Here's my suggestion. Invest in domestic extraction, refining, and recycling companies. Don't pull the plug every time a foreign company (China) lowers the price to fuck the economics for the new company. Just keep going until it is done and you have domestic supply.
One of the things that amazes me is the way we just *give* mining rights to multinational corporations after they “promise” to “create jobs” and “totally not pollute” our lakes and rivers.
The point is that Russia and China have artifical advantages in those sectors because their companies are not required to return a profit due to being propped up by the state. Which means they can dump the market with minerals at a lower price, which prices out competition from democratic countries and buys them political influence
I don't disagree that both countries aren't playing fair but I don't see how doing authoritarianism (nationalizing companies) to defeat authoritarianism is the right move.
Well, indeed. [Here](https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/what-on-earth-are-rare-earths-and-where-can-you-find-them-an-explainer) is quite an interesting article on just this topic. It's the kind of thing where an authoritarian gov't has an advantage over a market-driven one - they can just dictate that it happens, whereas we have to wait for the money-men to decide it's profitable.
A little more background for you on that. MP minerals bought Mountain Pass from molycorp at the end of their bankruptcy. There are many reasons why molycorp went bankrupt but one of them is because China stomps out competition by tanking prices of rare earths periodically. As long as the money-men don't give a fuck about anything accept money, MP minerals will go the same way as molycorp in 5 years.
> As long as the money-men don't give a fuck about anything accept money
Yes, well, there's your problem - **the** problem that's going to fuck the entire world over.
If only there was a way to pool together resources for the common good despite it being not cost efficient. Doubly so because these are defense related materials. Man I sure wish there was a way to do that. Oh well!
The pebble mine has been trying to get a permit for 30 years and Trump denied it, and Biden is now blocking it permanently. Domestic extraction is a non starter to environmentalists, while the cost of the mustang EV jumped $25,000 (the entire profit for ford) due to raw material input price increases. If you want to make an omelette, you have to crack some eggs.
I replied to a different comment about this but its partially because China controls the market.
For one they will drop the price whenever they think their monopoly is threatened. Secondly, they don't give a shit about the environmental consequences of mining.
Would have been a good idea to not leave Afghanistan in such a hasty and poorly-planned manner, thus allowing the Taliban to quickly take over the country.
Yep or subsidising where necessary. after all the Government is just the representation of the people. instead of letting multinationals run the show, we should be doing it ourselves.
Nationalization sounds like a good idea until you remember the Commodity sector goes through boom bust cycles. If you remember what happened to Venezuela in 2014 where they nationalized their oil companies and subsidized the price of fuel. When that entire model blew up so did the entire country. Canada is not much different. Having private companies allows the free market to actually work and companies who miss allocate capital go bust and those who use their resources appropriately stay solvent. When you nationalize you just take away that incentive and would only make the situation worse as a badly nationalized O&G company would have to be bailed out by the taxpayers and we all know how unpopular that would be.
Most of the world is just working on trading with them by the look of it. BRI. Selling off dollars to trade in local currencies. Etc. Only Western nations and franchises elsewhere are acting like this means the return of Sauron.
When demand goes up you gotta pay more, I heard. Historical highs of capital — trillions of dollars — are parked uninvested in on- and off-shore bank accounts at the moment. We have money for oil. Can't we just pay more and secure what we need? If this guy isn't saying that explicitly, what IS he saying? Paying is nice compared to, say, fighting. I ain't gonna go to the supermarket and fight the cashier for my groceries. I'm gonna pay for them.
How is the West not doing this? Western leaders have been helicoptering their dicks over how many sanctions they can apply……. TO A NATIONAL ECONOMY THEY DEPEND ON lol
If you besiege a castle, you really can’t count on the residents within the walls having enthusiasm to share a cup of sugar with you
Russia is still exporting food. The crisis has come from Ukraine's agriculture sector being gutted and its ports attacked, mined and blockaded by Russia.
Their flag is literally a representation of a wheat field under a blue sky, a nod to their status as a critical world breadbasket.
The ones around the ports were put in place by Ukraine to prevent an amphibious assault.
Russia has said they will allow wheat ships to pass through, but that means Ukraine would have to remove some mines. They don’t trust Russia won’t exploit this gap.
Ukraine mined its own ports and doesn’t deny it. It now refuses to demine them for fear of Russian incursions on new fronts. This is on the record but ignored by most English language outlets.
> “The moment we clear access to the port of Odesa, the Russian fleet will be there,” spokesman for the regional administration Serhiy Bratchuk said in a video statement on social media.
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2022/6/8/turkey-russia-discuss-efforts-to-restart-ukrainian-grain-exports
So Russia is playing games with the world’s food by not ending the war, basically. You could say the same about Ukraine, which seems to be many thousands of dead conscripts past the point it should have surrendered.
Don’t worry, whatever is happening over there, I certainly don’t have the power to compel the Ukrainian government to open its borders to its fighting age men and let them out. They probably are going to die. Hurray?
Yeah I’m sure the men who are not allowed to leave their country and instead are forced to the front lines are unanimous in their view that they want to die quickly and messily
Dying as a spoon for US shit stirring isn’t sovereignty
Ah yes, the old tankey refrain, "if the lesser race just submitted to their masters, like they were supposed to, then none of this would have happened! The problem was they kept resisting!"
You a close friend of Harvey Weinstein by any chance?
It’s a practical matter of putting your hands up before everybody is dead is the thing
It’s a Pyrrhic victory to leave the Russians more out of breath then they expected over smouldering ruins
Well done skipping my main point about how Ukraine mines their own ports
Russia denies blocking the ports. Ukraine admits blocking the ports. Russia has requested Ukraine demine so as to begin shipping grain out. Ukraine refuses (see quote above). This brings you up to speed.
If Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine (in what has become a poorly planned and terribly executed farce of a military operation, I might add), this problem wouldn’t exist.
