has turned into yet another Chinese money pit so deep it makes Trump look like a great businessman, and on top of that it made China so unpopular it makes it look like Europe loves Trump. And everyone reports another problem: CCP officials, even low level ones, make Trump look like a humble man.
Locals seem to hate the Chinese, and Chinese investments, everywhere the Belt and Road goes, whether it's Pakistani in Balochistan, Greeks in Piraeus, in Madagascar the people pretty much kicked out the government, largely over Chinese presence, China is now negotiating in Australia by openly threatening with warships in Sydney harbor firing live ammunition in the direction of the city and even their military base in Djibouti is not popular, despite being right next to a US, a French and a Japanese military base that ARE popular (despite middle eastern tensions. You know, you'd think the US base would be in the locals' bad graces given the last 2 years. It's not).
If this is supposed to build to a long lasting mutually beneficial trading relationship between China and these countries, they're not off to a great start. Not on the economic aspects, not on the political aspects, not on ...
But frankly, the answer to this weird state of affairs is brutally simple: China has no intention to turn this into a long lasting mutually beneficial trading relationship, and neither do those countries or those peoples.