Comments by "Doncarlo" (@doujinflip) on "Nomad Capitalist" channel.

  1. Not the way Chinese companies pour it though. They often skimp on cement so it crumbles into dust even by hand.
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  2. The average American worker is 7x more productive per work hour than the average Chinese, and the gap seems to be growing too. The PRC can't politically afford to automate to the same degree, that's why there's constant images of menial labor for even easily roboticized tasks. China already has a major issue of social immobility biased towards family connections, putting everyone else out of work just makes the society as brittle as the late Qing and early Republic eras.
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  3. Lose your principal hand over fist, just like a Chinese homeowner.
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  4. Kinda wondered why Kuwait was seen as an arrogant outlier among its Saudi-aligned neighbors, now I understand they're like the flip side of Qatar
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  5. Live if you already have a family, horrible to try finding someone to start one with -- singles scene is full of sellers and scammers, and going out to meet anyone gets expensive quick. That is unless you can live on solely South Asian cultures and cuisine.
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  6. "Wars" that contain longstanding local conflicts and maintain sea and air lanes of communication and trade for the rest of the world. There's a reason America currently focuses support to Ukraine (Danube River and Bosporus Strait) and Israel (Red Sea and Suez Canal), as opposed to say Congo or Myanmar.
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  7. Even that is changing, there are rumors of considerations on when and how much income tax on UAE residents. Real estate sales are cooling and having a pegged currency limits how much wealth they can create through financial services, so to fund further development the consumers of in-country services will ultimately have to pitch in.
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  8. I lived in both. Dubai is noticeably more severe, like I can feel the heat of the street through my shoes hot. Though I think summering in Doha is the worst since the prevailing winds blow it over the northern deserts first, and then once the sun sets the humidity comes onshore with a vengeance.
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  9. Yeah the Gulf commerce culture is dominated by hustler merchants, yet it offers surprisingly inexpensive high-quality medical services. Medicines and treatments wouldn't be so affordable without "socialist" state mandates and support.
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  10. Makes me wonder how much greater the rest of the Gulf could have been if Bahrain remained top dog like it had been historically.
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  11. It doesn't. Beijing just wants to solidify control of its western borderlands (and ideally expand further) just like every dynasty in its past.
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  12. Having survived through Zero-COVID Mainland China, no it's pretty bleak among the locals too. Think the Great Recession except your home is underwater forever along with nearly all your family's wealth.
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  13. Having lived in sun-Saharan Africa, I can say the locals on the street are a lot more suspicious and more disappointed about Chinese builds than their politicians say. BRI is not producing the pro-China shifts that Beijing expected, and ironically are becoming more cautious with what and how to commit foreign aid just as Western counterparts have been warning about.
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  14. That's changing though, as oil has peaked in production as they face ultimately falling demand from the electrification of transportation. Hence why they're nlw scrambling to develop similar industries which oil-poor Dubai has become famous for.
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  15. Yeah pretty much the only thing with 0 VAT are necessary medicine, aviation services (airline tickets and such), and some school tuitions.
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