Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ibid Straydrink]

Sounds inefficient (on the global sense).

We (as a species) are not in a position to brook such wastefulness.  Means to punish bad actors is necessary, but your suggestion is a powerful step backward.

I am down with financial penalties for shareholders, and prison time for CEOs and Directors. However, tariffs are a step backward in all cases except where they stand in for sanctions for bad actors.

The lust for "efficiency," to me, is a step backwards. I am not concerned with global GDP; to be frank, my primary concerns are the wealth and prominence of my own nation, and those who would stand with us. GDP would take a nosedive, and that is an issue I will not ignore.To that end, I would seek to make economic alliances with other nations who share common interests and bogeymen, to encourage necessary trade, aiming for an allied "autarky." But, at the end of the day understand: I believe that a nation exist first and foremost for its nationals, and I would sooner see the end of my nation and its creed than its continued exploitation for global wealth.

[wierd]

I was meaning resource efficiency, not monetary efficiency.

If one place has phosphate mineral literally just laying on the open ground, and another place has to dig up a goddamn mountain to get to it, the most efficient solution is to have the area with it in abundance, collect and sell it as the primary source.


The issue, is when the thing that is in abundance is labor, and this is exploited in the form of human suffering for cheap prices.  The economists do not see a distinction, but I do.

[feelotraveller]

It often ends up going so badly anyways that when the phosphate is gone they get turned into a prison camp for another country's 'definitely not refugees'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphate_mining_in_Banaba_and_Nauru
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauru_Regional_Processing_Centre

At least it makes for an interesting case study.

[Reelya]

Well looking at that link, Nauru did buy out full rights to the phosphate mining in 1970, and they seem to have massively ramped up the extraction after that: they bought the rights for $21 million but then apparently made $100+ million per year selling the stuff. For comparison, back in 1948 the amount extracted was about $750,000 worth. If Nauru bought out the investment for $21 million it would actually make sense that there was about $1 million worth being extracted: 15 or 20 years is about right for the payoff time for an investment. But how did that then turn into $100 million per year of revenue? The only way these figures make sense is if the Nauruans massively ramped up production after they obtained the rights.

Then, when the stuff ran out, they decided to sue Australia for the environmental damages over the whole thing. We settled out of court. But ... going by the raw figures it kind of seems like the massive increase in extraction rates happened after they took control. Additionally they had $1 billion saved up, but that money was lost to corruption and mismanagement. Australia plays some part but they largely did this to themselves. The population of Nauru is only 12000. They could have extracted $10 million worth per year, used that to create jobs and still had the stuff propping up the economy for 200 years.

It's the standard curse of a resource boom and corrupt leadership. Probably the reason they sued Australia was misdirection so that the political class didn't get lynched for ruining the environment then stealing all the money.

As for the John Howard / asylum seeker stuff, which is really shitty from our end, from the Nauru side the only reason to do that is that the top-heavy political class that grew on the back of the phosphate really needed a new revenue source. All of that is nothing to do with taking care of their own people or creating jobs, but about maintaining the gravy train. Considering how few Nauruans there actually are, the government class there is like some kind of souped-up local council who somehow burned through billions of dollars and now they need more to keep their positions. I mean, literally everyone on the island should in fact be quite wealthy now.

[Naturegirl1999]

I think we have an economics thread, though not a data abuse thread

Back to COVID
Though the USA still leads in total cases, Mexico is leading in new cases

[Reelya]

Don't sort by new cases, it's only the new cases as reported up to the current hour, so at the start of the day it resets. For example it says 0 new cases in the USA. That just means they reset the reporting and don't have any of today's data yet for that country. You do in fact have to go into each country's section and compare the previous day's total, which will be complete.

The 7 day rolling average for Mexico was 5521 new cases as of yesterday, whereas for the USA it's 46589. This is why you ignore the "new cases" section of the main page.

[Maximum Spin]

Don't sort by new cases, it's only the new cases as reported up to the current hour, so at the start of the day it resets. For example it says 0 new cases in the USA. That just means they reset the reporting and don't have any of today's data yet for that country. You do in fact have to go into each country's section and compare the previous day's total, which will be complete.

The 7 day rolling average for Mexico was 5521 new cases as of yesterday, whereas for the USA it's 46589. This is why you ignore the "new cases" section of the main page.

Well, no, don't ignore it, just remember to always check the 'yesterday' part because it lags a day. For example, that shows India leading new cases yesterday.

[Reelya]

Bolsonaro is determined to catch up to Trump for the total deaths. Those guys really are peas in a pod, what with the raging fires in the Amazon and Bolsy claiming they don't exist.

[wierd]

He's got some work to do on the cogitative dissonance front to compete with orange dipshit.

"We gotta stop mail in vote fraud! Defund the USPS!" combined with "SAVE the USPS!"  Possibly even in the same sentence.


I am getting to the point where I think Trump has no conception of what words actually mean, and moves forward with the notion that he is just always right, no matter what words he uses.


Bolsonaro seems to be just your run of the mill despot, While the mentally challenged oompa loompa in the whitehouse has had one too many of Mr Wonka's experimental candies, and has clearly lost all grasp on reality.

[Naturegirl1999]

looks like Anguilla had 3 cases and 3 recoveries, and thus doesn’t have any infected

[Starver]

(IRTA "Angelina Jolie", at first glance. )

[Reelya]

looks like Anguilla had 3 cases and 3 recoveries, and thus doesn’t have any infected

That's not particularly noteworthy. It's an island, so easy to isolate, and only has 15000 people. So the real claim to fame there is that a place with 15000 people has no cases, but there are plenty of similar-sized towns which could claim that.

[coalboat]

Urumqi is locked down. The situation is likely similar to how it was in Wuhan, Lombardy, New York, at their peak of infected cases.

Nobody seems to be talking about Urumqi because news cannot get out.

[ChairmanPoo]

So China is in wave #2 as well.


I honestly think Spain is heading to another lockdown. And I dont think any country can safely reopen schools.

[Starver]

Insert some joke about masks here...