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China has a lot of farmland. Russia had a lot of farmland. The amount of farmland has nothing to do with how well you can feed your populace. I brought up England because that's the only example I can think of where a country rationed for an extended period of time outside of a war or economic depression. It's not a perfect example, but it's all I can come up with. What is your example? Same goes for Venezuela. It's a big can of worms, but it's the most recent example of a country nationalizing food production because the people couldn't afford to buy it. It isn't working. It wouldn't work even if their currency wasn't worthless. I'm not trying to muddle the argument. I loving love talking economics. I'm the first to admit there are flaws in the current setup, but economics as a science is tricky because you can't run double blind studies. You have to go by whats already been done and so far the free market is the only system that works for feeding people.
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Feb 5, 2020 20:47
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Krispy Wafer posted:China has a lot of farmland. Russia had a lot of farmland. The amount of farmland has nothing to do with how well you can feed your populace. I brought up England because that's the only example I can think of where a country rationed for an extended period of time outside of a war or economic depression. It's not a perfect example, but it's all I can come up with. What is your example? I mean, am I wrong in thinking the free market incentivises the kind of food production that directly contributes to climate change, habitat loss, biosphere destruction, soil degradation, overwatering and other negative factors? It might sort of work for feeding some people now, but I don't think you can say it really works in any kind of extended timeframe. And the UK in 1945-54 may not have been at war, but it absolutely was vastly economically depressed.
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Feb 5, 2020 21:02
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Krispy Wafer posted:China has a lot of farmland. Russia had a lot of farmland. The amount of farmland has nothing to do with how well you can feed your populace. I brought up England because that's the only example I can think of where a country rationed for an extended period of time outside of a war or economic depression. It's not a perfect example, but it's all I can come up with. What is your example? Russia's total arable land is less than a third of the active farmlands in use by the US, which are all already heavily subsidized by the government. China similarly has only about thirty million acres of farmland compared to the over nine hundred million in the US. Again, you just don't seem to have a grasp of the issue at all if you're taking those other places as case studies on basically any level other than "maybe don't try to support an entire empire after getting trounced in the worst war you've ever seen", or "dictatorships are flawed", or "it's hard to grow food in frozen ground".
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Feb 5, 2020 21:08
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https://twitter.com/CNNBusiness/status/1225075391938777088
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Feb 5, 2020 21:27
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tight aspirations posted:I mean, am I wrong in thinking the free market incentivises the kind of food production that directly contributes to climate change, habitat loss, biosphere destruction, soil degradation, overwatering and other negative factors? It might sort of work for feeding some people now, but I don't think you can say it really works in any kind of extended timeframe. And the UK in 1945-54 may not have been at war, but it absolutely was vastly economically depressed. Yeah, there are issues with farmland management like picking crops that require lots of water or prioritizing beef over chicken and pork. We could tax almonds or cows at a higher amount to encourage different consumption and get rid of tax breaks for corn, but that's not nationalizing food production. It's also not something that's unique to market economies. Russia and China had much worse environmental policies while they were loving around with food production. And no, England was not economically depressed. Their GDP grew for like 20+ years after WW2. Were they struggling? Sure, their empire was falling apart. But it was not a depression. It wasn't even a recession. food court bailiff posted:Russia's total arable land is less than a third of the active farmlands in use by the US, which are all already heavily subsidized by the government. China similarly has only about thirty million acres of farmland compared to the over nine hundred million in the US. Again, you just don't seem to have a grasp of the issue at all if you're taking those other places as case studies on basically any level other than "maybe don't try to support an entire empire after getting trounced in the worst war you've ever seen", or "dictatorships are flawed", or "it's hard to grow food in frozen ground". Amount of farmland isn't the primary factor in whether a country can feed themselves. It's a factor, but not the main one. Britain has limited farmland, Japan has limited farmland. Both of those countries do alright feeding themselves. The countries that had the most miserable experiences with collectivization all had enough farmland to mostly support themselves because they did so prior to collectivization. Our arguments are just going in circles and distracting from laughing and pointing at mattress companies. If one of you can provide an example of a country that nationalized food production without turning it into a poo poo show or of a country that successfully rationed for an extended period of time outside of war or severe economic depressions we can keep this thing going.