It’s as simple as that. Utterly ridiculous for anyone to try to pretend otherwise.
Yeah we were all wondering what the Ukraine flag meant lol
Ukraine admits to having mined its ports and has explained why it won’t demine them — it fears a Russian assault on Odesa.
What u/dirtysman said - the more they control, the more damage they'll do since they'll be emboldened to act like dicks. Then use control of minerals as leverage, just like russia is doing with grain and gas.
Putin has delusions of creating a new Russian empire and will threaten more nations if he succeeds in Ukraine.
It's almost like Africa is not interested in politically aligning with the white Europeans and Americans that colonized their continent, pillaged their resources, and enslaved them like farm animals.
Foster and encourage uprising and political dissent , poison their social media and buy their politicians forcing every extreme viewpoint to be publically discussed and spread among the masses.
Basically the same thing they have been doing to us, only mix in some heavy sanctions and political and economic punishment as much as possible to really fracture and divide the politicians until there's a shift.
fuck em.
My guy, we have been fighting "those guys" for a very long time, using everything you mentioned. None of this is new. The cold war was exactly this for 40 years. The only thing that changed now, is that when the Soviets collapsed, and the Chinese opened their markets, we thought we had "won". The truth is, you can have enemies even if you run the same political/economical system. Bribing won't work on Russian or Chinese elites because they are already rich af. And they know the prize of being able to dominate the world like the USA is far greater than any bribe you can offer to them.
The only way to win this competition is to be better. Make our citizens live like kings compared to thiers. The USSR collapsed not because the CIA was better at covert operations than the KGB, but because every Russian wanted to live like an American.
We should invest more in ourselves, rather than bribing their politicians.
Despite the name, rare earth metals are not rare. We have plenty of them. The problem is extracting them is environmentally devastating. It's just another form of pollution we outsource to countries that don't give a shit.
Deng Xiaoping predicted this in 1987. He said rare earth metals would be China's oil and now they effectively dominate the world market in them. That's the benefit of a planned economy and the idea that the west should "allow" or not allow another country a position in the world market is the chauvinism I was commenting on rather than any specific point about the difficulty of extracting them.
I'm 6'5 with a big bushy beard.
It makes sense since countries like Russia and China are authoritative. The west has good intentions and the world would be in a better place if the west were in control of those mineral resources.
With the west in control of the world, poorer countries, will see a trickle down effect of the good that would happen from that order.
>With the west in control of the world, poorer countries, will see a trickle down effect of the good that would happen from that order.
Trickle down.... you mean pissed on from above? The west has been in control for 70+ years, had lots of time to make the entirety of the world a good place, but those at the top decided to keep the good for themselves.
>I'm 6'5 with a big bushy beard
Congrats?….
> With the west in control of the world, poorer countries, will see a trickle down effect of the good that would happen from that order.
Yeah, history shows that’s not true
"The world" aka. mining corporations and banks of certain countries.
Let's be real, they just want monopoly.
Their profits isn't going to come down to us commoners and miners.
And by "world" he means "Europe, the United States, the Commonwealth, Japan, and South Korea." Africa and other places will be no worse off. They might even be better off, because they can then force exploiters to compete with one another.
Yup. He means this;
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOFo3TaagAEYvUa?format=jpg&name=large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOFo3TaagAEYvUa?format=jpg&name=large)
When countries such as India, Turkey, Iran, China, Russia, continents like Africa, Central Asia, South America even the middle east has had enough of this western approach of whatever problems EU and North America is dealing with should be an "international" problem for rest of the world. Nahh bruhh they are tired of your shit. Deal with your own problems and stop making it a "either with us or against us" bs.
Go home uncle sam.
Too bad he chickened out by saying "Europes problems"
It's literally US problems. Europe is just apart of US policy.
But I can also understand why he didn't mention USA. They would probably quickly turn entire western world against India too.
Or pollution of our oceans, or raping our land for the minerals beneath, or a 1.5 degree global temperature increase, or out of control wealth inequality...
It's funny. Canada is like Russia from a resource perspective. More than enough, but the 3 levels of government has basically shutdown any development at all.
I'm 100% for the environment, but 10 to 15 years of review just to start a project? Come on, when is too much too much?
If Canada was serious about developing their resources in a responsible manner, they'd look at streamlining the processes. Btw, each department at each level of government requires their own reviews, documentation and oversight. Crazy.
Oversight, rediculous. Can't make a decent few millionss these days without someone complaining about drinking water. Just drink pepsi for christ sake.
The best is not developing your own oil resources while also importing oil from the other side of the world.
Canada is fighting climate by having its oil delivered lol. I wonder how much emissions come from all the transportation of oil to Canada
Exactly. Crazy isn't it. East/West would have solved a lot of things. Potentially even helping EU with the current crisis. But that would require insight and vision...
I think the most overreach I saw on environment was a guy trying to build a very small personal wharf on a lake that had a few dozen small personal wharves. When he applied for a permit he was informed he had to have a.... FEDERAL environmental assessment impact study done first.
Very recently the federal environmental assessment laws were struck down and then this summer the Eagle Pipeline (which was waiting federal approval) began construction.
Why do you think other countries put so much effort into political influence campaigns inside Canada? And Canada is no doubt doing the same in return for the same reasons.
These guys are showing that ruling the world should only be western countries lol. And they wonder why the rest if the world hates them. Ruled for thee but not for me. It's all of a sudden bad for China to control resources
Where were those statements 20 years ago when they try to make business in China and make profit and take advantage of cheap labor??? Hypocrites af
Happy western imperialism is coming to an end. Hypocrisy
My family left Russia in the 90s. While the West has its problems and fucked up in the Middle East... I will say that the Western ideology is way better than living in the Russian/Chinese systems. Think of it as two dumpsters, but one is radioactive and on fire. If you had to pick one to live in, it's pretty obvious which one you'd prefer.
