[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
I wish we would stop sending our young people and a lot of our money out to keep order in this shithole world —
HH
Not half as much as the rest of the world wishes it.[/quote]
Amen!
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
Well both my parents are Scots so it must a genetic thing to be able to consume vast quantities of booze and still keep it together. [/quote]
That does explain a lot. I was wondering why hadn’t you started going off the deep end like all Englishmen I knew and actually sounded like a really nice guy.
Now I see why: your Scottish genes seem to have prevailed over the environment. I am glad – the last thing we needed was yet another T-Nation member competing for the AHCAs (Academy of Head-Cases Awards).
[quote]hspder wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
AND no greedy capitalist would invest outside his country because of all the risks. (HSPDER can attest to this.)
Hey, don’t drag me into this! Here was I, enjoying my week of vacation, and you had to bring me into yet another Economic discussion? I’m on a break! Leave me alone! 
OK, OK, I bite.
You are actually incorrect. Although it is quite uncanny how risk adverse most people are (explaining that risk adversity and why so few have the risk-taking-entrepreneurial-mindset that we try to cultivate here at Stanford is actually one of the Holy Grails of Economy – my theory is basically that it’s because most people are incredibly dumb, impulsive and short-sighted, but some of my colleagues somehow feel that is too harsh of me), there would ALWAYS be people willing to take risks.
The question for entrepreneurs is much more one of potential profit than of risk – and usually more risk means more potential profit, so it is quite possible that if the risk increased, the investments actually increased too.
Case in point: most American companies are pulling away from Europe and moving into Asia, even though Asia is STILL much riskier than Europe is or ever was? Why? Potential profit. Europe is a safe, low-risk, low-profit bet, like bonds, but Asia is the high-risk+low-cost+high-reward call.
If China had remained fully closed like before, we couldn’t invest there at all, even if we wanted. The problem was not risk, the problem was that there was no potential profit to be made there, since they wouldn’t let us in!
Having said that, there are two other points to be taken into account:
First, China changed its policy more as a result of necessity than military pressure from the US; China doesn’t fear us at all – they only play nice because it’s their best ECONOMIC interest to do so, not because of our Marines. They found out, ON THEIR OWN, that the value for THEM of being open to us greedy Americans.
Of course, they allow us to invest there in our own terms, and every time an American company invests there, in the terms of the Chinese (which include enforcing censorship) the principles of Freedom and Democracy that once represented what America stood for die a little.
Second, it is my firm belief that we’d all be much better off economically if China had stayed closed. Less competition means more money to us.
No wonder my arguments with ex-Clinton advisors tend to be a lot more contentious than with Pat Buchanan wannabes. I might have liked a lot of things about Bill Clinton’s policies, but his (and Al Gore’s…) policy with regards to China is NOT one of them.
[/quote]
From my work trying to get TV shows made in China I can certainly attest to you having to do things their way or not at all! First time I’ve had to run a doc about sharks past the Ministry of Propaganda!
[quote]hspder wrote:
1-packlondoner wrote:
Well both my parents are Scots so it must a genetic thing to be able to consume vast quantities of booze and still keep it together.
That does explain a lot. I was wondering why hadn’t you started going off the deep end like all Englishmen I knew and actually sounded like a really nice guy.
Now I see why: your Scottish genes seem to have prevailed over the environment. I am glad – the last thing we needed was yet another T-Nation member competing for the AHCAs (Academy of Head-Cases Awards).
[/quote]
Ha ha… That said, if you want to see the most hate-filled people on the planet, forget the Middle-East - visit Scotland when England are playing football. They actually go out of their way to buy the opponent’s shirts - Even Germany and Argentina!
It’s so petty it’s hilarious.
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
Ha ha… That said, if you want to see the most hate-filled people on the planet, forget the Middle-East - visit Scotland when England are playing football. They actually go out of their way to buy the opponent’s shirts - Even Germany and Argentina!
It’s so petty it’s hilarious.[/quote]
It’s just human – looking at the History between all of you I can really understand where all that resentment comes from. It is hilarious though.
I actually watched the England - Portugal game over at an English Pub in Palo Alto (the Rose and Crown Pub, just off University Avenue, two blocks from Stanford’s Historic Main Entrance – in case you ever come to CA and want to drop by), accompanied by a few Scottish and Irish friends. They were, of course, wearing Red / Green shirts (Portugal’s colo(u)rs) and cheering Portugal louder than I was.
Fortunately it never got physical, but the verbal exchanges between them and the English had me laughing my ass off most of the time.
I am pretty sure though that if we had done the same at a Pub in England, things would not have been as civilized. California weather, plus the time difference (it’s 9 hours earlier here) seems to mellow things a little.
