- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.ml
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found this quote particularly insightful
Martyanov believes that America’s extreme meritocrats vastly overestimate their capabilities. This is because, rather than focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of the country they rule, they have been taught since birth to focus on themselves. They believe that they just need to maximize their own personal accomplishments and the good of the country will emerge as if by magic. This has led inevitably to the rise of what Martyanov characterizes as a classic oligarchy. Such an oligarchy, he argues, purports to be meritocratic but is actually the opposite. A proper meritocracy allows the best and the brightest to climb up its ranks. But an oligarchy with a meritocratic veneer simply allows those who best play the game to rise. Thus, the meritocratic claims become circular: you climb the ladder because you play the game; the game is meritocratic because those who play it are by definition the best and the brightest. Effectively, for Martyanov, the American elite does not select for intelligence and wisdom, but rather for self-assuredness and self-interestedness.
And now the same system has been imported to Russia and other post Soviet republics.
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Exactly, steel production is key for a whole range of important industries. It’s also key for having any serious military capacity. The west is now finding that it simply can’t match Russia in terms of weapons and ammunition on the battlefield.
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Exactly, this is a fantastic read on the subject. There’s also a prisoner’s dilemma scenario happening between all the companies. If one company were to reshore manufacturing then their input costs go up relative to their competitors making them unprofitable. So, unless all companies decided to reshore together it’s not really possible to bring manufacturing back. And even if a single state decided to force their companies to do this then they lose competitiveness with other capitalist states. This problem has no solution.
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A healthy working class is necessary to deploying an effective fighting force in the 21st century:
Not only in the XXI century, it was always so.
Much of it shitty, especially older stuff
how so?
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I remember the shock therapy in the 90’s in Poland. Most industry destroyed*. Explanation - industry is obsolete*, now is the high tech time, now is the services and information based economy time. Everyone asking questions such as “How are we gonna build in the future, with straw and mud?” or “But we don’t have any high tech, you destroyed this too?” and “Who’s gonna produce things?” were either ignored or publicly sneered as “homo sovieticus”. And here we are, 30 years later.
*Let me also tell the tale how it was. Industry in Poland was outright sabotaged by the government with measures such as tax from rising wages (in the hyperinflation!) or property tax - yes, fucking property tax for heavy industry, imagine being this scummy. Outright sabotage by state officials (like Wałęsa purposefully scamming mining industry into heavy debt in 1992). And despite all of that, it still survived and their fabled “private industry”, despite facing none of the aforementioned sabotage and all kinds of incentives and selling everything for pennies to random whomevers, never materialized.
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Yes of course, this is how imperialism works, it need constant expansion seeking the cheapest labour possible. When it’s not possible anymore, they need to make some cheap labour - by pushing other countries into poverty (or their own citizens, but that tend to backfire more).
Lenin described this mechanism, but he didn’t dreamt in even worst nightmares that it would prove so repeatable and resilient and would turn out into at least century of misery.
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