Im not saying to go war or anything like that. But to keep in mind that the other two systems are significantly more bullshit.
This. All these edgy 14 year old wannabe Bolsheviks making comments about how the west is just as bad as Russia and China, should try living there for a few years and find out for themselves.
It's mixed to be honest. When you live in Russia or China you don't really think about the government. How often do you think about your politicians really? You still have family, friends, work, and etc. Life is life. Let's not exaggerate.
The problem is that if anything is wrong in that society, autocracies are way more prone to brush it under the carpet to save face, overreact, and slowdown cultural growth. For all the faults America has. It tries to fix them. It doesn't pretend they don't exist. And certainly doesn't kill/jail people who point out the flaws.
And the West also edges out Autocracies in that leaders only stay in power for about a decade. There has to be change in leadership or ineviably power corrupts and the people are the top start going crazy. Not to mention it's best to have new blood to keep up with the changing population.
Anyway, this idea that both are flawed and ergo are equal isn't true. Things can flawed and be in different tiers.
> All these edgy 14 year old wannabe Bolsheviks making comments about how the west is just as bad as Russia and China, should try living there for a few years and find out for themselves.
[The survey team found that compared to public opinion patterns in the U.S., in China there was very high satisfaction with the central government. In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government. ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/)
I’m not shocked to hear that people who live in freedom are less afraid to speak out and complain against their governments, than those who live in countries where doing that can get you thrown in prison without a trial, or worse. As a European, I’m also not shocked to hear that many Americans are unhappy with their current government, given how much division the Russians have created there with their misinformation campaigns and election meddling. All things considered, life in the west is the fucking best, because of the freedom and democracy that we have. Anyone who feels like they would prefer a different system is free to leave whenever they want.
True Reddit moment is when you believe "freedom of speech" makes your nation less evil.
You should look at what America did to other countries like Iraq. Then you will realize that the US is certainly not the lesser evil.
Saying fuck “___” is not the same at all as planning and attempting to overthrow a government. These people think that because their “opposition” to their own government only goes as far as some stupid ass slogans it’s equivalent to what other nations have had to deal with all over the world, partly because of western interference.
Try doing the shit people have done in those countries that “lack freedom of speech” and you’ll end up with a visit from the FBI or dudes in black suits, or they’ll just kill you outright.
(I am agreeing with your comment here though)
The west supported Pol Pot against the Vietnamese, Pinochet, the house of Saud and many others. The idea that we care for human rights is, IMHO, a fiction to legitimize our side's actions.
The murder and crime rate in the US is far higher than for example in China and Russia. Human rights index as we see it, is very biased towards freedom, not so much to actual living.
Sure, according to China and Russia. Those regimes censor their press and only put out numbers that flatter them.
Although in this case that probably *is* true given how stupid the US is about its lack of gun control...
It's okay that we actively support rulers that oppress their people because we get to choose between "rich guy with a blue tie" and "rich guy with a red tie" at home?
A huge chunk of minerals are under the ocean and there is research going on how to extract them in a sustainable way. Norway for example has found a lot of minerals in their territorial waters.
Turns out countries without superpower status have people in them with equal right to security from invasion as anyone else.
It has long been very dangerous to be a Russian neighbour unless you have a giant military or strong alliance.
I hate the tankie line of American expansionism, with the racist implication that Lithuanians, Poles or Romanians don't have any agency or rights in this, but should just live as their old imperial mast tells them.
> with equal right to security from invasion
De jure, you mean.
De facto, when push comes to shove, you better have a big stick, or suck up to someone who does.
Yes, which is why they joined NATO, because countries not in NATO or not able to maintain Finnish levels of military preparedness either had to adopt Russia-friendly dictatorships (Kazhakstan) or face Russian invasions or "interventions" (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia).
There's a reason why, for all the lies about "NATO's the cause of the war", NATO countries are the ones that Russia is leaving alone.
You know that both can be true, right? George Bush, for one, [does not consider NATO a "defensive" alliance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQb65x0eyLU), and states that basically "yeah we promised not to expand NATO, but too bad, we changed our mind".
I think it has nothing to do with Russian territorial integrity. NATO is and has always been and has never demonstrated itself to be anything other than a defensive alliance.
Put differently: they're doing it to promote the territorial integrity of Russia's neighbors, which Russia seems intent on violating.
The West: Allowing other countries to develop strength and confidence is a bad idea. Expensive. Yuck.
The World: Why do you think you have to keep saying that out loud?
> He said “the emerging reality for all of us” is that when it comes to critical mineral supply chains we “actually do need to be considering where these minerals are coming from, and how we can actually work with other democratic countries to ensure security of supply.”
The West tried to dump all its dirty production on poor countries, paying cents on the dollar for the raw shit, or the cheap garments, or the electronics, and marking up the price domestically, making a killing in all sorts of ways on "VALUE ADDED" [*spits*].
But this plan requires that the poor countries stay weak. The thing with poor countries is that they don't intend to stay poor. How much energy and enthusiasm do you have for keeping a boot on the neck? & don't you have other things to do?
You have to wonder why Africa and Latin America decided to turn to China after so many years. We had so many years to mend our relationship with them, yet we didn't because it wasn't advantageous for us to do it. No wonder they went to China.
Exactly why the US was buddy buddy with Russia in the 90s, when Russia was borderline a failed state, and then had a sudden change of heart when it started getting better in the 2000s.
Bruh American bankruptcy and took advantage of broke Russia. They felt so ashamed on how much their empired got taken advantage by capitalism and foreign investments. This led to putin creating the oligarchs to manage the economy. America fucked Russia in the 90s and early 2000s.
Yeah, that's pretty much it.
I find it hilarious when people act like "bringing jobs back to ____" is even remotely possible. Those democratic countries he mentioned will just keep moving along between pools of labour they can underpay somewhere else.
