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The biggest adversary of the United States is the United States. Those factories migrated to the US South, then to Mexico, then to China. Not because of some c

The biggest adversary of the United States is the United States. Those factories migrated to the US South, then to Mexico, then to China. Not because of some conspiracy, but because we run our institutions based on quarterly financials. I worked a long time ago on an effort to sue a large manufacturer whose supply chain was shipping counterfeit parts to certain customers. The Chinese partners ran a third shift with no QC and stuffed these parts into the distribution chain. They also stole defective parts and did the same thing. Everyone knew this was happening. But everyone was making money, so nobody gave a shit. With respect to politics, well yeah, they are the other great power now. It’s in their interest to buffer themselves from whatever they perceive as a threat. The US is no babe in the woods here - our war plan from the 1950s onward was to attack China with nuclear weapons if the Soviets rolled into East Berlin - just in case. The Chinese can’t compete with the US with air or sea power, so they seek to control their sphere of influence in other ways, and slowly build in preparation for the US decline in power.

jongjong 3y ago
I agree. The US (and other western countries) have let themselves fall victim to all sorts of corrupt ideologies; this has created short term 'limited liability' reward structures which have encouraged a short term mindset. Instead of focusing on fixing internal issues, the US decided to run their economy on the misery of others by starting wars in faraway lands, manipulating foreign governments, saddling them with debts to create artificial demand for USD to export inflation, then they monopolized 'the internet' with their own government-anointed big tech monopolies. Zero focus on creating real, profitable, value-adding businesses. Zero ethics. China won this round fair and square... The smartest thing the west can do from now on is dump fiat currencies, switch to crypto and leave China holding the paper, but the longer the west fails to acknowledge that China beat it at its own game, the further it will fall.
- ethbr0 3y ago
  > then [the US and other western countries] monopolized 'the internet' with their own government-anointed unprofitable big tech monopolies How did the government anoint Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Facebook?
- jacquesm 3y ago
  > The smartest thing the west can do from now on is dump fiat currencies, switch to crypto Seriously? WTF?
  - ImHereToVote 3y ago
    Wait a minute, you don't want to make jongjong's speculative crypto investments bear fruit so that he can retire in the Caribbean?
    - dikei 3y ago
      I mean he's gotta be an excellent mental gynmast to speak about real, profitable, value-adding businesses and crypto in the same post.
  - jongjong 3y ago
    Radical, but the alternative is to honor all the currency paper China now holds. As someone who had no say over any of this, I don't see why I should play this game if I must join the losing side.
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      > Radical, but the alternative is to honor all the currency paper China now holds. As if China is the only country that holds US paper. This sort of idea is what could very well start WWIII.
      - jongjong 3y ago
        That's why it's a good idea to live outside any major capital city.
  - mensetmanusman 3y ago
    Crypto isn't possible with todays tech, because it's an ever increasing bug bounty program that's super slow and has no undo button for fraud (which the elderly are extremely susceptible to).
htss2013 3y ago
The problem with the quarterly profit motive is that it's not voluntary for the US electorate. If Americans could vote on their preferred time intervals to manage towards, they wouldn't pick quarterly. Quarterly screws the overwhelming majority of people who care about the future.But it's not up for discussion, debate or the political process. It's similar to US foreign military aid. Nothing anyone says or does will change it. Whoever or whatever controls it is beyond the reach of the political process, at least the part that 99% of people can participate in. People treat quarterly myopia like an emergent phenomenon, like it's some kind of maximum that the country naturally converged upon. Except there's nothing natural about it, and it only benefits a small number of unaccountable people.

jongjong 3y ago

I agree. The US (and other western countries) have let themselves fall victim to all sorts of corrupt ideologies; this has created short term 'limited liability' reward structures which have encouraged a short term mindset. Instead of focusing on fixing internal issues, the US decided to run their economy on the misery of others by starting wars in faraway lands, manipulating foreign governments, saddling them with debts to create artificial demand for USD to export inflation, then they monopolized 'the internet' with their own government-anointed big tech monopolies. Zero focus on creating real, profitable, value-adding businesses. Zero ethics. China won this round fair and square... The smartest thing the west can do from now on is dump fiat currencies, switch to crypto and leave China holding the paper, but the longer the west fails to acknowledge that China beat it at its own game, the further it will fall.

ethbr0 3y ago
> then [the US and other western countries] monopolized 'the internet' with their own government-anointed unprofitable big tech monopolies How did the government anoint Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Facebook?
jacquesm 3y ago
> The smartest thing the west can do from now on is dump fiat currencies, switch to crypto Seriously? WTF?
- ImHereToVote 3y ago
  Wait a minute, you don't want to make jongjong's speculative crypto investments bear fruit so that he can retire in the Caribbean?
  - dikei 3y ago
    I mean he's gotta be an excellent mental gynmast to speak about real, profitable, value-adding businesses and crypto in the same post.
- jongjong 3y ago
  Radical, but the alternative is to honor all the currency paper China now holds. As someone who had no say over any of this, I don't see why I should play this game if I must join the losing side.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    > Radical, but the alternative is to honor all the currency paper China now holds. As if China is the only country that holds US paper. This sort of idea is what could very well start WWIII.
    - jongjong 3y ago
      That's why it's a good idea to live outside any major capital city.
- mensetmanusman 3y ago
  Crypto isn't possible with todays tech, because it's an ever increasing bug bounty program that's super slow and has no undo button for fraud (which the elderly are extremely susceptible to).

htss2013 3y ago

The problem with the quarterly profit motive is that it's not voluntary for the US electorate. If Americans could vote on their preferred time intervals to manage towards, they wouldn't pick quarterly. Quarterly screws the overwhelming majority of people who care about the future.But it's not up for discussion, debate or the political process. It's similar to US foreign military aid. Nothing anyone says or does will change it. Whoever or whatever controls it is beyond the reach of the political process, at least the part that 99% of people can participate in. People treat quarterly myopia like an emergent phenomenon, like it's some kind of maximum that the country naturally converged upon. Except there's nothing natural about it, and it only benefits a small number of unaccountable people.