Comments by "Nattygsbord" (@nattygsbord) on "Econ Lessons" channel.

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  6. I do think that we humans have both cooperation and competition in us. And we can build a society based on hard competition where some people act like cheetahs while others gets targeted like gazelles. But we also got the option to build a society more around friendship and cooperation instead. And we can try to limit competition to as few areas as possible in society where they blong... like say sports or having companies trying to out do each other in producing the best microwave. After all do I think most animals got something good in them. All videos on youtube have led me to believe that. Even lions like rubs from their owners and can become friends with dogs. Wolves can enjoy strokes and long for their owners hug and love just as much as dogs do. And I have even seen an alligator jump into the sofa just because it wanted to get strokes and cuddle. So even wild predators got something good in them, and could enjoy friendship with individuals of other species. So things do not need to be as they are. If there was no competition for limited resources, and the wild animals had other sources for food than killing other animals... then perhaps would their killing and wild behaviour be a thing of the past. And nature would be based on cooperation instead of competition. So I think that we should think about how we organize societies. What incentives do we reward? Do we encourage competition and cutting each others throats, or do we encourage cooperation and friendship? I believe that a society leaning towards more cooperation is a better one. But we are of course living in a world with limited resources, so not even the most socialist society can avoid some degree of competition over limited resources.
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  14. I think industrialization was doomed to take a long time for Russia. The population density was low and the population was scattered over long distances. Transportation of goods was made difficult. And in the pre-industrial age was it for example cheaper for the Romans to transport wheat from a ship from Egypt from one end of the mediaterranean to Spain, than what it was to transport a cart of goods on land 100km. Russia could have used its rivers and water ways someone might say - but the problem with that was that they were covered with ice for something like 5 months of the year. And using hydroelectric power to run industries was also inpractical when the water had frozen into ice. So this problem could only be solved by using the steam engine then. However russia had the same problems as the northern half of Sweden, there was lots of natural resources there with much iron and wood, but no way these resources could be transported away and exported for a profit due to high transportation costs would have made it unprofitable. And only the construction of railroads in the 1800s could have solve this problem. Contrast this to Norway which only had 25% as much forest as Sweden, and yet in the early 1800s did it produce 4 times more timber than Sweden because all of its forests laid closed to the coastline so transportation costs wouldn't eat up all profits. And the salt in the ocean water prevented it from freezing into ice. And finally did russia have serfdom. I mean extremely harsh serfdom that was just as opressive as slavery. And this and the poverty among the masses it created prevented the creation of any industry, as mass production requires mass consumption. So the only way for russia to create any industry at all during this time period was through state-led industrialization. So the government built railroads in the 1800s, because no private enterprise would have seen any oppurtinity for profit for building any railroads in such a country with low population density and a poor population. State-led industrialization does not mean that the country is doomed to failure. Prussia in the 1700s was Germanys most succesful economy I would argue, with its state-led industrialization around military goods such as textiles, iron, and weapons.
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  25.  @sleefy2343  Why this angry and upset tone? These things happened a long time ago. I don't feel much anger about what happened to my great great great great grandpa. And nor do I think anyone else should. You are upset about a foreign country selling drugs to you. You are upset about imperialism that was done to you. And yet today are fentanyl cooked in Chinese labs and sold in America and contributing in the drug death epidemic. China is also behaving like an opressive imperialist power by taking over Tibet. It does not respect the will of the people in Hong Kong or promises given to Britain to accept a high degree of self-determination there. It is a country that is cutting off the water supply to neighbouring countries in Indo-china and keep all water for itself. It invaded its neighbours Vietnam and India in modern history. So I think it is time for some self-reflection and self-criticism here. Time to be humble. Why should China have its historical lands Taiwan back, but Tibet should not get its historical lands back from China? I also think that if China was democratic, free, economically succesful, and not aggressivly imperialist then would the people in Hong Kong and Taiwan volunteer to join China and give up their independence. And the west could not stop that process even if it wanted to - which I don't think it would want. It wants people in Asia to be happy and free and prefer not to go to war. I also think that China could do better than to opress Uighurs and Tibet. Indeed, if China was more free and tolerant, then its perhaps even possible that the uighurs and Tibetians would prefer to be a part of China for all the advantages that gives.
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  26. 1. Not really. And no russia is lagging behind. There is no 5th genertion fighter jet in russia. Russia have no CATOBAR aircraft carrier. Nor does it have the fine precision tools for making advanced weapons, as those German, American and Japanese capital goods that can cut metal down to a fraction of a millimeter and having multiple arms that can do it simultanously according to a 3D blueprint does not exist in russia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnIvhlKT7SY&t=39s Without those tools can russia not make more advanced components like for example glass for radar screens. And when you resort to plunder refridgerators for components for hundred million dollar jets, then of course will performance be sub-optimal. 2. Russia started their mobilization for war earlier and had a head start. Thats all. Saying russia have stronger industrial potential than the west is as dumb as saying nazi-Germany have stronger industrial potential than the allies because they outproduced them in 1936-1938. But it turned out that Germany had a problem with ramping up production much more... and when the political will finally came to go all in for a 100% war economy by 1943 it was already too late. The allies outproduced Germany with a wide margin. And the same will be true next year. The west will provide Ukraine with more artillery shells than russia have. And the western artillery shells will also have a much better quality. Russia can go all in into a war economy by 2025, but that will not change the tide - the free world will begin to outproduce russia with a wide margin. The wests main restraint is then political will to help Ukraine, and not production capacity. While dictator Putin lacks no will at all to fight this war, but the russian economy is weak and cannot pump out more gear to outproduce the west no matter how many workhours Putin demand by law from the russian people.
