A Can of Man
Je suis aware
From what I'm seeing in this forum, there are major dividing lines. One is left and right (obviously) but the other is those who have seen the world and those who have not.
And by seeing the world, I mean going to places and actually living there. Company and military compounds don't necessarily count because I've seen a few which allow for people to survive in foreign countries but still have a very similar experience to life back in their home countries.
Not everything that applies in one place applies in another place.
Rules change in different places.
I guess the issue with guns is one such case.
The legalization of firearms for civilians in the US, South Africa, the UK etc. makes a lot of sense.
What does not make sense is legalization of firearms in Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Neither of these countries have much gun crime and if an armed robbery ever does happen, it's front page news. In the US, that'd just be another day at work. Considering how concentrated these places are and how badly road rage etc., is, having guns around is going to be problem.
Or policies regarding how to deal with corrupt government institutions overseas. Unfortunately that is their system, so unless you have a plan to bring about some sort of regime change, if your business or government wishes to do work there, you better have some money set aside to make sure that form you just filled out doesn't stay at the bottom of the in tray for the next 20 years. Sounds like hell, but guess what? Those are the rules there.
The point is, go out and experience the world. You will actually know what folks like Mmarsh and I are talking about. We're not even on the same place on the so called political spectrum but we're just talking out of experience from what we've seen in the world.
When we talked about the healthcare systems, we were talking about things we've seen and seen work.
When we talk about education systems, we're talking about things we've seen and seen work.
About deregulation: I remember back in the 1990's when the US was screaming at Asia to deregulate their economies. One by one they did only to fall victim to currency speculators, mostly George Soros. Simply put, currency speculation is the buying and selling of currency to take advantage of the exchange rates. The only real survivors of this 1998 Asian financial crisis were, surprise, surprise, countries or governments who decided to ditch what the Americans were telling them to do and decided to regulate anyway.
Hong Kong and South Korea were the big survivors of the crisis, but it was far from painless.
You know, I was in both Indonesia and South Korea when it happened. In South Korea people actually showed up with the gold they had in their homes and gave it to the government to try to help out with the country's treasury (largely symbolic but still it gave them the strength to get through), but it was in Indonesia where I saw the worst things happen.
I remember those long lines of people trying to get commodities like food and fuel. The banks closed and people waited in the longest lines trying to get their money back - money that no longer existed. The entire life savings of millions of people just kind of vaporized. All in the name of capitalism and free trade.
I don't support capitalism because someone tells me to. I support capitalism because I understand it's the only economic system that even pretends to work.
I don't support regulation becuase someone tells me to. I support regulation because I've seen the pure exploitative nature of companies and powerful individuals when they are not regulated.
I don't hate Communism because someone tells me to. I hate it because I understand how this story always ends.
And by seeing the world, I mean going to places and actually living there. Company and military compounds don't necessarily count because I've seen a few which allow for people to survive in foreign countries but still have a very similar experience to life back in their home countries.
Not everything that applies in one place applies in another place.
Rules change in different places.
I guess the issue with guns is one such case.
The legalization of firearms for civilians in the US, South Africa, the UK etc. makes a lot of sense.
What does not make sense is legalization of firearms in Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Neither of these countries have much gun crime and if an armed robbery ever does happen, it's front page news. In the US, that'd just be another day at work. Considering how concentrated these places are and how badly road rage etc., is, having guns around is going to be problem.
Or policies regarding how to deal with corrupt government institutions overseas. Unfortunately that is their system, so unless you have a plan to bring about some sort of regime change, if your business or government wishes to do work there, you better have some money set aside to make sure that form you just filled out doesn't stay at the bottom of the in tray for the next 20 years. Sounds like hell, but guess what? Those are the rules there.
The point is, go out and experience the world. You will actually know what folks like Mmarsh and I are talking about. We're not even on the same place on the so called political spectrum but we're just talking out of experience from what we've seen in the world.
When we talked about the healthcare systems, we were talking about things we've seen and seen work.
When we talk about education systems, we're talking about things we've seen and seen work.
About deregulation: I remember back in the 1990's when the US was screaming at Asia to deregulate their economies. One by one they did only to fall victim to currency speculators, mostly George Soros. Simply put, currency speculation is the buying and selling of currency to take advantage of the exchange rates. The only real survivors of this 1998 Asian financial crisis were, surprise, surprise, countries or governments who decided to ditch what the Americans were telling them to do and decided to regulate anyway.
Hong Kong and South Korea were the big survivors of the crisis, but it was far from painless.
You know, I was in both Indonesia and South Korea when it happened. In South Korea people actually showed up with the gold they had in their homes and gave it to the government to try to help out with the country's treasury (largely symbolic but still it gave them the strength to get through), but it was in Indonesia where I saw the worst things happen.
I remember those long lines of people trying to get commodities like food and fuel. The banks closed and people waited in the longest lines trying to get their money back - money that no longer existed. The entire life savings of millions of people just kind of vaporized. All in the name of capitalism and free trade.
I don't support capitalism because someone tells me to. I support capitalism because I understand it's the only economic system that even pretends to work.
I don't support regulation becuase someone tells me to. I support regulation because I've seen the pure exploitative nature of companies and powerful individuals when they are not regulated.
I don't hate Communism because someone tells me to. I hate it because I understand how this story always ends.
lol