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Feb 5, 2020 21:51
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Krispy Wafer posted:Yeah, there are issues with farmland management like picking crops that require lots of water or prioritizing beef over chicken and pork. We could tax almonds or cows at a higher amount to encourage different consumption and get rid of tax breaks for corn, but that's not nationalizing food production. It's also not something that's unique to market economies. Russia and China had much worse environmental policies while they were loving around with food production. Look, I've never really studied free-market economics, or to what extent government intervention needs to be before it's discounted as such, but current food production is not working in any sort of sustainable way, and for you to say it is, is in my opinion, basically objectively wrong. You say that planned and governmentally controlled food production led to famines and mass death, but the scale of destruction caused in significant part by current free market food production will probably kill all of us, and most multi-cellular life on earth. You might argue that it's overpopulation that is mostly to blame for this, but I strongly doubt a free market, as opposed to heavy government regulation, has any sort of answers. Krispy Wafer posted:And no, England was not economically depressed. Their GDP grew for like 20+ years after WW2. Were they struggling? Sure, their empire was falling apart. But it was not a depression. It wasn't even a recession. Again, not so hot on economics, or how depression is different to recession, but your use of "England" rather than "UK" kinda shows how divorced you are from the reality. I've had first-hand stories of immense deprivation and hardship through those years told to me by relations many times - '45 to '51 was known as the "age of austerity" for example, and the economy only started picking up in the early '50s due to - you guessed it - a state managed, nationalised, planned economy. '56 was the Suez crisis, which was also disastrous economically.
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Feb 5, 2020 22:49
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Elviscat posted:It's so weird how every time America goes "we did a socialism because we had no other choice" and it works out super awesome, it's always in deep south conservative America, see the Healthcare exchange in KY, this in FL, a bunch of weird socialist programs TX runs, especially specifically for vets. I'm sorry this is a while back, but what makes Kentucky's healthcare exchange socialism? It's a bog standard healthcare.gov site for plan shopping, is there a public option i'm not seeing? Or is this Fox and Friends socialism...
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Feb 5, 2020 23:27
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Krispy Wafer posted:Britain has limited farmland, Japan has limited farmland. Both of those countries do alright feeding themselves.  Japan has about 40% food self-sufficiency. quote:Our arguments are just going in circles and distracting from laughing and pointing at mattress companies. If one of you can provide an example of a country that nationalized food production without turning it into a poo poo show or of a country that successfully rationed for an extended period of time outside of war or severe economic depressions we can keep this thing going. Dude you are the only one aside from silence kit who's arguing this position, and both of you are arguing with strawmen instead of us.
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Feb 5, 2020 23:28
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Weatherman posted:
Japan manages to feed it's population. At no point did I say they did it entirely on their own. They import food. Who imports food? Private industry within Japan. How does private industry do it? Supply and demand. It's the same drat thing whether it's food grown domestically or somewhere else. I've been declared on two statements. One is objectively correct (look up GDP numbers and debt-to-GDP numbers in Britain since WW2) the other you say I'm wrong on, but can't provide an example to refute me. And again, while I enjoy the gently caress out of economics and went to school for it, this has to be boring as poo poo to everyone else. If you want to claim victory with a YouTube video and a longform article. Fine. You win. Doesn't change 100 years of economics. Krispy Wafer has a new favorite as of 23:45 on Feb 5, 2020 |
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Feb 5, 2020 23:43
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Krispy Wafer posted:this has to be boring as poo poo to everyone else.
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Feb 5, 2020 23:46
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So I hear Google Fiber is cutting out its TV service. That's interesting, right?
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Feb 6, 2020 00:49
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Krispy Wafer posted:And again, while I enjoy the gently caress out of economics and went to school for it, ah now i see the problem
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Feb 6, 2020 00:50
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Balliver Shagnasty posted:So I hear Google Fiber is cutting out its TV service. That's interesting, right? Not really, I'm surprised they even had one.
