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I do not completely agree with the usage of the term, as Locust economies are economies like in China. When they do not have enough resources of themselves, the

by gbraad 13y ago

I do not completely agree with the usage of the term, as Locust economies are economies like in China. When they do not have enough resources of themselves, they will swarm and find these abroad and cause lots of issues. For example with the needed infant formula (milk powder, esp after the milk problems in China with melanine) they will swarm to foreign countries and buy these in massive amounts and cause shortages in the country of origin. This even concerns building materials (steel), energy resources (oil), etc etc. The milk powder issue for example happened in the Netherlands and in many other countries; partly caused by producers not knowing how to deal with this, but also by people within the country shipping large amounts (seen as smuggling), selling on Taobao.com. Just google for "Dutch milk powder China". This is just one of the examples... There are now even export restrictions between Hong Kong and China for the amount of cans you can take across the border. Just look at some of the pictures on http://badcanto.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/hong-kong-netizens-on-new-zealand-milk-powder-shortage/milk/ http://badcanto.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/hong-kong-netizens-... related to this. Note: relating to the article I believe the vision is narrow since it only talks about Groupon... Also, his point is not a survival means as the grasshopper/locust metaphor would indicate.

lukifer 13y ago
Take the term "locust" (and Venkatesh's writing style in general) with a grain of salt. Long-time Ribbon Farm readers know that he tends to declare "local variables" with his terminology, pegging down certain metaphors for the purposes a specific discussion. That need not collide with or invalidate other uses of the same word or idea.
- lurker14 13y ago
  Indeed. In ribbonfarm's series about "The Office" model of office politics, the term 'Loser' referred to people who had a job that enabled them to live a life they enjoy without any work-related threat.
- klibertp 13y ago
  When someone uses a specific, pejorative, widely associated with disaster (plague of Biblical scale, no less) word for a "local variable" he's being intellectually dishonest, or manipulative, or both. One generally can't just read a word locust and think "harmless", "cute", "needed" and such as a first thought - and that's exactly what this rhetoric aims for. That's the reason why I won't read the article. It's perfectly possible to use neutral language for presenting a point convincingly; I can't be bothered to read authors that didn't even try to do so.
  - 1123581321 13y ago
    What did you read instead?
    - klibertp 13y ago
      The comments here, as usual :) It's a habit of mine to read through all the comments before reading the linked article to decide whether it's worth reading. If you think that my conclusion is wrong and you can quote a bit of the article to back it up then that's good, too!
      - aangjie 13y ago
        See that's the 1% vampire behaviour. Relying on HN readers to comment on an article before deciding to read it. So those of us who read the article would be the 90%. Aha who's the 9% then, mods?
        mdda 13y ago
        The 9% would be the bloggers - in particular those that left 'real jobs' to become part of the new wave of commentators. Yes, they can produce huge volumes of readers when they get an HN hit, but once they've thoroughly exhausted the pent-up ideas that had been percolating for the previous decade, they realize that the only way to sustain themselves is to become increasingly sensationalist (since it's almost impossible to have earth-shattering ideas on a strictly weekly basis).
patio11 13y ago
The more interesting story there is the sort of corruption which allows for a) government-controlled/connected baby formula plant to get away with selling poison while b) being sufficiently protected by import regulations and government interference such that black market importation of baby formula one box at a time is cheaper than Johnson and Johnson hitting them with a container ship full of the stuff to take advantage of the market opportunity. See this for example of interference: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/business/global/2-companies-to-cut-price-of-infant-formula-after-chinese-inquiry.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/business/global/2-companie...
- gbraad 13y ago
  Government-control kicked in now and they demand 'cheaper' milk powder as the prices had actually been kept unnaturally high due to cartel. Prices have been lowered, Netherlands have been asked to open factories in China (or do quality checks). It is now cheaper, but I still import my Nutrilon from back home to feed my baby-child; cheaper and more trustworthy. Because even the package says Dumex and looks same as in the Netherlands, it is local milk and I am not so sure about the 'real or fake' question.

by gbraad 13y ago

lukifer 13y ago

Take the term "locust" (and Venkatesh's writing style in general) with a grain of salt. Long-time Ribbon Farm readers know that he tends to declare "local variables" with his terminology, pegging down certain metaphors for the purposes a specific discussion. That need not collide with or invalidate other uses of the same word or idea.

lurker14 13y ago
Indeed. In ribbonfarm's series about "The Office" model of office politics, the term 'Loser' referred to people who had a job that enabled them to live a life they enjoy without any work-related threat.
klibertp 13y ago
When someone uses a specific, pejorative, widely associated with disaster (plague of Biblical scale, no less) word for a "local variable" he's being intellectually dishonest, or manipulative, or both. One generally can't just read a word locust and think "harmless", "cute", "needed" and such as a first thought - and that's exactly what this rhetoric aims for. That's the reason why I won't read the article. It's perfectly possible to use neutral language for presenting a point convincingly; I can't be bothered to read authors that didn't even try to do so.
- 1123581321 13y ago
  What did you read instead?
  - klibertp 13y ago
    The comments here, as usual :) It's a habit of mine to read through all the comments before reading the linked article to decide whether it's worth reading. If you think that my conclusion is wrong and you can quote a bit of the article to back it up then that's good, too!
    - aangjie 13y ago
      See that's the 1% vampire behaviour. Relying on HN readers to comment on an article before deciding to read it. So those of us who read the article would be the 90%. Aha who's the 9% then, mods?
      - mdda 13y ago
        The 9% would be the bloggers - in particular those that left 'real jobs' to become part of the new wave of commentators. Yes, they can produce huge volumes of readers when they get an HN hit, but once they've thoroughly exhausted the pent-up ideas that had been percolating for the previous decade, they realize that the only way to sustain themselves is to become increasingly sensationalist (since it's almost impossible to have earth-shattering ideas on a strictly weekly basis).

patio11 13y ago

The more interesting story there is the sort of corruption which allows for a) government-controlled/connected baby formula plant to get away with selling poison while b) being sufficiently protected by import regulations and government interference such that black market importation of baby formula one box at a time is cheaper than Johnson and Johnson hitting them with a container ship full of the stuff to take advantage of the market opportunity. See this for example of interference: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/business/global/2-companies-to-cut-price-of-infant-formula-after-chinese-inquiry.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/business/global/2-companie...

gbraad 13y ago
Government-control kicked in now and they demand 'cheaper' milk powder as the prices had actually been kept unnaturally high due to cartel. Prices have been lowered, Netherlands have been asked to open factories in China (or do quality checks). It is now cheaper, but I still import my Nutrilon from back home to feed my baby-child; cheaper and more trustworthy. Because even the package says Dumex and looks same as in the Netherlands, it is local milk and I am not so sure about the 'real or fake' question.