Should we bring back Mercantilism and Imperialism and end this pansy free trade nonsense?

[Anonymous]

Libs in the 18th century made a big mistake by ending mercantilism.

Free trade is dumb. You are making deals with enemy countries for short term gain, basically making a deal with the devil.

Free trade slowly benefits your enemy over time.

Free trade and sharing goods is why China is now gaining leverage over us.

Updates

+1 y

@Signed Autographs, Don't ask a question and then block me preventing me from answering.

Mercantilism has nothing to do with Democracy.

Mercantilism is an economic philosophy.

So to answer your question, no, that is not what I'm saying.

[Anonymous]

We have imperialism under the Pax-Americana. Any country with a US base is part of the American empire. Free trade benefits the occurs only within the American empire.

[Asker]

We need more imperialism. Take stuff instead of sharing. Sharing enriches your enemies. You are enriching China buying their stuff.

[Opinion Owner]

We are taking. We aren't sharing.
China for the last 40 years gave us what we wanted which was cheap labor and cheap manufactured goods, just like India also does. The next wave of automation is going to do away with a lot of labor meaning more domestic manufacture and less GDP from China via the exploitation of cheap labor.
Look what is happening in Ukraine. When it's over the US will control the black sea and caspian which will give us a route into central asia which is mineral rich in oil/gas/coal and metals and set for z major economic boom. Central asia has Russia on its boarder to the north, China to the east, Iran to the west and Afghanistan to the south.
Russia currently holds the region as a sphere of influence but doesn't have the economic muscle to exploit it, China has an intrest and is building a modern silk road and the resources in central asia will fuel Chinese economic growth which is now stagnating. The US tried to use Afghanistan as a way into central asia but a miscalculation in regards to the taliban or the it wasn't as cost effective to build a pipeline linking central asia to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan now the plan seems to be to link the oil/gas of central asia via the caspian sea, into Georgia then into Ukraine and then into Europe thus bipassing the existing Russian pipelines into Europe which also connect central asia. A similar related scheme was happening in Syria linking Qatar oil/gas to Europe via Turkey but as it was going to undermine the oil/gas economy of its long time Russian ally Assad went against it and the US in response started a civil war to try to overthrow Assad that backfired and Russia intervened to prevent this.
upload.wikimedia.org/.../...phic_projection%29.svg
Map of central asia.

[Asker]

Yawn. Still doesn't mean we can't steal resources from other countries.

China contributes heavily to green house gases. Just nuke them and take their rare earth metals needed for green energy.

Why buy it from them?

[Asker]

And if automation is going to replace all labor, why again are we leaving our borders wide open and encouraging banning abortion?

Makes no sense.

[Asker]

And also Afghanistan was rich in rare earth metals and oil. We left like idiots leaving our weapons behind and noe China is making deals with the Taliban.

Why didn't we stay and take their rare earth metals?

That was dumb.

[Opinion Owner]

Afghanistan wasn't rich in natural resources but it was America's link to central asia.
We do invade and steal other nations resources but what we mainly do is bring other countries into the Pax-americana this way they earn for us, buy from us and provide auxiliary military resources.
Our boarders are left open because Americans don't want to pick their own strawberries, do their own gardening or look after their own kids. Automation is coming.
Afghanistan wasn't cost effective to hold, we were spending to much on a worthless land.

[Asker]

Afghanistan isn't resource rich? Bahahahaha. And it wouldn't be costly if you nuked it or at least launched an EMP before going in.

[Asker]

If automation is coming to replace all jobs, more migrants and unwanted kids taking space and depreciating wages will just cause political instability in your own country.

[Opinion Owner]

Cheap labor drives down wages. Why do anything to Afghanistan, its not worth the resources. EMPs don't work on ak47s and goats which was the biggest problem for the us military in Afghanistan, no targets worth shooting at

[Asker]

We're in a climate crisis right now and the WEF says in the next 10 years, a billion people will be displaced. Climate refugee crisis will happen in the next 10 years.

And if automation is replacing tons of jobs, how in the heck do you think leaving our borders open, banning abortion of unwanted and deformed kids makes any logical sense?

Depreciating wages further means political unrest.

Open borders was practiced before the French Revolution.

It led to widening income inequality because there were too many peasants competing for finite jobs and all the gains were going to the oligarchs.

Studies today show open borders increase income inequality.

Robespierre and Napoleon secured the borders and kicked out non citizens. They don't tell you that part about the French Revolution.

[Asker]

3 trillion dollars worth of metals in Afghanistan. And yes, maybe if we implemented a draft and conscripted slaves we could achieve the take over of Afghanistan.

We could have even enslaved the Afghanistanis.

Sorry, but things made more sense during the British Empire, Greek and Roman times.

