The West has no cards to play with coercing Russia to negotiate thanks to sanctions, sure their economy isn't as big as it could be but it isn't dependent on the west. Meanwhile on the flip side the west, primarily Europe, is suffering economic and social stability issues as a result but that's combining with EVERY other issue that's causing instability (migrants, child abuser parades, disenfranchisement of farmers etc)
They're also still trading with a few other Asian manufacturing sectors like Singapore afaik. Basically neutral parties who may be loosely aligned with NATO who really aren't going to lose anything by continuing to trade with Russa.
One of the reasons Trump was able to swing his dick so much during his presidency in terms of foreign policy. America being energy independent was MASSIVE leverage to get what he wanted.
The birthrate for Japan in 1947, while whole swathes of the country were in total ruin, was 4.5.
The current birthrate is 1.3. It's probably the lowest birthrate that Japan has ever seen in the history of it's civilization.
People think that de-population is usually related to war and violence, normally it's an innuendo for genocide.
Yet the depopultion of Japan is taking place without a shot being fired. Without a single bomb being dropped. Without a single home being burned. Without any of the atrocities of war, the Japanese have been so badly mauled that mothers will not produce children, that 40% of men under the age of 35 are virgins, that people die alone in their apartments not being found for weeks or months.
Keynsianism is a weapon that has so ravaged Japan it has got them to kill themselves, rather than having to fire-bomb them.
True, that's probably a better way to explain the pitfalls of how we've seen things play out.
Like yes, obviously there are occasions where you really can only get your best materials or resources from a handful of accessible regions, but you should always try to maintain a usable and healthy supply from other sources if it's both possible and feasible.
Russia's economy is weak on paper for the same reason red states have smaller numbers than coastal blue states: you can make the money number a lot higher by doing financial tricks and emailing spreadsheets than you can by actually producing tangible physical products.
The west is playing as China requires them. We are killing ourselves, and making Russia economically dependent upon China; weakening our position while China secures itself.
The only country winning the war in Ukraine is China.
I don't doubt China is playing behind the scenes to weaken their rivals, but China has so many internal problems THEIR days are numbered.
I'll be completely honest here, I think there isn't going to be another global hegemony like we've had for centuries. Right now it seems everyone has their 'plans' of how they'll be the power brokers and lead the world but this seems to just drain the resources and stability of a country faster.
Trump seemed to make America more powerful by withdrawing a lot of that a redistributing it back into America. Every country trying to be more internationally have left their foundations to rot and in a few years we are going to see quite a lot of places crumble.
I agree that we'll have a multi-polar world, rather than a hegemon; but I think China's internal problems are one of the reason they are pushing hard on how to weaken us.
The West has no cards to play with coercing Russia to negotiate thanks to sanctions, sure their economy isn't as big as it could be but it isn't dependent on the west. Meanwhile on the flip side the west, primarily Europe, is suffering economic and social stability issues as a result but that's combining with EVERY other issue that's causing instability (migrants, child abuser parades, disenfranchisement of farmers etc)
They're also still trading with a few other Asian manufacturing sectors like Singapore afaik. Basically neutral parties who may be loosely aligned with NATO who really aren't going to lose anything by continuing to trade with Russa.
Nobody wants to move to Belarus tho.
Funny how a self-sustainable economy is often much more robust that one that depends almost solely on outsourced manufacturing and goods.
One of the reasons Trump was able to swing his dick so much during his presidency in terms of foreign policy. America being energy independent was MASSIVE leverage to get what he wanted.
How bad is Keynesianism? I like to make this comparison.
In World War 2, the US Army Air Corp's bombardment of the Japanese home islands destroyed 85% of the entire country. Curtis LeMay was one of our primary serial killers. He murdered 100,000 people in a single raid. Somewhere around 4% of the population was killed in the war.
The birthrate for Japan in 1947, while whole swathes of the country were in total ruin, was 4.5.
The current birthrate is 1.3. It's probably the lowest birthrate that Japan has ever seen in the history of it's civilization.
People think that de-population is usually related to war and violence, normally it's an innuendo for genocide.
Yet the depopultion of Japan is taking place without a shot being fired. Without a single bomb being dropped. Without a single home being burned. Without any of the atrocities of war, the Japanese have been so badly mauled that mothers will not produce children, that 40% of men under the age of 35 are virgins, that people die alone in their apartments not being found for weeks or months.
Keynsianism is a weapon that has so ravaged Japan it has got them to kill themselves, rather than having to fire-bomb them.
No economy is self-sustainable; but no economy should be entirely economically dependent on a handful of sectors.
Autarkey is impossible. But compartmentalization is a horrific idea.
True, that's probably a better way to explain the pitfalls of how we've seen things play out.
Like yes, obviously there are occasions where you really can only get your best materials or resources from a handful of accessible regions, but you should always try to maintain a usable and healthy supply from other sources if it's both possible and feasible.
Yeah, totally agree. Especially what I would consider strategic resources: food, water, energy, munitions, finance.
Russia's economy is weak on paper for the same reason red states have smaller numbers than coastal blue states: you can make the money number a lot higher by doing financial tricks and emailing spreadsheets than you can by actually producing tangible physical products.
The west is playing as China requires them. We are killing ourselves, and making Russia economically dependent upon China; weakening our position while China secures itself.
The only country winning the war in Ukraine is China.
I don't doubt China is playing behind the scenes to weaken their rivals, but China has so many internal problems THEIR days are numbered.
I'll be completely honest here, I think there isn't going to be another global hegemony like we've had for centuries. Right now it seems everyone has their 'plans' of how they'll be the power brokers and lead the world but this seems to just drain the resources and stability of a country faster.
Trump seemed to make America more powerful by withdrawing a lot of that a redistributing it back into America. Every country trying to be more internationally have left their foundations to rot and in a few years we are going to see quite a lot of places crumble.
I agree that we'll have a multi-polar world, rather than a hegemon; but I think China's internal problems are one of the reason they are pushing hard on how to weaken us.
Pretty much, weaken its competition enough that when they collapse they don't have to worry about foreigners taking advantage and can try to rebuild.