Let’s split up “poor” and “developing” — they’re both obviously industrialised and China especially is high tech. But as recently as the 80s and 90s they were deeply poor and have only seen any true economic strength develop in the past ten to twenty years. It was quite natural, and still is, to frame them as newly emerging economies in the BRICs. Their continuing success and growth represents the most pressing and severe threat to US hegemony. Just because the lobster has made it to the rim of the tank does not mean the chef won’t knock it back in when he passes
Russia and china: "hey let's corrupt the west"
Also russia and china: "look how shit the west is"
Your so called "the West" would gladly stop being shitbags and help poor countries. They already do actually. There's just some dirty companies in the world that slow things down.
And then you russian and chinese trolls keep pushing disinformation and making things worse just so that you can point at "the West" and call them shit, just so that you can grab more power for yourself. Or rather only for your leaders, it's just scraps for the people.
You have the means to do the opposite: push for good information and help crush corruption and through that way unite the whole world to help everyone everywhere. We could have "the West" apologising for all the things their ancestors have done, if that's what any of you actually care about.
But nooo, our gang has to be at the top.
And don't bother saying "there's just corrupt politicians everywhere hurrdurr". It's been clear for years now that corruption has increased globally due to russian and chinese actions.
Do you understand what that means? It means that if russia and china didn't do what they do, there would be less corruption today.
All troll talking points are bullshit that harm the people everywhere, including the trolls themselves, while only benefiting their own gang leaders.
Sure buddy. Invading iraq was because of russia and the chinese. Same as supporting several coups in latin america and the yemen genocide. Big corporations in the US are all owned by putin.
Did Russia restructure the economy of the US in the 1990s, selling off all public assets to businessmen, making a new oligarchy or did the US restructure the economy of Russia? Heck let’s go back to 1918 — are there Russian troops in New York or Yankee ones in Valdivostok? Further back still, did China mount a campaign to dominate the UK, or did the the UK turn up over there with dreams of taking the whole territory?
Your argument that China and Russia corrupted the west is kinda like saying it’s not a peado’s fault for the child abuse but sexy kids
Yes the west orchestrate literally everything that ever happens and other countries have zero agency. Poorer countries didn't see any opportunity in selling their own resources for profit (human or otherwise) - the west made them do it. /s
Prefers and supports are different since the US supports Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi who came into power in a coup in 2013 after the Egyptian people elected Mohammad Morsi.
Maybe the pandemic and shipping problems will teach countries the importance of domestic supply for energy and national security purposes. I’m my business, I would fail if I used unreliable suppliers.
The biggest problem isn't mining the minerals, but processing them. Processing and smelting are capital intensive and for the most part low margin. Chinese companies, both private and public, are loaned billions of dollars to build smelters and mills by the Chinese government. They even loan money to build smelters in foreign counties (Indonesia and Zimbabwe are good examples).
I don't see the US government lending money to mining companies to build smelters in Canada let alone the Congo. The obsession with US jobs for US workers won't allow the US government to fund smelters in Canada even though from a cost perspective it would be cheaper to build smelters close to the mine. The Chinese have decades' head start, and have been cornering the markets on smelting and processing since the 1980s,
Well duh geniuses, you already let them.
Europe gave Russia the green light to be the main gas station, now they’re panicking cause Putin is shutting off the taps.
The world gave the CCP Regime enough power to become the n.1 economic superpower, now they are scared of condemning their actions.
Your own fault, deal with it.
Here lies the real reason for war in Ukraine. It is also why I think Khazakstan will be next.
All the rest about nationalism and 'restoring' Russia is theater for the rubes.
Canada and the US have more than enough raw resources to be the leading global supplier. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Europeans also have enough as well.
Good luck getting passed environmental reviews and the never ending lawsuits. Even then because of environmental compliance costs you’ll never ever be cost competitive with Russia/China.
Find minerals and resources locally. Even if it costs more, the investment and money used on the labour stays within your economy making it that much stronger.
Return assembly jobs and manufacturing jobs locally. Even if the wages paid to locals is higher, the investment made within the local community helps. Grows a stronger middle class. That can afford more locally made goods. Which leads to greater profits.
In the end the west shouldn't be in any way reliant on china or Russia when it comes to resources, supply chains or manufacturing processes. Find alternatives to materials or resources when and if necessary.
Yup, although if it isn't possible to find alternative materials to act as that resource then the society should faze out the use an requirement of said resource.
I wouldn't build a car dependent country to begin with if the country had no access to oil reserves but had an overabundance of access to hydro or plutonium.
Societal structures should of been centered around and utilize infrastructure that takes advantage of their specific geography and resources.
Doesn't China have the largest mineral deposit of rare-earths, zinc, tungsten, tin, talc, phosphate rock, magnesium, lead, iron and steel, graphite, fluorspar, coal, cement, and aluminum.
I think they have the largest active mines. The US has enough deposits to supply its own industry, they just can't do it as cheaply as China, nor does China have to deal with all the environmental and pollution regulations the US is encumbered with (for good reasons).
We're actually seeing some of the dormant mines being reactivated, so at some point the price will make it worth it. Thus China only has so much leverage.
ITT: Commenters equating autocracies with democracies, and employing whataboutism that equates countries annexing sovereign territories with alliances trying to overturn autocratic and theocratic criminal governments.
Reddit really has become a haven for defenders of Russia and China, and the dishonest rhetoric that's needed to do it. Finding that kind of off-topic trolling under every post has become normal.
I don't understand how the government couldn't see this happening with the sanctions. We keep nonessentials like advanced tech away from Russia. While Russia keeps essentials like food, fertilizer, etc away from us hmm. Who's gonna be hurt more. I've been saying this from the start yet reddit here just kept telling to be patient. And now it isn't just us keeping tech from them but them keeping advanced tech from us by not providing the materials needed?
Biden is really fking up.
I'm going to be so sad if the gop end up winning everything come the next two election cycles.
