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This is all so surreal to me as a non-economist. The playground analogy here is like you gave your money to some kid, "Rusty" in the playground to buy a sandwi

This is all so surreal to me as a non-economist. The playground analogy here is like you gave your money to some kid, "Rusty" in the playground to buy a sandwich yesterday. Rusty buys a sandwich, and next day they come to pay you back. They in fact do pay you back by leaving some money on your desk. But then, before you've had a chance to put them in your pocket, some kid "Amanda" who fancies herself the class president (even though no-one voted for her), grabs the money from the desk and says "man, it sucks that Rusty didn't just pay you; what an ass, eh? We'll just put this in the 'class fund' for now". Meanwhile Rusty is like, hey I paid my debt the minute I put your money on your desk, so, sucks to be you I guess. Yes, I get the part where Rusty was really mean to Ursula this morning, and that Amanda (who had been pretending to be Ursula's friend to get back at Rusty for a while now, and was what prompted Rusty's tantrum in the first place) made this edict about anyone giving Rusty sandwich money should not expect to get it back. And I get the part that it doesn't really matter if I gave the money yesterday, before all this started. Tough luck, I'm involved now. I also get the part where I'd be reluctant to buy Rusty another sandwich if it meant Amanda would keep grabbing my money (though, in all honesty, I wouldn't trust my money with Amanda now either, given the whole "class fund" shenanigans), but ... seriously, that can't be the whole story, can it? Is the main story here really that we are all schoolchildren in dire need of a headmaster?

nocturnial 4y ago
I think you're confused because you heard a lot of different goals of the sanctions. For me, the sanctions aren't about stopping the current war, but about stopping future wars. In your analogy... Rusty doesn't know how to make a baseball bat. We supplied rusty with baseball bats because we thought he would use it to play baseball games. Instead he used it to threaten his class mates. We took that supply of baseball bats away from him because we can and don't want him to threaten Suzy like he did with Ursula. It doesn't matter to me what Rusty wants to trade to get those bats. I don't supply bats or anything that can be traded to bats to Rusty in order to protect Suzy and I'll give Ursula whatever she needs to protect herself. Sincerely, Amanda
- tpoacher 4y ago
  This is all fine and dandy, and I'm sure everyone means well, but it still doesn't explain why I'm the one left without money, or why I'm expected to be blaming "Rusty" instead of "Amanda" who actually took the money he left me. It's more like "Dear George, thank you for donating this money to our cause that I'm sure you agree with or else. Sincerely Amanda." Not sure how I'd feel about that, regardless of how I feel about Ursula, Suzy, Natalie, Faye, Denise, Izzie, Romina, Molly, Trudy, or any of the girls in my class.
  - nocturnial 4y ago
    If you're talking about inflation, we had a multi-year pandemic in which the western governments gave aid to struggling businesses, inoculated their population for free, supply chains were severaly disrupted, etc... The war in Ukraine didn't cause the inflation (I think), although I admit it probably made it worse. I think it was the other way around. The prospect of inflation caused the war in Ukraine. Russia thought with all the challenges we would face, we wouldn't react to an invasion in Ukraine. I'm not an expert in macro economics, so do you think there wouldn't be an inflation if Russia didn't invade Ukraine?

nocturnial 4y ago

I think you're confused because you heard a lot of different goals of the sanctions. For me, the sanctions aren't about stopping the current war, but about stopping future wars. In your analogy... Rusty doesn't know how to make a baseball bat. We supplied rusty with baseball bats because we thought he would use it to play baseball games. Instead he used it to threaten his class mates. We took that supply of baseball bats away from him because we can and don't want him to threaten Suzy like he did with Ursula. It doesn't matter to me what Rusty wants to trade to get those bats. I don't supply bats or anything that can be traded to bats to Rusty in order to protect Suzy and I'll give Ursula whatever she needs to protect herself. Sincerely, Amanda

tpoacher 4y ago
This is all fine and dandy, and I'm sure everyone means well, but it still doesn't explain why I'm the one left without money, or why I'm expected to be blaming "Rusty" instead of "Amanda" who actually took the money he left me. It's more like "Dear George, thank you for donating this money to our cause that I'm sure you agree with or else. Sincerely Amanda." Not sure how I'd feel about that, regardless of how I feel about Ursula, Suzy, Natalie, Faye, Denise, Izzie, Romina, Molly, Trudy, or any of the girls in my class.
- nocturnial 4y ago
  If you're talking about inflation, we had a multi-year pandemic in which the western governments gave aid to struggling businesses, inoculated their population for free, supply chains were severaly disrupted, etc... The war in Ukraine didn't cause the inflation (I think), although I admit it probably made it worse. I think it was the other way around. The prospect of inflation caused the war in Ukraine. Russia thought with all the challenges we would face, we wouldn't react to an invasion in Ukraine. I'm not an expert in macro economics, so do you think there wouldn't be an inflation if Russia didn't invade Ukraine?