[Opinion Owner]

Open boarders was operated before ww1. There was no problems because immigration was limited to who could afford it.
Climate change is set to open up more lands.
We could have kept Afghanistan for 200 years but why bother, the land is worthless. There are very few Americans fit to be drafted, Russia has a draft and look how they are doing in Ukraine. The US has a 1.3 million active military personal with 800,000 in reserve and another 1-5 million ex military vertereans that can be recalled to serve before any draft is ever needed. Not the largest military in the world but certainly the largest volunteer proffessional military that has ever existed. 1 proffessional service personnel is worth 20 conscripts especially when a draft is enacted.

[Asker]

Open borders were operated before ww1. That is correct. And that time was very politically unstable for America.

First red scare, anarchist bombings, excessive income inequality.

If it wasn't for the diversionary wars of ww1 and ww2, and multiple pandemics, the US would have experienced a revolution.

[Asker]

And also, mass migration also collapsed many civilizations in the past besides the French Monarchy.

Bronze Age Collapse and Collapse of Rome was characterized by excessive immigration.

Climate change caused those episodes of migration. The early middle ages and bronze age collapse experienced widespread drought.

And if you think the west can rapidly absorb a billion refugees when jobs will be replaced by robots, and the US is already experiencing mass homelessness, you are kidding yourself.

[Asker]

And we wasted 6 trillion dollars on Afghanistan. 😄 The US is run by idiots and now China owns it and is making deals with the Taliban for those rare earth metals in exchange for economic security.

[Asker]

And climate change won't just cause food scarcity in developing countries. It will also happen here.

Imagine everyone fleeing western states and moving into eastern states because of climate refugees raising rents in those areas which are already facing water shortages. Crop failures will happen in the midwest once we hit 2 degrees which will happen by 3 degrees above baseline. So how will we feed both native born people and the millions of refugees we took in? 😄

[Asker]

And google map of 4 degrees Celsius, which will happen by mid 2050s if you add the tipping points/feedback loops. Most of the world's lands are uninhabitable except for Canada and Russia. Do you honestly believe Canada can take in billions of refugees? Give me a break.

[Asker]

And what the heck are you talking about? More conscripts means more military power and ability to distract.

[Asker]

Russia isn't doing well because their most of their military equipment is obsolete.

And do you honestly think Putin is dumb enough to go all in with his best military equipment? You always save the best for last to confuse the enemy and get their hopes up.

[Opinion Owner]

America had no open boarders. In the rest of the world you could travel with no passport.
Afghanistan has no riches otherwise the Russians or British would have ruled it.
Roman civilisation didn't collapse it continued on until the fall of constantinople in the 1400s. The Western roman empire basically suffered population replacement by Germans due to justinians plague and mass immigration to the east and more importantly romes lack of a standing proffessional army which by this time relied on poorly trained conscripts and auxiliary german mercenaries.
That 6 billion dollars wasted in Afghanistan propped up the arms industry and us economy.
Canada is basically a US state. Russia is investing in northern bases in anticipation of an oil rush in the north Sea. Warmer temperatures means anatartica, ice land and Greenland will be more inhabitable.
Conscripts are basically useless in modern war, look at Sadam Hussein's military, during desert storm they got lost in the desert, and they are a desert country.
Russia is doing badly because their troops have 6 months of training at most. They did well in Syria though ISIS was armed and trained with the latest US equipment because the Russians sent proffessional Russian soldiers not conscripts.

[Asker]

Sigh... When I say Rome collapsed, do you honestly think I was referring to the Eastern portion, which experienced little migration?

[Asker]

Most of the barbarians flooded into the west, not the east. There are maps on the web that show the direction they entered into Rome.

[Asker]

That 6 trillion dollar deficit propped up the gun manufacturers with a few billion dollar profits and left trillions of dollars worth of oil and rare earth metals. Sounds like a net loss if you ask me.

[Asker]

Warmer temperatures also means all coastal cities are gone at 3 degrees Celsius. 80% of our nuclear power plants are on the coasts to cool off reactors. Look up pliocene climate, which was at 3 degrees. And look at the coastline of the pliocene and tell me how modern civilization can survive NYC, Los Angeles and all of Florida underwater.

Civilization is guaranteed to collapse by 2030 due to breadbasket failures.

Even if you somehow avoided food shortages in the US you are still talking about most major cities underwater between 2040 and 2050 due to sea level rise.

[Asker]

Makes no sense. Conscripts means more power. You keep mentioning examples like Iraq and Russia but they have inferior Reconnaissance technology compared to the US.

So yes, it would be hard to defeat US military tech with additional conscripts, but it would still give slight advantage to any military is there were more soldiers.

