Comments on: The Imperium is antifragile.

By: Looking Glass

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 06:20:18 +0000

Free Trade only works when you can keep it “Free”. That’s the trouble with it. It takes a pretty important level of shared understanding to work functionally. We don’t talk about the “Anglosphere” much, but that’s the only groups that have actually made it work really well. NAFTA between the USA & Canada has done wonders for both. Adding Mexico destroyed much of our manufacturing base and completely messed Mexico up in the process. (Something rarely mentioned is that since Mexico simply didn’t have the support base not skills to manage the manufacturing, almost all of the revenue generated leaves the country. So it’s good for the banks & big companies.)

But all international trade is based around the USA’s Blue Water Navy. And keeping even that intact takes a lot of effort by those in the States that get the strategic importance. Idiots in the White House are God’s way of punishing everyone.

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By: Chris Gale

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 03:12:50 +0000

Yeah. Look, I have too many clothes… and will soon have to give a lot to the second hand shop due to sustained weight loss. But local good stuff costs, and if you are on a budget, Walmart (in the USA) and the Warehouse (in NZ) is far more attractive.

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By: hearthie

Wed, 23 Sep 2015 22:50:51 +0000

You might pick up “Overdressed” – it talks a lot about the clothing manufacture business. It’s fairly depressing.

It is perhaps true that NZ hasn’t eliminated their factory jobs – but the US has cut them to the bone. (We still have some – but nowhere near the places that the “intelligentsia” live). NAFTA scootched more than a few across the border – Mexico doesn’t have the wage regulations or environmental regulations that we do. We still manufacture, yes. But not as much as we did.

The big deal, IMO, is that we are able to hide from ourselves the cost of all the cheap trash that we consume and waste. We have all the toxins far, far, away where we don’t have to look at them. We don’t value manufactured goods any more… I could rant more. It’s a sickness, this disassociation from the creative process.

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