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Feb 6, 2020 01:09
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I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but the UK population was at its nutritionally healthiest post WW2 as a direct result of rationing. Sure, it wasn't popular with many people, mainly because it discouraged things like eating white bread and steak, but it kept the entire population fed and healthy. Sounds like a success to me. In fact, during the post war rationing the UK was not just supporting their own population, but also feeding people across Europe. For a nation that had just been pressed to the breaking point for years, that's impressive. Plus, it's not like capitalism has a sweet food related track record, even just within UK history. Take the Irish potato famine, the Highland clearances, or any number of instances from colonial India. Capitalists loving love starving poor people.
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Feb 6, 2020 14:52
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The obesity epidemic in developed countries is absolutely due to capitalism and its influence of marketing, lovely job(s) not giving you enough resources (time, money) for cooking, and reduction of food education be it preparation or nutrition.
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Feb 6, 2020 17:14
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Balliver Shagnasty posted:So I hear Google Fiber is cutting out its TV service. That's interesting, right? Is Stadia still a thing or is it DOA?
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Feb 6, 2020 17:56
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GrandpaPants posted:Is Stadia still a thing or is it DOA?
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Feb 6, 2020 18:08
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Walked by EB Games yesterday. About 50-60% of their stock has to be nerd paraphernalia rather than actual games. That can't be good. Is Gamestop like this too? El Gallinero Gros has a new favorite as of 18:27 on Feb 6, 2020 |
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Feb 6, 2020 18:24
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El Gallinero Gros posted:Walked by EB Games yesterday. About 50-60% of their stock has to be nerd paraphernalia rather than actual games. That can't be good. Every game shop chain will become nerd or fan paraphelia junkyard because digital purchases have already killed the PC disk market and the next gen consoles are also ditching physical media for digital purchases.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:29
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El Gallinero Gros posted:Is Gamestop like this too? My local Gamestop has empty shelves and a sign that says For Lease in front of it.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:30
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GrandpaPants posted:My local Gamestop has empty shelves and a sign that says For Lease in front of it. My local Gamestop for a year now has been a government-owned slots machine casino.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:32
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Isn't EB Games owned by Gamestop? I thought they all rebranded years ago. And yeah, every Gamestop I've been to in the past three or four years is basically split 60/40 with more toys and t-shirts than games.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:35
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Der Kyhe posted:My local Gamestop for a year now has been a government-owned slots machine casino. Still likely to walk out with more money than a GameStop.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:44
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They're still EB Games in Canada. But yeah, GameStop is basically the same way. Last month, they gave me a random $5 coupon off a new item. I popped into one and eventually settled on a $5 clearance shirt and they wouldn't let me use the coupon since it was clearance. I didn't end up buying anything. They're awful. They recently changed up their PowerUp Rewards card to get rid of the 10% preowned discount and raised the price of the card by $5. I dunno how an employee is supposed to sell someone on the card. They make most of their profits on preowned too. They're basically kneecapping their employees.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:47
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They make money by offering warranties on loving everything. I saw the pained resignation in an employee's face as he had to suggest a warranty for a POP figure I was buying as a gift.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:52
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When I worked there, we only offered them on games and consoles. It makes sense to offer them on consoles. It was easy to get warranties on 360 games. I flatly refused to offer them on DS and 3DS cartridges. It got harder to sell them once everything was on blu-ray discs, since those are scratch resistant. I noticed they now offer them on controllers and probably headsets too. Now pop figures? Every day I am greatful I escaped retail.
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Feb 6, 2020 18:59
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Some of them will get stupidly aggressive regarding warranties on used or even new stuff. Like "You know, the wire on these headphones is known to come loose, you should get the warranty" which just makes me say "Oh, then never mind"
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Feb 6, 2020 19:09
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Pope Corky the IX posted:Some of them will get stupidly aggressive regarding warranties on used or even new stuff. Like "You know, the wire on these headphones is known to come loose, you should get the warranty" which just makes me say "Oh, then never mind" Yeah, the best reply I've heard is "Woah, why should I buy these if even you'll admit they're probably defective" But really, the best response is to  the people who make them do this as part of not getting fired.