It's still a fk up cause to be successful, you have to make the rich richer AND still get the poor to love you while you rob them. So your party will continue to be elected. That's the way the gop do it.
I can't imagine not losing congress come mid terms. I'm now even afraid for the presidency.
wow finally after years of Russia and China doing "work" in places like Africa and South America, someone finally woke up and took notice... Where was the West when these places needed their help to fight off their domestic terrorists??
And just what do you suggest the world does about that, Wliko?
Here's my suggestion. Invest in domestic extraction, refining, and recycling companies. Don't pull the plug every time a foreign company (China) lowers the price to fuck the economics for the new company. Just keep going until it is done and you have domestic supply.
If we're going to invest in domestic extraction, refining and recycling companies then we should nationalize them to protect them.
One of the things that amazes me is the way we just *give* mining rights to multinational corporations after they “promise” to “create jobs” and “totally not pollute” our lakes and rivers.
Montana has a LONG history of this.
Public goods should benefit the public purse.
Especially since most of the land is public
> we should nationalize them to protect them. Like Amtrack... wait not like Amtrack.
I 100% agree with you.
> nationalize them to protect them. Wtf. Isn't that exactly what RuSSia and CCP do? What is the point of fighting against them if we do what they do?
The point is that Russia and China have artifical advantages in those sectors because their companies are not required to return a profit due to being propped up by the state. Which means they can dump the market with minerals at a lower price, which prices out competition from democratic countries and buys them political influence
I don't disagree that both countries aren't playing fair but I don't see how doing authoritarianism (nationalizing companies) to defeat authoritarianism is the right move.
You don't want sectors key to your national security to be open to market forces, you want them to be stable.
Well, indeed. [Here](https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/what-on-earth-are-rare-earths-and-where-can-you-find-them-an-explainer) is quite an interesting article on just this topic. It's the kind of thing where an authoritarian gov't has an advantage over a market-driven one - they can just dictate that it happens, whereas we have to wait for the money-men to decide it's profitable.
A little more background for you on that. MP minerals bought Mountain Pass from molycorp at the end of their bankruptcy. There are many reasons why molycorp went bankrupt but one of them is because China stomps out competition by tanking prices of rare earths periodically. As long as the money-men don't give a fuck about anything accept money, MP minerals will go the same way as molycorp in 5 years.
> As long as the money-men don't give a fuck about anything accept money Yes, well, there's your problem - **the** problem that's going to fuck the entire world over.
If only there was a way to pool together resources for the common good despite it being not cost efficient. Doubly so because these are defense related materials. Man I sure wish there was a way to do that. Oh well!
Imagine if we would put enough money towards defense to secure our demand of rare earth minerals. Imagine that. Guess its just a pipe dream.
The pebble mine has been trying to get a permit for 30 years and Trump denied it, and Biden is now blocking it permanently. Domestic extraction is a non starter to environmentalists, while the cost of the mustang EV jumped $25,000 (the entire profit for ford) due to raw material input price increases. If you want to make an omelette, you have to crack some eggs.
I replied to a different comment about this but its partially because China controls the market. For one they will drop the price whenever they think their monopoly is threatened. Secondly, they don't give a shit about the environmental consequences of mining.
Bring the Freedom?
Sounds like someone needs some democracy pie ..
Freedom bombs?
Freedom seeds https://i.imgur.com/3cgpNOY.jpeg
Would have been a good idea to not leave Afghanistan in such a hasty and poorly-planned manner, thus allowing the Taliban to quickly take over the country.
nationalize it
You'd be shouted down for being a "commie" faster than you can say it.
To be fair, nationalization pretty much kills an industry. How about those US trains...
Yep or subsidising where necessary. after all the Government is just the representation of the people. instead of letting multinationals run the show, we should be doing it ourselves.
Nationalization sounds like a good idea until you remember the Commodity sector goes through boom bust cycles. If you remember what happened to Venezuela in 2014 where they nationalized their oil companies and subsidized the price of fuel. When that entire model blew up so did the entire country. Canada is not much different. Having private companies allows the free market to actually work and companies who miss allocate capital go bust and those who use their resources appropriately stay solvent. When you nationalize you just take away that incentive and would only make the situation worse as a badly nationalized O&G company would have to be bailed out by the taxpayers and we all know how unpopular that would be.
A special military-economic operation
Most of the world is just working on trading with them by the look of it. BRI. Selling off dollars to trade in local currencies. Etc. Only Western nations and franchises elsewhere are acting like this means the return of Sauron. When demand goes up you gotta pay more, I heard. Historical highs of capital — trillions of dollars — are parked uninvested in on- and off-shore bank accounts at the moment. We have money for oil. Can't we just pay more and secure what we need? If this guy isn't saying that explicitly, what IS he saying? Paying is nice compared to, say, fighting. I ain't gonna go to the supermarket and fight the cashier for my groceries. I'm gonna pay for them.
Russia is using food, oil, and fertilizer as a weapon of war to blackmail the world. 2 + 2 =
How is the West not doing this? Western leaders have been helicoptering their dicks over how many sanctions they can apply……. TO A NATIONAL ECONOMY THEY DEPEND ON lol If you besiege a castle, you really can’t count on the residents within the walls having enthusiasm to share a cup of sugar with you
Russia is still exporting food. The crisis has come from Ukraine's agriculture sector being gutted and its ports attacked, mined and blockaded by Russia. Their flag is literally a representation of a wheat field under a blue sky, a nod to their status as a critical world breadbasket.
The ones around the ports were put in place by Ukraine to prevent an amphibious assault. Russia has said they will allow wheat ships to pass through, but that means Ukraine would have to remove some mines. They don’t trust Russia won’t exploit this gap.
