Well, that’s kind of unfair, given that everyone was sideswiped by COVID. I don’t think anything would have helped that.
Oh sure, my point is just that maybe global integration for vital supplies might not be the best arrangement, especially in the world we are approaching.
Yeah I can’t help worrying about the potentially catastrophic complications.
Global capitalism has extracted maximum profit and efficiency out of many businesses. And sure, I LOVE my amazing pocket computer and tech. But also, it’s clear that the extreme efficiency which keeps prices relatively low has also come at the expense of resiliency, self-sufficiency, fair labor practices and wages, etc etc.
Are those safe trade-offs in a world made increasingly unstable by climate change, growing tolatiariansim, and all the other woes we are facing?
ShivaX
2819
Don’t worry the government will happily accept the risk on their behalf.
And if common folk have to do without baby food or cars, well, they should’ve sent more bribes.
Quite possibly true. The alternatives though are few, as it is neither practical nor in some cases feasible to produce necessary components domestically. And you can’t stockpile things that change all the time, or you will end up with warehouses full of obsolete chips and what not.
The solution seems to be fully automated systems from extraction to production to distribution, but we’re not quite there yet. Thankfully :); as @dgallina and @ShivaX note, the current system is hardly equitable, fair, or healthy but we are addicted to it.
schurem
2821
Ahaha qt3, never change. I love it.
Come for discussion of the mightiest army ever conceived, stay for the necessary downfall of global capitalism.
I’m with ya. But on the other hand, if you’re going to go deep on the US military, ignoring global capitalism would be a huge blind spot.
One could argue that the main reason for the American military’s capability lies in the American political economy. Our people are not demonstrably “better” than any other people, we are not smarter, stronger, braver, etc. than other people. And sorry, true believers, we don’t actually have any divine dispensation or holy mandate. No, what we have is a culture that embraces the sort of large-scale management, logistics, and flexibility demanded of modern corporate capitalism, coupled with technology derived from same.
Timex
2824
For a long time, America was the place where people went when they wanted to make a better life for themselves and pursue a dream. I think that may have attracted some of the best the world had to offer.
If they were coming here during the last approximately 40 years or so the joke’s on them.
schurem
2826
The Brits may have invented it, but you guys sure picked up that ball and ran with it. I agree that the military might is a direct adjunct to the economic might. It is in service of it, a result of it, and in a very real sense a driver of it. Without the aircraft carriers, it would be all too easy to call on one of those trillion dollar debts.
Me, totally missing how aircraft carriers stop that. Or even what that is, really.
No doubt many good people came here. It’s just hubris though to think that some how our population is inherently better than any other. Nutrition, health, education (all, to an extent, and at various times) have definitely played a role. But in general, I think one nation’s population is much like another’s, when you correct for material conditions, etc.
I’m guessing @schurem is hinting at the USA’s foreign debt to places like China? I think it’s more of a metaphor than a real thing–our power means we can get away with stuff smaller nations cannot?
Dejin
2830
Where exactly do you suggest they go instead?
Europe hasn’t exactly been inviting to non-white people. Although kudos to Merkel for her getting Germany to open up their doors. Anyone have an update on the German situation, is it still going on or was it a one time thing? How is it going overall?
In Asia, Japan is, from what I understand it, very unfriendly to non-Japanese ethnic permanent immigration, although at one point they explicitly opened the door for Japanese ethnic immigration largely targeting long-time Japanese communities in South America. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that Korea is similar. Not sure about Taiwan, but that’s kind of jumping from the frying pan into the fire, with China making noises about invading.
So what’s left? What are the immigration policies for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand like?
That is a conundrum. I’m merely observing if you’re coming to the US for the America dream that ship sailed awhile ago.
schurem
2832
Me being a flippant asshole mostly.
Oh no, wait, no that. That’s what I meant. Yeah. A metaphor man.
Flippancy aside, the power of the dollar is backed by real tangible power that is not to be fucked with. There’s no way your investments in Kuwaiti dinars are going to go poof because some asshole decided to drive a bunch of BTRs into their central bank. Not with the dollar. Not even if y’all decide to put the stupid rednecks in power again.
The problem is that if the stupid rednecks get put in charge this election. We no longer may have an actual say as to who is put in charge in the future. Still even MAGA Trumpist would take a decade to destroy our military. Just hope Europeans are up to the task of protecting the world from China and Russia.
abrandt
2834
Fareed Zakaria covered this just today. In some rankings of immigration friendliness the US has regressed while other countries(many of them European) have improved, to the point that the US was ranked something like #8 overall.
Now, I think there are lots of intangibles that the US still has over those countries for the actual assimilation experience, but at least government policy in the US got much more unfriendly under Trump and hasn’t really gotten much better again with Biden.
He did also call out Canada and New Zealand by name as countries similarly built with a strong immigrant culture much like the US and as countries where you can get a green card equivalent far more easily than in the US these days.
Matt_W
2835
Most of that debt is only redeemable on a schedule. And even if they do redeem it, they end up with a bunch of dollars that they can only spend on US goods.