This is, after all, Granola Country.
[quote]hspder wrote:
1-packlondoner wrote:
Ha ha… That said, if you want to see the most hate-filled people on the planet, forget the Middle-East - visit Scotland when England are playing football. They actually go out of their way to buy the opponent’s shirts - Even Germany and Argentina!
It’s so petty it’s hilarious.
It’s just human – looking at the History between all of you I can really understand where all that resentment comes from. It is hilarious though.
I actually watched the England - Portugal game over at an English Pub in Palo Alto (the Rose and Crown Pub, just off University Avenue, two blocks from Stanford’s Historic Main Entrance – in case you ever come to CA and want to drop by), accompanied by a few Scottish and Irish friends. They were, of course, wearing Red / Green shirts (Portugal’s colo(u)rs) and cheering Portugal louder than I was.
Fortunately it never got physical, but the verbal exchanges between them and the English had me laughing my ass off most of the time.
I am pretty sure though that if we had done the same at a Pub in England, things would not have been as civilized. California weather, plus the time difference (it’s 9 hours earlier here) seems to mellow things a little.
This is, after all, Granola Country.
[/quote]
I get shit from all my English friends for being half a Scot and wishing them well too. You can’t win!
Spent a couple of weeks in California last year and can’t wait to come back. Beautiful weather, cheap prices and fine Spanish women. Oh yeah, and apparently a couple of universities… lol
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
From my work trying to get TV shows made in China I can certainly attest to you having to do things their way or not at all! First time I’ve had to run a doc about sharks past the Ministry of Propaganda! [/quote]
The fact that people actually bow to their demands is what scares and upsets me. I do believe in compromises, but if there’s one thing I refuse to compromise on is the principle of freedom of speech – whatever the cost might be.
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security
– Benjamin Franklin
The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance
– Benjamin Franklin
[quote]hspder wrote:
1-packlondoner wrote:
From my work trying to get TV shows made in China I can certainly attest to you having to do things their way or not at all! First time I’ve had to run a doc about sharks past the Ministry of Propaganda!
The fact that people actually bow to their demands is what scares and upsets me. I do believe in compromises, but if there’s one thing I refuse to compromise on is the principle of freedom of speech – whatever the cost might be.
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security
– Benjamin Franklin
The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance
– Benjamin Franklin
[/quote]
Small steps… I hope they don’t ever lose their identity because it’s an amazing place and culture, but opening up to the free market will undoubtedly open up the flow of information, which in turn will speed the lifting of restrictions on what we consider ‘free speech’. I hope.
I don’t think there will ever be another Tianamen Square…
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
hspder wrote:
1-packlondoner wrote:
From my work trying to get TV shows made in China I can certainly attest to you having to do things their way or not at all! First time I’ve had to run a doc about sharks past the Ministry of Propaganda!
The fact that people actually bow to their demands is what scares and upsets me. I do believe in compromises, but if there’s one thing I refuse to compromise on is the principle of freedom of speech – whatever the cost might be.
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security
– Benjamin Franklin
The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance
– Benjamin Franklin
Small steps… I hope they don’t ever lose their identity because it’s an amazing place and culture, but opening up to the free market will undoubtedly open up the flow of information, which in turn will speed the lifting of restrictions on what we consider ‘free speech’. I hope.
I don’t think there will ever be another Tianamen Square…[/quote]
yeah, they’re smart enough not to let something like that happen where the public can see.
Won’t stop falun gong and others from being murdered or sent to work camps, however…
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
Small steps… I hope they don’t ever lose their identity because it’s an amazing place and culture, but opening up to the free market will undoubtedly open up the flow of information, which in turn will speed the lifting of restrictions on what we consider ‘free speech’. I hope.
I don’t think there will ever be another Tianamen Square…[/quote]
As I said before, I don’t buy that concept. There is stuff that you simply cannot compromise on, and that’s one of them. The End simply does not justify the Means, if the Means include betraying something as fundamentally Holy as freedom of speech.
Remember my comment about how amazing Cambridge is? Get a load of this:
"
A group of computer experts from the University of Cambridge claims that they are now able to circumvent the censorship mechanism that China uses to block unwanted content from reaching its citizens. Certain words are banned and certain websites are also banned. A user sitting within the country’s network will not be able to reach websites for which the government has deemed inappropriate. China itself has defended its right to police the Internet for its citizens many times.