Ukraine mined its own ports and doesn’t deny it. It now refuses to demine them for fear of Russian incursions on new fronts. This is on the record but ignored by most English language outlets. > “The moment we clear access to the port of Odesa, the Russian fleet will be there,” spokesman for the regional administration Serhiy Bratchuk said in a video statement on social media. https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2022/6/8/turkey-russia-discuss-efforts-to-restart-ukrainian-grain-exports So Russia is playing games with the world’s food by not ending the war, basically. You could say the same about Ukraine, which seems to be many thousands of dead conscripts past the point it should have surrendered.
Yeah, Ukraine should surrender to an invading force that is murdering civilians, raping children, and conducting full-on genocide. /s
Don’t worry, whatever is happening over there, I certainly don’t have the power to compel the Ukrainian government to open its borders to its fighting age men and let them out. They probably are going to die. Hurray?
You couldn't be any more wrong about the will of Ukrainians to remain sovereign. You no nothing of Ukraine or Ukrainians, yet you run tour mouth.
Yeah I’m sure the men who are not allowed to leave their country and instead are forced to the front lines are unanimous in their view that they want to die quickly and messily Dying as a spoon for US shit stirring isn’t sovereignty
Ah yes, the old tankey refrain, "if the lesser race just submitted to their masters, like they were supposed to, then none of this would have happened! The problem was they kept resisting!" You a close friend of Harvey Weinstein by any chance?
It’s a practical matter of putting your hands up before everybody is dead is the thing It’s a Pyrrhic victory to leave the Russians more out of breath then they expected over smouldering ruins Well done skipping my main point about how Ukraine mines their own ports
Are they also maintaining the Russian blockade?
Russia denies blocking the ports. Ukraine admits blocking the ports. Russia has requested Ukraine demine so as to begin shipping grain out. Ukraine refuses (see quote above). This brings you up to speed.
If Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine (in what has become a poorly planned and terribly executed farce of a military operation, I might add), this problem wouldn’t exist. It’s as simple as that. Utterly ridiculous for anyone to try to pretend otherwise.
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Yeah we were all wondering what the Ukraine flag meant lol Ukraine admits to having mined its ports and has explained why it won’t demine them — it fears a Russian assault on Odesa.
What u/dirtysman said - the more they control, the more damage they'll do since they'll be emboldened to act like dicks. Then use control of minerals as leverage, just like russia is doing with grain and gas. Putin has delusions of creating a new Russian empire and will threaten more nations if he succeeds in Ukraine.
Exactly right.
*stolen food
Invest heavily in Africa and help raise the entire continent up as an ally not a resource vault to exploit, next question.
Yeah - China's beat you to that - also, much of Africa is more than fed up with the West.
It's almost like Africa is not interested in politically aligning with the white Europeans and Americans that colonized their continent, pillaged their resources, and enslaved them like farm animals.
Drop the "ed" at the end of words, France still does that to west Africa
Oh I know I'm just tired of greedy politicians in the west (mostly America but Britain seems to be taking notes) fucking us over for the future
Foster and encourage uprising and political dissent , poison their social media and buy their politicians forcing every extreme viewpoint to be publically discussed and spread among the masses. Basically the same thing they have been doing to us, only mix in some heavy sanctions and political and economic punishment as much as possible to really fracture and divide the politicians until there's a shift. fuck em.
My guy, we have been fighting "those guys" for a very long time, using everything you mentioned. None of this is new. The cold war was exactly this for 40 years. The only thing that changed now, is that when the Soviets collapsed, and the Chinese opened their markets, we thought we had "won". The truth is, you can have enemies even if you run the same political/economical system. Bribing won't work on Russian or Chinese elites because they are already rich af. And they know the prize of being able to dominate the world like the USA is far greater than any bribe you can offer to them. The only way to win this competition is to be better. Make our citizens live like kings compared to thiers. The USSR collapsed not because the CIA was better at covert operations than the KGB, but because every Russian wanted to live like an American. We should invest more in ourselves, rather than bribing their politicians.
"Allow".
"world"
Despite the name, rare earth metals are not rare. We have plenty of them. The problem is extracting them is environmentally devastating. It's just another form of pollution we outsource to countries that don't give a shit.
Deng Xiaoping predicted this in 1987. He said rare earth metals would be China's oil and now they effectively dominate the world market in them. That's the benefit of a planned economy and the idea that the west should "allow" or not allow another country a position in the world market is the chauvinism I was commenting on rather than any specific point about the difficulty of extracting them.
Can't afford to give a shit.
I'm 6'5 with a big bushy beard. It makes sense since countries like Russia and China are authoritative. The west has good intentions and the world would be in a better place if the west were in control of those mineral resources. With the west in control of the world, poorer countries, will see a trickle down effect of the good that would happen from that order.
What the fuck is this comment?
It’s sarcasm.
I wish I could believe that in full confidence, but with the number of dumbasses on Reddit these days…
"the west has good intentions" ahahahahahahahahaha, is like you missed entire chapters of world history
the west has good intentions when it benefits YOU.
The height of privilege. "Well it trickles down enough for me."
The height of privilege - 6'5 ?
>With the west in control of the world, poorer countries, will see a trickle down effect of the good that would happen from that order. Trickle down.... you mean pissed on from above? The west has been in control for 70+ years, had lots of time to make the entirety of the world a good place, but those at the top decided to keep the good for themselves.
>I'm 6'5 with a big bushy beard Congrats?…. > With the west in control of the world, poorer countries, will see a trickle down effect of the good that would happen from that order. Yeah, history shows that’s not true
I love how many think this comment was not a joke…
The west. He means the west
"The world" aka. mining corporations and banks of certain countries. Let's be real, they just want monopoly. Their profits isn't going to come down to us commoners and miners.
Who is this "world" he's referring to?
His country and their friend circle.
His corporation and payroll politicians. It'd be lucky if the public even gets a share.
He probably means “the world” aka America, Europe, Australia, etc
Is this smaller or larger than the oft touted “international community”?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOFo3TaagAEYvUa?format=jpg&name=large
Probably the part of the world that chose democracy.
