News   Aug 07, 2024
Contained
 141     0 
News   Aug 06, 2024
Proposal Grows to 42 Storeys at Bayview and Sheppard
 2K     3 
News   Aug 06, 2024
Almega and Brixen Developments Look to Downsview Park as Toronto's Central Park
 1.7K     5 

Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 (nCoV-2019)

Admiral Beez said:
There’s a global or at least western world reckoning coming China’s way. And China knows it, which is why they’re flaying about trying to pin Covid19 onto others (US soldiers?) and bullying smaller nations like Australia.

SARS came from China, they did nothing long term to prevent another outbreak, which led us to Covid19. If China isn’t brought under control we can expect Covid30.
Click to expand...

I hope so. Perhaps the globalization experiment has run its course. Business can resume with China when it becomes an open democracy.
 
Admiral Beez said:
We don’t care about the party. We want cheap stuff.
Click to expand...

This in a nutshell. It's depressing. Who cares about the suffering of millions when we can have cheap stuff we don't need? I'm sure the obsession with acquiring useless junk makes up a frightening amount of the world economy.
 
Towered said:
I hope so. Perhaps the globalization experiment has run its course. Business can resume with China when it becomes an open democracy.
Click to expand...
Why do I care how the Chinese govern themselves? A democratic China would still have Covid19 and all the lies and prevarication that caused its global spread, same as a democratic USA lied about WMDs in Iraq that led us to the destabilization of the Middle East, Syrian civil war, refugee crisis, etc. Far more people were killed by that one USA lie than China’s mishandling of Covid19. The type of governance doesn’t matter, dictatorship, theocracy, democracy, whatever; we just want China’s cheap stuff and their wealthy tourists and international students. China will be forgiven soon enough and return to business as usual, until Covid30.
 
Last edited:
Towered said:
I hope so. Perhaps the globalization experiment has run its course. Business can resume with China when it becomes an open democracy.
Click to expand...
You're ten years behind the times. The Chinese have already outsourced much of the manufacturing to South East Asia and Africa now. They make the cheap hardware stuff for China who adds value components like software code and then ship it here. Cheap African labour is the new gold rush and it won't be long until North American manufacturers cash in on it too (agri-business is already there buying up millions of acres of land.) I expect car parts for a Honda, or a GM, or a Mercedes will all be made in plants in Dakar Senegal. That is if the African population isn't brutally wiped out by the virus (or perhaps that would make it more likely?)
 
Last edited:
Jonny5 said:
You're ten years behind the times. The Chinese have already outsourced much of the manufacturing to South East Asia and Africa now. They make the cheap hardware stuff for China who adds value components like software code and then ship it here. Cheap African labour is the new gold rush and it won't be long until North American manufacturers cash in on it too (agri-business is already there buying up millions of acres of land.) I expect car parts for a Honda, or a GM, or a Mercedes will all be made in plants in Dakar Senegal. That is if the African population isn't brutally wiped out by the virus (or perhaps that would make it more likely?)
Click to expand...

A slight exaggeration in terms of where we are; but an accurate description of where things are headed.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Why do I care how the Chinese govern themselves? A democratic China would still have Covid19 and all the lies and prevarication that caused its global spread, same as a democratic USA lied about WMDs in Iraq that led us to the destabilization of the Middle East, Syrian civil war, refugee crisis, etc. Far more people were killed by that one USA lie than China’s mishandling of Covid19. The type of governance doesn’t matter, dictatorship, theocracy, democracy, whatever; we just want China’s cheap stuff and their wealthy tourists and international students. China will be forgiven soon enough and return to business as usual, until Covid30.
Click to expand...

On point.

But lets add...........what do all these things have in common?

Money.

Very large volumes of it.

We can rightly fault consumers to some degree for preferring cheap to good........

We can rightly fault certain countries or their administrations at a given point in time for faulty judgement, or short-term thinking.

But in truth, most retail customers never knew where a product was made in the first place...............

There was never a maple leaf stitched on to the tag.

Consumers didn't get a vote as such.

Likewise, Americans were fed a load of garbage over WMDs in Iraq back when and many backed a war based on those lies.

One needn't be tin-foil hat, to accept that more often than not decisions have been made by or for the benefit of those with the most money, and the most money to gain.

It was always possible and still is; to mitigate that.

But the population has to insist on change, and mercilessly turf those from office who fail to bring it.
 
Towered said:
No surprise that the owner is a total douche - I remember he already courted controversy years ago with open support of Rob Ford.

This chain won't be getting any money from me as long as he's there.
Click to expand...

Well, he's already done with me because until I read about it here, I had never heard of this coffee shop's existence.
 
Towered said:
Doesn't matter - China should be made to feel serious heat for this calamity. I'd like to see tangible consequences too, but nobody will have the balls to do anything.
Click to expand...

Well, the Yanks and Aussies are making the right noises. And India aren't exactly fans. Never mind Taiwan having been saying this whole damn time that the Chinese can't be trusted.

But why listen to a free and open society when we can appease a murderous authoritarian regime?

We all sold out Czechoslovakia to the Nazis in the same spirit and look where that got everyone!
 
Admiral Beez said:
Betcha typed that on a made in China or Korean device. We all like the cheap Asian stuff.
Click to expand...

Korean. It was a gift. Nothing wrong with buying Korean though anyway. Not exactly sure how cheap a 1500$ laptop is in the grand scheme of things back in 2010, but sure.
 
Jonny5 said:
. Cheap African labour is the new gold rush and it won't be long until North American manufacturers cash in on it too (agri-business is already there buying up millions of acres of land.) I expect car parts for a Honda, or a GM, or a Mercedes will all be made in plants in Dakar Senegal.
Click to expand...

Other than the tires, my Mercedes was built in Spain with parts from central Europe.

So, not even cheap Asian labour, never mind African.


But anyway, I'm starting to think that this economic shutdown is a good thing. For the planet. Our never-ending growth is not sustainable with finite resources. Doesn't help that I just finished watching Planet of the Humans and it's made me depressed. I kind of don't want to buy anything ever again and just go live off the land.
This plague has been an interesting social experiment. Amazon sales have blown up (Bezos is worth 30B$ more than three months ago, apparently) so it is apparent that our destructive consumerist tendencies haven't abated as much as we'd like to believe or as much as economic indicators might suggest, but I'm sure consumption has gone down in significant numbers anyway.

I'd like to see it remain suppressed. We can't have infinite growth on a planet with finite resources, and to paraphrase from the documentary named above, it's not the carbon molecule that is the problem, it's us.

Try not buying anything for the next month, other than necessities, being food. Literally just food.

I haven't bought anything other than food and legal drugs since the plague hit so I'm sitting on money that I'm investing, but I'd like to keep this going for another few months.

Plague No Buy Challenge....it's not even that hard, I don't think.

What the hell is everyone buying from Amazon anyway?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top