
Nobody ‘stealing’ your jobs, you spend too much on wars, Jack Ma tells US - ghosh
https://www.rt.com/business/374289-alibaba-us-jobs-military/
======
taxicabjesus
The plutocracy, who runs things behind the scenes, decided long ago that the
rent extracted from the outsourcing of industry could finance their imperial
war machine.

Perkin's _Confessions of an Economic Hitman_ [1][2] is a good read.

The US' problem with China is that they think long-term... Their leaders long
ago realized they needed to industrialize, and started with whatever low-tech
jobs western companies were willing to give them. Now they are demanding
western companies share their crown jewels with Chinese companies (requiring
that much of their high-speed rail infrastructure be manufactured in-country,
etc).

Similarly, the US' problem with Russia is that they play chess, while US
politicians play checkers.

I think Señor Trump is smart enough to know that the Imperialists are
America's true enemy, but that Joe and Jane American don't realize the full
extent of their government's "Economic Hitmen" activities. Hopefully he'll
rename the Department of Homeland Security to something that doesn't imply
imperialism. Similarly, hopefully he'll order the department of defense to
reimagine itself into a department concerned with the country's defense,
rather than being obsessed with the ability to destroy anything anywhere on
the planet at a moment's notice.

[1]
[https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1576755126](https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1576755126)
[2]
[https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1626566763](https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1626566763)
(just learned there's a 2016 edition)

~~~
rtpg
For all the political chess, Russia's economy is still smaller than Italy's,
despite having a pretty good setup in theory.

Russia is able to make noise and do things to Eastern Europe, but the
government's moves seem to be much more about preserving the current
government rather than advancing the interests of the nation as a whole

For example: how does annexing Crimea help Russia? Was that one navy port
worth it?

A calculated risk, perhaps. But they seem to be bad at math.

~~~
tunap
Don't forget the gas resources in the calculations. Well worth it, for Russia.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/world/europe/in-taking-
cr...](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/world/europe/in-taking-crimea-putin-
gains-a-sea-of-fuel-reserves.html?_r=0)

------
kbart
Didn't read the article, but RT (Russia Today) is Kremlin's propaganda
channel[0] and it's links should neither be trusted nor shared.

0\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Propaganda_cla...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_\(TV_network\)#Propaganda_claims_and_related_issues)

~~~
Arnt
Are you implying that Jack Ma did not really say that?

~~~
kbart
No, I'm implying that sharing of propaganda channels should not be encouraged,
because it makes them look legitimate.

~~~
RDeckard
What about CNN, BBC and Western propaganda channels? Are you The Ministry of
Truth?

~~~
kbart
CNN, BBC and probably all of Western media channels have their agenda, but
none of them is straightforward propaganda with direct control by government
as RT is. Don't make mistake here, there are no RT counterpart in West,
despite RT trying very hard to "prove" otherwise.

~~~
RodericDay
Propaganda for a state that controls hands-on and directly will be managed
hands-on and directly.

Propaganda for a state that controls via economic incentives and backroom
greasing will be handled via economic incentives and backroom greasing.

I'm a South American living in Canada and I honestly find this effort of yours
to get people to stop sharing RT hilarious. I watch american channels (or Al-
Jazeera) for news about Russia (or the Middle East), and vice-versa. This
works well.

Hillary Clinton lost largely because the New York Times, your paper of record,
assured people that she had in the bag and that they could stay home. Now
people want to blame Russia for "hacking the election", and it's been reported
so poorly by the New York Times and The Washington Post that 50% of liberals
polled now believe that Russia hacked the vote tallies themselves. [0]

This is very similar to how in the wake of 9/11, the ignorance about the
difference between Iraq and Afghanistan was exploited to rally support for war
in the former. Or how the torture report was buried.

Take a step back and look at try to look at your posting in this topic
objectively. You're fear-mongering and shaming, and not being persuasive.

I encourage everyone to read this article by Emily Bartlett Hines about "How
The Times Failed You" [1]

[0] [https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/12/27/belief-
conspiracies...](https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/12/27/belief-conspiracies-
largely-depends-political-iden/)

[1] [https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/01/how-the-times-
failed-...](https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/01/how-the-times-failed-you)

~~~
kbart
_" Take a step back and look at try to look at your posting in this topic
objectively."_

I happen to live in a country that's bordering Russia and can see first
handedly what damage propaganda causes, especially to minorities here. So
sorry, I can't "step back and see objectively". Propaganda is a weapon and
should not be tolerated as such.

~~~
RodericDay
I'm South American so I have first handedly seen how American propaganda
works. It may be different from Russian propaganda, but your plea that people
stop sharing RussiaToday, in absence of equal pleas against The New York
Times, comes off as ignorant. You may be scared about Russian military
aggression, but I beg you to compare how much military aggression the US and
Russia are both engaged in right now.

By the way, I decided to share the well-argued, well-cited article about the
issues with pro-Clinton New York Times reporting on HackerNews, it got three
upvotes, and then it got flagged to death.

Consider that we may both be between a rock and a hard place.

------
mrle
$5 trillion USD on war on terror, and the world is not safer than before. with
$5 trillion you could buy Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook etc.

~~~
talmand
Like most government "wars" on a problem it has turned out to be an expensive
effort to make the problem worse. I agree with the theory that this is by
design; if a government program actually solved a problem then the funding
goes away.

------
JoeAltmaier
Does this even make sense? How does "employing millions of people for a war"
become "job loss"?

~~~
avisser
War doesn't have a lot of returns.

Let's say we spend $100 mil blowing up a neighborhood in Iraq vs $100 building
a building in St Louis. Both employ people during the act. But the building in
St Louis will be worth something at the end of it. And it will most likely
facilitate more commerce. Same with building a highway.

~~~
wamsachel
You're forgetting to factor in all the other countries who look at how the
hegemony can spend $100M on blowing up a neighborhood like it's nothing, and
therefore decide to kowtow to the demands of the powerful, lest they suddenly
come down with a case of terrorism themselves.

~~~
avisser
Great. Azerbaijan will do as we want. That's gotta be worth at least $50 to
GDP, right?

I'm being snarky, but what is that X-factor actually worth? And should we then
factor in all the people who will hate the USA and do their damnedest to maim
& kill Americans?

I don't have numbers, but this doesn't seem like a winning argument.

~~~
wamsachel
Have you read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man? Look, they have the money
figured out, they're not likely to do something unless they feel they're going
to get ROI, and I don't mean ROI for you and me, no no no no. You and I are
just on the hook for paying for the welfare checks delivered to these
corporations.

Libya was toppled because Libya was key to keeping the West out of Africa,
since Gaddafi fell, Western bases can't be built in Africa fast enough. Also,
since the fall of Libya the people still haven't had their water works
restored, oh but magically the West have graciously given the Libyan people
the World Bank and other globalist institutions.

Also, maimed westerners == propaganda material and job security. How have you
not figured this out yet?

You don't have the numbers, because your TV ain't gonna tell you them.

