Back to the 1930s: the hammer, sickle and swastika

[Archangel Tyrael]

Suddenly I just had a hilarious fucking image pop into my head.

300 of these guys:



fighting off the entire Iranian (Iran is formerly Persia) army and kicking their fucking asses.

Just put that picture in your brain and look at it for a few seconds. Tell me you don't laugh.

I'm not laughing because you had to expose that Iran used to be Persia. Who the fuck doesn't know that?

[Deleted]

There is no winner anyways - at least not from the view of the nations involved.

Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein Schrecken ohne Ende. Maybe we don't - it still was discussed and to me it still seems better than paying indefinitely.

The EU will not be paying indefinitely, the EU just needs to implement the structural reforms that are necessary to have growth and a budget deficit that is within EU rules, coupled with a fiscal union and a banking union. Then they should be able to sustain themselves.

[Laize]

I'm not laughing because you had to expose that Iran used to be Persia. Who the fuck doesn't know that?

Um. Just making sure. Dont be a buzzkill dude.

[cFortyfive]

Then they should be able to sustain themselves.

They can't even make use of their natural resources and I should believe that this is going to happen ?

[Archangel Tyrael]

Um. Just making sure. Dont be a buzzkill dude.

sooowy

http://roflspiders.files.wordpress.c...lyingsquid.png

[Deleted]

They can't even make use of their natural resources and I should believe that this is going to happen ?

Are you referring to the oil in Greece? They can't get it because there is trouble with Turkey involving it.

[Laize]

sooowy

I love cute spiders.

http://insidiousclothing.com/lolspid...s_tiem_now.jpg

[Nathreim]

We're watching history repeat itself.

[cFortyfive]

Are you referring to the oil in Greece? They can't get it because there is trouble with Turkey involving it.

More or less - and the natural Gas from Cyprus and Crete. You are of course right though that there are certain tensions with the turks. Not that I think that this would solve the whole situation.

[Deleted]

More or less - and the natural Gas from Cyprus and Crete. You are of course right though that there are certain tensions with the turks. Not that I think that this would solve the whole situation.

Turkey has gone as far as claiming ownership of Gavdos, an island South of Crete to get the gas. They also refuse to acept the UN law of the sea convention, wich defines exclusive economic areas rights and recognizes that islands have a continental shelf.

[Deleted]

If you make your country business friendly, businesses will *gasp* go there. Foreign capital investments get your economy rolling. With more cash flowing through your economy combined with a robust tax collection system you will find that government revenues will increase. It's even entirely possible that such changes could yield higher tax revenues with LOWER tax rates.

How will they go there if there is no credit? Which money will they use to open business? That's the whole problem of Greece: it's sinking into debt ever deeper because the economy is frozen (decreasing tax revenue) while the social expenses grow (more people on unemployment, more people with illness due to stress for not having a job), and the deeper the debt is, the less credits from outside they will get. No money from outside means there will be no recovery, and no hope for the economy to get better in the future, so they get more downrating of their debt, and staying without outside credit. This is the vice circle they are at, and the one they must break. This cannot be broken by austerity, it will plunge the country into survival economy (everybody back to agriculture, herding and fishing... a 3rd world country). This is not business friendly.

---------- Post added 2012-06-20 at 11:18 AM ----------

In nature, when an organism is weak and dies its because it was unfit to survive. A better, stronger, and more efficient organism rises to take its place. It's called survival of the fittest. It may not have been intended for use with geopolitics, but fuck it. It sounds like a good system.

This is a terrible misconception of the concept of evolution: evolution appears when there is change over time and competition. It produces "organisms" better adapted to the current circumstances. Not better, nor stronger, nor more efficient. Just better adapted. Some conditions will select the bigger companies, some conditions will select the smaller, some the more efficient, some the better at shady deals. Just because a company can survive in a crisis environment doesn't mean it will be better at offering services, or more efficient or whatever. It just means it's better at surviving this crisis.

Let everything fail? The downside of evolution is that the "losing organisms" die. And all the cells that live in it, and all the other organisms that depended on them. When big environmental changes happen, lots of species disappear, which leads to the extinction of many others. Entire ecosystems collapse. It's what we call "mass extinction" episode. Usually only small-sized generalists survive.... with over time will evolve into specialist species which will work in the same way as the extinguished ones.
So, a mass extinction serves no purpose. There is no improvement in the efficiency of the use of resources*. Only the general look of the species will differ. The only lasting effect of a mass extinction is all the corpses left behind.
... which is exactly what would happen if we let everything fail. The only success of letting everything fail is all the people that become unemployed for months or years, who lack social safety nets (removed due to lack of funding).

And the people who took and bolstered the bad decisions that led into the crisis? The politicians, economic engineers, CEOs, executives...? Those will stay pretty comfortable in the same place as always, because when a bank fails, it's not the bankers that suffer, it's your pension fund.


*Only once in a while there is actual improvement in the overal efficiency and adaptability of species. It usually requires environmental changes that tightly restrict the resources over evolutionary relevant periods of time. For example, the final evolutive spur that separated us from being just "another species of great ape" (such was the Australopithecus), began when the worldwide forests shrunk and the weather became much drier at the beginning or our current ice age. Such drought meant the drastic reduction of total biomass and available water, and forced our ancestors into evolving into a more adaptable species. Then again, intelligence is only an asset when there is scarcity of resources.
But as i said, for evolution to actually improve the overall intelligence and efficiency of the organisms, there has to be a period very extended in time of lack of available resources. Unless we artificially extend our current economic crisis over several decades, you wouldn't see an improvement in the way of conducting business. And we would have wars all over the place before that, if the crisis was to last that much.

[Laize]

How will they go there if there is no credit? Which money will they use to open business? That's the whole problem of Greece: it's sinking into debt ever deeper because the economy is frozen (decreasing tax revenue) while the social expenses grow (more people on unemployment, more people with illness due to stress for not having a job), and the deeper the debt is, the less credits from outside they will get. No money from outside means there will be no recovery, and no hope for the economy to get better in the future, so they get more downrating of their debt, and staying without outside credit. This is the vice circle they are at, and the one they must break. This cannot be broken by austerity, it will plunge the country into survival economy (everybody back to agriculture, herding and fishing... a 3rd world country). This is not business friendly.

Beg pardon but.. What? Making your country business friendly means foreign companies want to invest in your market. They bring the money.

Even if they don't, free enterprise can rebuild a nation on its own over time.

[Deleted]

Beg pardon but.. What? Making your country business friendly means foreign companies want to invest in your market. They bring the money.

Even if they don't, free enterprise can rebuild a nation on its own over time.

Surely then you can point out RL examples where free enterprise has done that. What time scale are we talking about?

It doesn't matter how business friendly a country is, legislation-wise. If international lenders will not lend money to companies that start up there, there is nothing to do. And that's what is happening to the indebted countries: the lending market has dried.