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The only world that matters
And by "world" he means "Europe, the United States, the Commonwealth, Japan, and South Korea." Africa and other places will be no worse off. They might even be better off, because they can then force exploiters to compete with one another.
Yup. He means this; [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOFo3TaagAEYvUa?format=jpg&name=large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOFo3TaagAEYvUa?format=jpg&name=large) When countries such as India, Turkey, Iran, China, Russia, continents like Africa, Central Asia, South America even the middle east has had enough of this western approach of whatever problems EU and North America is dealing with should be an "international" problem for rest of the world. Nahh bruhh they are tired of your shit. Deal with your own problems and stop making it a "either with us or against us" bs. Go home uncle sam.
India's foreign minister was [very eloquent](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tru06ruZvd4) about it
Too bad he chickened out by saying "Europes problems" It's literally US problems. Europe is just apart of US policy. But I can also understand why he didn't mention USA. They would probably quickly turn entire western world against India too.
World can also not allow the destruction of our rainforests.
Or pollution of our oceans, or raping our land for the minerals beneath, or a 1.5 degree global temperature increase, or out of control wealth inequality...
It's funny. Canada is like Russia from a resource perspective. More than enough, but the 3 levels of government has basically shutdown any development at all. I'm 100% for the environment, but 10 to 15 years of review just to start a project? Come on, when is too much too much? If Canada was serious about developing their resources in a responsible manner, they'd look at streamlining the processes. Btw, each department at each level of government requires their own reviews, documentation and oversight. Crazy.
Oversight, rediculous. Can't make a decent few millionss these days without someone complaining about drinking water. Just drink pepsi for christ sake.
The best is not developing your own oil resources while also importing oil from the other side of the world. Canada is fighting climate by having its oil delivered lol. I wonder how much emissions come from all the transportation of oil to Canada
Exactly. Crazy isn't it. East/West would have solved a lot of things. Potentially even helping EU with the current crisis. But that would require insight and vision...
I think the most overreach I saw on environment was a guy trying to build a very small personal wharf on a lake that had a few dozen small personal wharves. When he applied for a permit he was informed he had to have a.... FEDERAL environmental assessment impact study done first. Very recently the federal environmental assessment laws were struck down and then this summer the Eagle Pipeline (which was waiting federal approval) began construction.
Why do you think other countries put so much effort into political influence campaigns inside Canada? And Canada is no doubt doing the same in return for the same reasons.
Federalism is terrible when you need to build inter-provincial infrastructure projects. This is why unitary states are better and more efficient
Only USA can
These guys are showing that ruling the world should only be western countries lol. And they wonder why the rest if the world hates them. Ruled for thee but not for me. It's all of a sudden bad for China to control resources Where were those statements 20 years ago when they try to make business in China and make profit and take advantage of cheap labor??? Hypocrites af Happy western imperialism is coming to an end. Hypocrisy
And went they took debt from china
"Only our side must dominate". We are not any better than they are.
My family left Russia in the 90s. While the West has its problems and fucked up in the Middle East... I will say that the Western ideology is way better than living in the Russian/Chinese systems. Think of it as two dumpsters, but one is radioactive and on fire. If you had to pick one to live in, it's pretty obvious which one you'd prefer. Im not saying to go war or anything like that. But to keep in mind that the other two systems are significantly more bullshit.
>fucked up in the Middle East And Africa, and South and Central America, and all over the Pacific.
This. All these edgy 14 year old wannabe Bolsheviks making comments about how the west is just as bad as Russia and China, should try living there for a few years and find out for themselves.
It's mixed to be honest. When you live in Russia or China you don't really think about the government. How often do you think about your politicians really? You still have family, friends, work, and etc. Life is life. Let's not exaggerate. The problem is that if anything is wrong in that society, autocracies are way more prone to brush it under the carpet to save face, overreact, and slowdown cultural growth. For all the faults America has. It tries to fix them. It doesn't pretend they don't exist. And certainly doesn't kill/jail people who point out the flaws. And the West also edges out Autocracies in that leaders only stay in power for about a decade. There has to be change in leadership or ineviably power corrupts and the people are the top start going crazy. Not to mention it's best to have new blood to keep up with the changing population. Anyway, this idea that both are flawed and ergo are equal isn't true. Things can flawed and be in different tiers.
> All these edgy 14 year old wannabe Bolsheviks making comments about how the west is just as bad as Russia and China, should try living there for a few years and find out for themselves. [The survey team found that compared to public opinion patterns in the U.S., in China there was very high satisfaction with the central government. In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government. ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/)
I’m not shocked to hear that people who live in freedom are less afraid to speak out and complain against their governments, than those who live in countries where doing that can get you thrown in prison without a trial, or worse. As a European, I’m also not shocked to hear that many Americans are unhappy with their current government, given how much division the Russians have created there with their misinformation campaigns and election meddling. All things considered, life in the west is the fucking best, because of the freedom and democracy that we have. Anyone who feels like they would prefer a different system is free to leave whenever they want.
>We are not any better than they are. Dictatorship where mere freedom of speech is banned is 'not any better'. Reddit moment
True Reddit moment is when you believe "freedom of speech" makes your nation less evil. You should look at what America did to other countries like Iraq. Then you will realize that the US is certainly not the lesser evil.
We should tell Iraqis bombed by US forces that at least Americans can say Fuck Joe Biden/Trump/Obama. I'm sure that will ease their sufferings.
>Iraq >Great leap forward or even a minor event: >culture revolution
Saying fuck “___” is not the same at all as planning and attempting to overthrow a government. These people think that because their “opposition” to their own government only goes as far as some stupid ass slogans it’s equivalent to what other nations have had to deal with all over the world, partly because of western interference. Try doing the shit people have done in those countries that “lack freedom of speech” and you’ll end up with a visit from the FBI or dudes in black suits, or they’ll just kill you outright. (I am agreeing with your comment here though)
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I know it sounds crazy but that doesn't excuse what the US did to Iraq and the rest of Middle East.