The group of researchers say that China’s firewall is based on a a series of Cisco routers and the products work by censoring keywords. When a user wishes to access a websites that’s banned, the router returns reset packets to the foreign website, severing the connection – the data transmission is stopped at the foreign end-point. Using this bit of information on how the Cisco routers work, the researchers were able to find their way around the firewall by creating a system that ignores the reset packets sent by the Chinese routers.
Along with their discovery, the researchers also found that it was possible to create a denial-of-service (DoS) attack from within the firewall using the router’s own blocking mechanisms. By masquerading the source IP address of a banned website to one that’s within China’s network, the researchers are able to ban users from within the network from accessing a Chinese government website for example.
"
[quote]hspder wrote:
Remember my comment about how amazing Cambridge is? Get a load of this:
"
A group of computer experts from the University of Cambridge claims that they are now able to circumvent the censorship mechanism that China uses to block unwanted content from reaching its citizens. Certain words are banned and certain websites are also banned. A user sitting within the country’s network will not be able to reach websites for which the government has deemed inappropriate. China itself has defended its right to police the Internet for its citizens many times.
The group of researchers say that China’s firewall is based on a a series of Cisco routers and the products work by censoring keywords. When a user wishes to access a websites that’s banned, the router returns reset packets to the foreign website, severing the connection – the data transmission is stopped at the foreign end-point. Using this bit of information on how the Cisco routers work, the researchers were able to find their way around the firewall by creating a system that ignores the reset packets sent by the Chinese routers.
Along with their discovery, the researchers also found that it was possible to create a denial-of-service (DoS) attack from within the firewall using the router’s own blocking mechanisms. By masquerading the source IP address of a banned website to one that’s within China’s network, the researchers are able to ban users from within the network from accessing a Chinese government website for example.
"
[/quote]
I don’t know what the ramifications of that are, other than I’ll end up having to buy a new copy of Norton’s in a couple of weeks!
Hspder,
If what you said is true, wouldn’t there be a ‘gold rush’ to places like Rwanda and Zimbabwe? Seems the risk to capital, and hence the rewards, would be pretty high there?
I certainly know that a capitalist compares risk to reward when choosing where to invest. My point is that no one will build a factory or hunt for oil if its likely that the local tribal chieftain will either confiscate or destroy the investment. What prevents said chieftain from doing that? Power.
This is also a function of ‘removeability’ of the assets. An oil well can’t be moved. Consequently, anyone investing in, say, Venezuela, is taking a great risk. Eventually, as the assets are more heavily ‘taxed’ by thugs, no one invests there and the people starve. They then of course blame the Americans. “You exploited our land and people and are evil!!”
HH
[quote]hspder wrote:
1-packlondoner wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
I wish we would stop sending our young people and a lot of our money out to keep order in this shithole world —
HH
Not half as much as the rest of the world wishes it.
Amen![/quote]
Yes, let them all destroy themselves. Let them descend into chaos. The rest of the entire world is not worth the life of one young Marine.
Yep, cry for the sheriff to leave town. You’ll then have all the ‘freedom’ you want. The world is like a frontier town in our ‘Old West’; please ENJOY it w/o us.
But when the thugs come calling, when they burn down your home, confiscate your life savings, then decide to rape your wife and murder your children while you watch, then you’ll know what America did for this hell-world.
The sad part is that none of you think this is possible.
HH
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
hspder wrote:
1-packlondoner wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
I wish we would stop sending our young people and a lot of our money out to keep order in this shithole world —
HH
Not half as much as the rest of the world wishes it.
Amen!
Yes, let them all destroy themselves. Let them descend into chaos. The rest of the entire world is not worth the life of one young Marine.
Yep, cry for the sheriff to leave town. You’ll then have all the ‘freedom’ you want. The world is like a frontier town in our ‘Old West’; please ENJOY it w/o us.
But when the thugs come calling, when they burn down your home, confiscate your life savings, then decide to rape your wife and murder your children while you watch, then you’ll know what America did for this hell-world.
The sad part is that none of you think this is possible.
HH
[/quote]
A society is judged by the way it treats those less well off than itself. You would have your country judged very very harshly.
[quote]1-packlondoner wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
hspder wrote:
1-packlondoner wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
I wish we would stop sending our young people and a lot of our money out to keep order in this shithole world —
HH
Not half as much as the rest of the world wishes it.
Amen!
Yes, let them all destroy themselves. Let them descend into chaos. The rest of the entire world is not worth the life of one young Marine.
Yep, cry for the sheriff to leave town. You’ll then have all the ‘freedom’ you want. The world is like a frontier town in our ‘Old West’; please ENJOY it w/o us.
But when the thugs come calling, when they burn down your home, confiscate your life savings, then decide to rape your wife and murder your children while you watch, then you’ll know what America did for this hell-world.