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  38. It is about power and how to economic pie is divided, and it leads to winners and losers as you say. I am no expert in this field. I believe the argument behind this yearly inflation is that companies borrow money to expand production, and then production is expanded and more goods flows into the market. But the problem is that due to the law of supply and demand, will all those extra goods drive down prices. And that forces the producers to sell their products for a price lower than they had expected and that leads to lower profits that cannot repay the loans - so then you get a crisis. The other example mentioned is the Japan thing that you brought up. I have always found those arguments in favor of intervention as not very convincing. I can however see that inflation can have positive effects as it lowers the debt burden for the government, it helps ordinary people as they got more debts than personal wealth, high inflation do also create more equal societies - which one can see that Europe became a more equal society during the 1940s and 1950s when high inflation was normal to pay off the debts from World war 2. When rich people are in power of a country, they do usually not allow their debts being inflated away - and the result is a debt burden that never goes away (England still paid off their debts of the Napoleonic wars a hundred years later), government taxes are taken from the poor people (tax payers) and given to rich people (bond holders), and economic growth was sluggish compared to what it could have been. Ordinary people are the job creators and engine of growth in an economy and not the rich people. Its consumers who creates jobs. And rich people in management wants to slash as many jobs as they possibly can to increase the rate of profit instead.
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  39. One could divide up the economy into consumer goods, capital goods and military goods. Russia have always screwed over the consumers, for the sake of the other two. I know that other people don't have the same goals and priorities as me, I see that every time people vote in an election. However I think that is unhealthy and harmful to never throw a bone to the consumers and let people enjoy life. And exaggerated military spending harms the economy in the long run. Consumers needs to enjoy life. That gives them an incentive to work and to wanna live in the country. It makes people happy - and that is important as we only live a short time on this planet. And sure could one argue that investments into capital goods and long term productivity is better for creating a better life for future generations and will make life better for the country in the long run. But I do however think that we should not forget to also make life better for people who lives on this planet here and now. Taking the entire budget for healthcare and not curing patients today and instead investing all that money into research to find cures for all possible diseases in the long run might benefit endless amounts of people of the future generations. However I think that we also needs to take care of people who live here and now. Otherwise would I not wanna live in a country that sacrifice all human happiness for the greater good and for the future. I also believe that investments in infrastructure and capital goods will last forever. It will rust, get destroyed by wear and tear, and computers will become old outdated and useless after a few decades. And if there are no demand for the products produced because consumers are opressed - then there are no incentive to produce any goods as there are no buyers for them. And it doesn't matter if the government subsidise production, and minimize production costs by lowering taxes down to 0% and forcing state owned banks to give loans at 0% interest. If there are no demand for the goods, then nothing will be produced by the companies. And then no one will get employed, and no tax money from the companies will be gained. And the economy dies. Soviet leaders don't like to hear this, but maybe the people should have more consumer goods instead of trying to invest as much as possible and build weapons. Sure will people buy dumb junk for their money.. USB-toasters, devices for bleaching backholes, books about silly conspiracies, fashion, green ping pong balls and good who knows what. But if that is what makes people happy, then I think that those things have a value for human happiness.
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  48. Bitcoin is an idiotic system with a suicide mechanism built into it. The system gets it energy from its users that are giving up CPU (computer power) to it, and in exchange do they get Bitcoins in a process known as "Bitcoin mining". Fanboys of this currency means that just like with real gold and silver you have to sacrifice energy to dig it up from the ground. All the computer power the system gets are then used to enable people from moving Bitcoin money from one Bitcoin account to another. But if people no longer do any Bitcoin mining, then will the system slow down so much that moving Bitcoin money from one place to another cannot be done fast or easily. And that will make people even less interested in being involved in Bitcoins which will kill the interest for this currency even more, and possibly even make the situation worse with fewer Bitcoin miners. And if energy prices goes up, or if the price of Bitcoins falls low... then will it simply not be worth mining any new Bitcoins. You will not make any profit from mining any new Bitcoins as energy costs are higher than any profits you make from Bitcoins. So the system is idiotic, and built to self-destruct. It is of course hilarious when people think that all inflation is caused by money printing and nothing else, and that a fixed amount of money would protect your wealth and provide price stability that will make economic calculations more predictable and thus encourage long term economi growth. Face is that Bitcoin is jumping up and down in price with enormous upswings and rapid downward crashes. Good luck having a company and try to make any long term planning with Bitcoins when the costs for buying raw materials all of a sudden can increase with 500% just like the wages for your workers. And then little more than a month later have the price of Bitcoin crashed, and you cannot get much paid for the products you sell despite you had bought them at previously high prices that was 5 times higher. So now your company is runned at a loss, and its a matter of time before it goes bankrupt. The system is totally unsubstainable. And Bitcoin do today consume more energy than all solar panels in the world produces combined. All for this useless piece of crap.
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