[Asker]

If I were in charge of the US, I would enforce more border control, erect giant electrified walls covered in barb wires surrounded by moats full of piranhas, construct giant sea walls and levees around the coasts. Stop any form of immigration from third world nations and just let them die from global warming and water shortages to reduce world population and lower co2, start a massive reforestation public works project, restart keystone pipeline temporarily while expanding green energy, clone human slaves to work on infrastructure projects to upgrade our outdated infrastructure, legalize transhumanist technologies, and increase the budget for NASA because it's nearly impossible for space travel to be profitable without government intervention, and start the process of mining the moon for rare earth metals

[Opinion Owner]

Eastern roman empire was invaded from the south, barbarians from Arabia.
Again there's no oil in Afghanistan otherwise the US would never have left. Afghanistan was a net loss. More cost effective to get central Asia's oil from Ukraine direction.
Traditional dirt farming is dead. Things are changing fast. There going yo be a new agricultural revolution fueled by modern science. Currently the west pays farmers not to grow.
Major cities that may go underwater will move.
Conscripts are sheep, professional soldiers are lions.
Russia has reasonable technology, not on par with the jnited states but its biggest problem is a lack of trained proffessional who know how to use that equipment. The more technical equipment gets the greater the need for trained professionals to be able to operate it.
Look at how the Vietnamese kicked the China's ass when they invade. The difference being the Vietnamese had a well trained and experienced professional force vs the Chinese and their conscript army.

[Asker]

Eastern Roman Empire invaded from the south? Wrong. Holy Roman Empire survived the crusades.

And in fact, most of Europe protected themselves from Muslims by building walls although a few territories were lost.

[Asker]

And walls of Constantinople were constructed to to protect from barbarians from the west.

Get your history right.

I can give dozens of more examples of how mass migrations cause collapse, especially during rapid climate change.

Sea peoples and Barbarians aren't the only groups to usher in Dark ages.

[Asker]

Look up resources in Afghanistan and then laugh at yourself. Do you know how to do research?

3 trillion dollars worth of metals. And Afghanistan has oil.

[Asker]

I know. The west pays farmers not to grow. You're right.

Meanwhile Brandon is warning of food shortages. Got to to love the idiots running the US.

[Asker]

Major cities will have to move?

Bahahahaha! And will you build a major metropolises in 20 years to house the billions of refugees and New Yorkers and Floridians who lost their homes? Give me a break.

What planet do you live on?

[Asker]

And who is going to decommission the dozens of nuclear power plants on the coasts? Takes decades to decommission nuclear power plants, so unless you want dozens of Chernobyls, I don't think that is wise letting cities go under.

[Opinion Owner]

The Holy Roman empire was the empire of the Franks, the Frank's who invaded the roman empire. It was what charlamange called his empire when he conquered all of what is today France, Germany, Austria, romania parts of Italy and Poland.
The Roman empire continued in the east up until the ottomans conquered constantinople in the 1400s. The Roman empire in the east lost north africa, Greece, Asia minor, the Holy land, Syria to the Muslims arabs and turks.
The sea people's came during a time when earthquakes, volcanoes and floods led to famines and the various bronze age empires were weak.
Constantinople was built when the first Christian emperor Constantine wanted to move the capital of the Roman empire out of Rome to avoid assignation and to aid making Christianianity the no1 religion of the empire.
Major cities will move if they have to move. Nature does not care about houses. WW2 showed what America can do when it wants to do it, if it has the will. Whole cities were built and people migrated to the west. Who is going to decommission nuclear power plants? The US government will if it has no choice.

[Asker]

You're very intelligent.

[tartaarsaus]

Gun-boat diplomacy works if you have the bigger ships. And well, within a thousand miles of China, the balance of power starts to shift heavily.

[NamerOfStars]

Yeah, because controlled markets work SOOO much better by comparison.

You *do* know that history didn't start in 1970, right?

[Asker]

18th century is 1970s?

Do you realize you can still support a free market economy without having to trade with rival countries?

Why not take their stuff instead of sharing? Kind of a zero sum gain. You are slowly enriching your enemies with free trade.

[Asker]

If we still practiced mercantilism, we would have world peace with one Empire running the world and keeping every other country in line. Free trade creates conditions for competition and rival states competing multilaterally.

[NamerOfStars]

::Laughs in Venetian:: You just keep on believing that.

[Asker]

LOL. Enjoy Russia and China starting a proxy war in your little country.

Weakness breeds wars.

[WhitneySnow]

No. That’s a terrible idea.

[Asker]

Why? Why share when you can just take resources from China?

[WhitneySnow]

Mercantilism and Imperialism are both right-wing anti-democratic philosophies that involve one country imposing its will on others through the use of unjustified force or the threat of force. Taking what’s not theirs, in other words.

[Asker]

You can still promote democracy and be a mercantilist.

Greeks and Romans practiced democracy and were imperialists and mercantilists, if you can call them that.

Its just democracy for your citizens, not the other countries.

And most nations throughout history practiced it, so I guess most nations are right wing.

And even the USSR and first French Republic, radical leftist nations were extremely imperialistic.

USSR invaded many countries and installed communist puppets, like in Afghanistan.

[SignedAutographs]

So you're saying you don't want a democracy?