Great quote made back in 2009 "I can see the politicians of the time running on a platform that said, "Keep the barbarians out! More walls to defend the empire"."
Also
"As things stands, we seem to be blithely following the same path that the Roman Empire followed. Our leaders are unable to understand complex systems and continue to implement solutions that worsen the problem. As the wise druid was trying to tell to Marcus Aurelius, building walls to keep the barbarians out was a loss of resources that was worse than useless. "
Well, the reality is that letting the barbarians in actually did in significant part lead to Rome's downfall. They rampaged through the countryside and sacked Rome multiple times.
Rome was in a state of near perpetual warfare with the Germans for centuries. Eventually Rome became too weak to defend its northeastern borders and the Germans hollowed out what had become a rotten western empire.
I don't know why you're being downvoted - the analogy to modern politics they are trying to push is hilariously bad. Are we really blaming the Romans for not supplicating the Goths and then getting massacred by them, leading to a 1000 year technological stagnation? Are we really trying to project Donald Trump onto Marcus Aurelius? You've got to be kidding me.
No, we're projecting Donald Trump onto a hypothetical Roman politician imagined in 2009 by Ugo Bardi the Oil Drum writer, due to the coincidental and quite obvious similarity of their "wall" platforms, including both the expense and the futility, as well as the fact that both are set in empires collapsing under their own weight. Is it so hard to see?
America isn't an empire, and is hardly collapsing under its own weight. It's actually doing incredibly well, aside from some annoying partisan bickering.
Interestingly, the Gothic rebellions that lead to the sacking of Rome twice in the 400s AD was a direct result of the Romans abandoning their traditional policy of integration, dispersion, and resettlement in favor of abusing and exploiting the desperate Goths. Given a choice by the Romans of starving to death or selling their children into slavery, the Goths chose 'none of the above' and went on a rampage that led to the position as a coherent military power within the borders of the Empire but not truly tied to it.
The degree to which the Romans relied on barbarians in later years for their own defense was quite significant -- and they rarely afforded barbarians full citizenship.
Walls being useless in one situation at a given time and place does not mean they are always useless: for instance the great wall of China have been really useful to keep northern barbarians at bay for centuries.
Travis Kalanick might be upset... All the way to the bank, as a holder of huge equity and majority voting power (so he seems to have the capacity to reinstall himself as a CEO when/if he finds it fit) who surely has negotiated nice conditions for himself in any liquidity event.
It seems that (for obvious reasons!) the bulk of the action is happening in US and China. However, I am also surprised that currently transaction volume in currencies of Brazil or Russia exceeds those in Euro or Yen...
JOE KENNEDY, a famous rich guy in his day, exited the stock market in timely fashion after a shoeshine boy gave him some stock tips. He figured that when the shoeshine boys have tips, the market is too popular for its own good, a theory also advanced by Bernard Baruch, another vested interest who described the scene before the big Crash:
"Taxi drivers told you what to buy. The shoeshine boy could give you a summary of the day's financial news as he worked with rag and polish. An old beggar who regularly patrolled the street in front of my office now gave me tips and, I suppose, spent the money I and others gave him in the market. My cook had a brokerage account and followed the ticker closely. Her paper profits were quickly blown away in the gale of 1929."
So far I have never heard my non-technical acquaintances talk about making payments with bitcoin. I have only heard them talk about investing in bitcoin, which sounds very bubbly.
Assuming (can't check myself, content is locked for me!) that quote from The Information (re: 20% accepted and and 20% stay) mentioned in comments below is true, I agree that CNBC phrase "Only 4 percent of people who sign up to drive for the ride-hailing service are still driving a year later" while being factually correct sounds misleading, even though they directly link to the original content!
Therefore, I ask the admins to change the link to the Information page!
Also, it would be nice if anyone can (for people like me who are NOT subscribed to The Information) kindly copy and paste here the whole original Information article. Thanks!
I would be happy to ask the admins to change the link to the Information page, although point is that this link is locked for me! Assuming that quote from The Information (re: 20% accepted and and 20% stay) is true, I agree that CNBC phrase "Only 4 percent of people who sign up to drive for the ride-hailing service are still driving a year later" while being factually correct sounds misleading, even though they directly link to the riginal content!
"This morning I told the Uber team that we're actively looking for a chief operating officer: a peer who can partner with me to write the next chapter in our journey," Kalanick said in a statement.
As far as I recall the "taxi tape" [1] Travis might rather prefer TWO female COOs who could partner with him :) right at the back seat of Uber Black limo :)
[1] Quoting https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2981388/uber-travis-kalanick-b... "Kalanick had been filmed boasting of his work ethic with two women on the backseat of the car before rowing with the driver"
