44 ms·

It depends who's in charge of the nation though, you can have people planning for the long term well being of their population, or people planning for the next

by lm28469 11mo ago

It depends who's in charge of the nation though, you can have people planning for the long term well being of their population, or people planning for the next election cycle and making sure they amass as much power and money in the meantime. That's the difference between planning nuclear reactors that will be built after your term, and used after your death, vs selling your national industries to foreigners, your ports to china, &c. to make a quick buck and insure a comfy retirement plan for you and your family.

andsoitis 11mo ago
> That's the difference between planning nuclear reactors that will be built after your term, and used after your death, vs selling your national industries to foreigners Are you saying that in western liberal democracies politicians have been selling “national industries to foreigners”? What does that mean?
- lm28469 11mo ago
  Stuff like that: https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1796887086647431277 https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1796887086647431277 https://www.dw.com/en/greece-in-the-port-of-piraeus-china-is-the-boss/a-63581221 https://www.dw.com/en/greece-in-the-port-of-piraeus-china-is... https://www.arabnews.com/node/1819036/business-economy https://www.arabnews.com/node/1819036/business-economy Step 1: move all your factories abroad for short term gains Step 2: sell all your shit to foreigners for short term gains Step 3: profit ?
- pjc50 11mo ago
  That's a fairly literal description of how privatization worked, yes. That's why British Steel is owned by Tata and the remains of British Leyland ended up with BMW. British nuclear reactors are operated by Electricite de France, and some of the trains are run by Dutch and German operators. It sounds bad, but you can also not-misleadingly say "we took industries that were costing the taxpayer money and sold them for hard currency and foreign investment". The problem is the ongoing subsidy.
  - andsoitis 11mo ago
    > That's why British Steel is owned by Tata British Steel is legally owned by Jingye, but the UK government has taken operational control in 2025. > the remains of British Leyland ended up with BMW The whole of BL represented less than 40% of the UK car market, at the height of BL. So the portion that was sold to BMW represents a much smaller amount smaller share of the UK car market. I would not consider that “the UK politicians selling an industry to foreigners”. At the risk of changing topics/moving goalposts, I don’t know that your examples of European govts or companies owning or operating businesses or large parts of an industry in another European country is in thr spirit of the European Union. Isn’t the whole idea to break down barriers where the collective population of Europe benefit?
    - pjc50 11mo ago
      It's no use pedanting me or indeed anyone else; that's the sort of thing people mean when they use that phrase.

by lm28469 11mo ago

andsoitis 11mo ago

> That's the difference between planning nuclear reactors that will be built after your term, and used after your death, vs selling your national industries to foreigners Are you saying that in western liberal democracies politicians have been selling “national industries to foreigners”? What does that mean?

lm28469 11mo ago
Stuff like that: https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1796887086647431277 https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1796887086647431277 https://www.dw.com/en/greece-in-the-port-of-piraeus-china-is-the-boss/a-63581221 https://www.dw.com/en/greece-in-the-port-of-piraeus-china-is... https://www.arabnews.com/node/1819036/business-economy https://www.arabnews.com/node/1819036/business-economy Step 1: move all your factories abroad for short term gains Step 2: sell all your shit to foreigners for short term gains Step 3: profit ?
pjc50 11mo ago
That's a fairly literal description of how privatization worked, yes. That's why British Steel is owned by Tata and the remains of British Leyland ended up with BMW. British nuclear reactors are operated by Electricite de France, and some of the trains are run by Dutch and German operators. It sounds bad, but you can also not-misleadingly say "we took industries that were costing the taxpayer money and sold them for hard currency and foreign investment". The problem is the ongoing subsidy.
- andsoitis 11mo ago
  > That's why British Steel is owned by Tata British Steel is legally owned by Jingye, but the UK government has taken operational control in 2025. > the remains of British Leyland ended up with BMW The whole of BL represented less than 40% of the UK car market, at the height of BL. So the portion that was sold to BMW represents a much smaller amount smaller share of the UK car market. I would not consider that “the UK politicians selling an industry to foreigners”. At the risk of changing topics/moving goalposts, I don’t know that your examples of European govts or companies owning or operating businesses or large parts of an industry in another European country is in thr spirit of the European Union. Isn’t the whole idea to break down barriers where the collective population of Europe benefit?
  - pjc50 11mo ago
    It's no use pedanting me or indeed anyone else; that's the sort of thing people mean when they use that phrase.