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Feb 7, 2020 15:53
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I can't recall if I posted this before but last time I went to a Gamestop I noticed how much less collectible crap they had in store, but the employee had to flog that not only are they taking trade-ins on phones and tablets but now smart watches as well. Plus they snuck in a small display of Razer keyboards and those Gunnar computer glasses as some sort of weak attempt to draw in the PC gamers again somehow?
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Feb 8, 2020 01:47
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If you haven't been following the saga of GarfieldEATS, well, I can't say I blame you because life is short and our brains, although wonderful, are of limited capacity by definition. HOWEVER The fabulously wealthy and deeply strange founder / owner of GarfieldEATS, which has perhaps not been the industry-disrupting blockbuster success he imagined it would, wrote a super-mad piece called "Google Reviews Destroy Young Entrepreneurship" and it is bonkers: https://medium.com/@nathenmazri/google-reviews-destroy-young-entrepreneurship-add2929d5668
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Feb 9, 2020 15:04
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Pastry of the Year posted:If you haven't been following the saga of GarfieldEATS, well, I can't say I blame you because life is short and our brains, although wonderful, are of limited capacity by definition.  quote:Until Google critically thinks about the 15 countries per GDP, who have 180 million companies and 10 million more form other nations; our Happiness Managers will respond to those suspicious and unethical reviewers in the following manner until further notice or action is taken by Google: ( I said Google now and Google Assistance turns On, how nice !) ...what
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Feb 9, 2020 15:13
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Pastry of the Year posted:If you haven't been following the saga of GarfieldEATS, well, I can't say I blame you because life is short and our brains, although wonderful, are of limited capacity by definition. He's got a point in the form of "Online reviews can make or break your business, but you can be hosed no matter what by poo poo posting and you have no recourse" but then takes a hard turn into rant town and starts writing like a schizophrenic tract. This is a grade A- meltdown, 5/7 stars.
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Feb 9, 2020 15:29
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I remember reading somewhere around here about a Garfield-themed restaurant and thought "who in hell cares about Garfield nowadays, and what kind of insane fool would think opening up such a place makes any sense, when opening ANY restaurant is a tricky business move at best?" Welp, now we know. On the Earth Fare front: yesterday, I ran into a former co-worker of mine who defected to Earth Fare when they first opened here. Fortunately he got out with a new job just in time a couple weeks ago, because they are indeed closing and gave the employees one month notice. They'll be shuttering the Roanoke store at the end of the month. If you like Earth Fare, he said tomorrow's the day when they start deep-discounting stuff, like things already marked down are gonna go down 50 - 75%. He's planning on going and buying an rear end-ton of non--perishables like canned goods and whatnot. Dunno about y'all --- and I can't speak for every store's closing timeline ---, but I may have to go raid the canned goods myself. Just a heads up!
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Feb 9, 2020 15:51
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Icon Of Sin posted:
SA mods/admins are now to be referred to as Happiness Managers. There's a whole thread in GBS about GarfieldEATS that's been following it from its conception, and it's a wild ride. Several goons went and did trip reports, one goon did a Let's Read of the founder's self-published autobiography, etc etc. Taken as a whole, it's all very much supporting evidence that you (the person reading this) and I didn't survive the plane crash in 2016.
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Feb 9, 2020 17:38
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Listen to Pastry and check out that thread. What we just got here was but the tip of the insanity iceberg. Holy moly, this guy surpasses Howard Hughes, Elon Musk, and that guy that made Soylent combined as far as the "got money + got brain worms". This like CWC with Bill Gates's wallet.
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Feb 9, 2020 18:33
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Happiness Manager sounds like something out of Paranoia.
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Feb 10, 2020 14:45
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Happiness Manager sounds like something out of Paranoia. Happiness is mandatory. Have a nice daycycle, citizen. Drink bouncy bubbly beverage. It's the mandatory thing.
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Feb 10, 2020 14:51
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Pastry of the Year posted:SA mods/admins are now to be referred to as Happiness Managers. Link please? I am lazy
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Feb 10, 2020 20:02
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This way lies madness. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3884709&perpage=40
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Feb 10, 2020 20:29
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Excellent, thank you!
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Feb 10, 2020 21:28
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