The sad part is that none of you think this is possible.
HH
A society is judged by the way it treats those less well off than itself. You would have your country judged very very harshly.
[/quote]
Why should we care what tribes of savages think? Someone desires to confiscate your oil field and pour the profits into a Swiss account, for ex, and you’re surprised that they’re mad at us for stopping that? Savages want to flood your mine and you’re worried about their opinion of you?
You are extrapolating from your friends and neighbors to the world. You leave them alone and they do the same to you. What if they wanted to burn your house down and kill your family? Do you worry about their opinion of you if you stop them from doing that?
HH
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
1-packlondoner wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
hspder wrote:
1-packlondoner wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
I wish we would stop sending our young people and a lot of our money out to keep order in this shithole world —
HH
Not half as much as the rest of the world wishes it.
Amen!
Yes, let them all destroy themselves. Let them descend into chaos. The rest of the entire world is not worth the life of one young Marine.
Yep, cry for the sheriff to leave town. You’ll then have all the ‘freedom’ you want. The world is like a frontier town in our ‘Old West’; please ENJOY it w/o us.
But when the thugs come calling, when they burn down your home, confiscate your life savings, then decide to rape your wife and murder your children while you watch, then you’ll know what America did for this hell-world.
The sad part is that none of you think this is possible.
HH
A society is judged by the way it treats those less well off than itself. You would have your country judged very very harshly.
Why should we care what tribes of savages think? Someone desires to confiscate your oil field and pour the profits into a Swiss account, for ex, and you’re surprised that they’re mad at us for stopping that? Savages want to flood your mine and you’re worried about their opinion of you?
You are extrapolating from your friends and neighbors to the world. You leave them alone and they do the same to you. What if they wanted to burn your house down and kill your family? Do you worry about their opinion of you if you stop them from doing that?
HH
[/quote]
There goes the ‘global village’ theory.
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
If what you said is true, wouldn’t there be a ‘gold rush’ to places like Rwanda and Zimbabwe? Seems the risk to capital, and hence the rewards, would be pretty high there?[/quote]
Not with Gold – if somebody took that risk and was successful, the price of Gold would actually fall and probably render the risk worthless. If one failed, then the price of Gold would either not change or increase, but the guys who didn’t take the risk would be the winners, not who took it. Basically, there are better options.
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
I certainly know that a capitalist compares risk to reward when choosing where to invest. My point is that no one will build a factory or hunt for oil if its likely that the local tribal chieftain will either confiscate or destroy the investment. What prevents said chieftain from doing that? Power.[/quote]
Not really. You’re assuming there’s no incentive you can give the chieftain to cooperate other than the threat of violence. There are MANY other incentives that do not involve the use of force, as any of the many entrepreneurs that have made his/her fortune in high-risk countries can tell you.
Just the other day, one of my ex-students called me and told me he just closed a really large deal in one such risky country based on that very advice that we gave him. The incentive he gave the “chieftain” was pretty ingenious, and it did not involve any form of violence or threat of violence. Suffice to say, the ex-student is not an American. If he was, even assuming he was able to grasp the concept (well, I’m an American and I do, so I assume a few select others will too ;-)), the fact is that the moment they even thought he was an American, he’d be out the door – flying.
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
This is also a function of ‘removeability’ of the assets. An oil well can’t be moved. Consequently, anyone investing in, say, Venezuela, is taking a great risk. Eventually, as the assets are more heavily ‘taxed’ by thugs, no one invests there and the people starve. They then of course blame the Americans. “You exploited our land and people and are evil!!”[/quote]
One of the main reasons the Stanford GSB attracts so many Entrepreneurs (rather than pencil pushers, like other GSBs do) is because of our marketing philosophy. We teach our students (or, at least, try) to learn what motivates everyone they have to deal with – (co-)workers, partners, competitors, governments, war lords, whatever. And we teach how to deal with those obstacles. And we’ve actually had our share of students that were high ranking people from some of those unstable countries you seem to frown upon. Between the two, we teach how to positively influence people and get what we want from them without using conditioning or force. And considering the tremendous success of our Alumni, even internationally, it works.
(if I sound like an ad for Stanford’s GSB, I’m sorry – I’ve actually been working on our brochures, so I’m in Salesman mode)
[quote]hspder wrote:
One of the main reasons the Stanford GSB attracts so many Entrepreneurs … we teach how to positively influence people and get what we want from them without using conditioning or force.
[/quote]
What does “conditioning” mean in this context?
Who cares what they think? It is not like we depend upon England for anything except Marmite (which is very good on nice bread with some tea).
Otherwise, who cares?