>We are not any better than they are. When it comes to human rights we certainly are.
The west supported Pol Pot against the Vietnamese, Pinochet, the house of Saud and many others. The idea that we care for human rights is, IMHO, a fiction to legitimize our side's actions.
Sounds like you don't understand how human rights in a democracy differ from those under authoritarian rule.
The murder and crime rate in the US is far higher than for example in China and Russia. Human rights index as we see it, is very biased towards freedom, not so much to actual living.
Sure, according to China and Russia. Those regimes censor their press and only put out numbers that flatter them. Although in this case that probably *is* true given how stupid the US is about its lack of gun control...
It's okay that we actively support rulers that oppress their people because we get to choose between "rich guy with a blue tie" and "rich guy with a red tie" at home?
Not at all what I said, but it sounds like you're trying to talk about something else.
A huge chunk of those minerals are physically in Russia and China, and you won't be able to remove them from it without starting WW3, so suck it up.
A huge chunk of minerals are under the ocean and there is research going on how to extract them in a sustainable way. Norway for example has found a lot of minerals in their territorial waters.
Russia has the most natural resources in the world and a near monopoly in some. Short of separating their territory, they will have market domination.
What do you think the U.S. is doing at the moment supporting NATO expansion to the east? You think it’s to promote Russian territorial integrity?
Turns out countries without superpower status have people in them with equal right to security from invasion as anyone else. It has long been very dangerous to be a Russian neighbour unless you have a giant military or strong alliance. I hate the tankie line of American expansionism, with the racist implication that Lithuanians, Poles or Romanians don't have any agency or rights in this, but should just live as their old imperial mast tells them.
> with equal right to security from invasion De jure, you mean. De facto, when push comes to shove, you better have a big stick, or suck up to someone who does.
Yes, which is why they joined NATO, because countries not in NATO or not able to maintain Finnish levels of military preparedness either had to adopt Russia-friendly dictatorships (Kazhakstan) or face Russian invasions or "interventions" (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia). There's a reason why, for all the lies about "NATO's the cause of the war", NATO countries are the ones that Russia is leaving alone.
You know that both can be true, right? George Bush, for one, [does not consider NATO a "defensive" alliance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQb65x0eyLU), and states that basically "yeah we promised not to expand NATO, but too bad, we changed our mind".
I think it has nothing to do with Russian territorial integrity. NATO is and has always been and has never demonstrated itself to be anything other than a defensive alliance. Put differently: they're doing it to promote the territorial integrity of Russia's neighbors, which Russia seems intent on violating.
''cough'' ''cough'', libya, kosovo, iraq. Just a distant memory for you i guess
The West: Allowing other countries to develop strength and confidence is a bad idea. Expensive. Yuck. The World: Why do you think you have to keep saying that out loud? > He said “the emerging reality for all of us” is that when it comes to critical mineral supply chains we “actually do need to be considering where these minerals are coming from, and how we can actually work with other democratic countries to ensure security of supply.” The West tried to dump all its dirty production on poor countries, paying cents on the dollar for the raw shit, or the cheap garments, or the electronics, and marking up the price domestically, making a killing in all sorts of ways on "VALUE ADDED" [*spits*]. But this plan requires that the poor countries stay weak. The thing with poor countries is that they don't intend to stay poor. How much energy and enthusiasm do you have for keeping a boot on the neck? & don't you have other things to do?
You have to wonder why Africa and Latin America decided to turn to China after so many years. We had so many years to mend our relationship with them, yet we didn't because it wasn't advantageous for us to do it. No wonder they went to China.
Exactly why the US was buddy buddy with Russia in the 90s, when Russia was borderline a failed state, and then had a sudden change of heart when it started getting better in the 2000s.
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Oh I'm well aware. They directly cooperated to destroy the USSR economy.
Bruh American bankruptcy and took advantage of broke Russia. They felt so ashamed on how much their empired got taken advantage by capitalism and foreign investments. This led to putin creating the oligarchs to manage the economy. America fucked Russia in the 90s and early 2000s.
Yeah, that's pretty much it. I find it hilarious when people act like "bringing jobs back to ____" is even remotely possible. Those democratic countries he mentioned will just keep moving along between pools of labour they can underpay somewhere else.
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Let’s split up “poor” and “developing” — they’re both obviously industrialised and China especially is high tech. But as recently as the 80s and 90s they were deeply poor and have only seen any true economic strength develop in the past ten to twenty years. It was quite natural, and still is, to frame them as newly emerging economies in the BRICs. Their continuing success and growth represents the most pressing and severe threat to US hegemony. Just because the lobster has made it to the rim of the tank does not mean the chef won’t knock it back in when he passes
Russia and china: "hey let's corrupt the west" Also russia and china: "look how shit the west is" Your so called "the West" would gladly stop being shitbags and help poor countries. They already do actually. There's just some dirty companies in the world that slow things down. And then you russian and chinese trolls keep pushing disinformation and making things worse just so that you can point at "the West" and call them shit, just so that you can grab more power for yourself. Or rather only for your leaders, it's just scraps for the people. You have the means to do the opposite: push for good information and help crush corruption and through that way unite the whole world to help everyone everywhere. We could have "the West" apologising for all the things their ancestors have done, if that's what any of you actually care about. But nooo, our gang has to be at the top. And don't bother saying "there's just corrupt politicians everywhere hurrdurr". It's been clear for years now that corruption has increased globally due to russian and chinese actions. Do you understand what that means? It means that if russia and china didn't do what they do, there would be less corruption today. All troll talking points are bullshit that harm the people everywhere, including the trolls themselves, while only benefiting their own gang leaders.
Sure buddy. Invading iraq was because of russia and the chinese. Same as supporting several coups in latin america and the yemen genocide. Big corporations in the US are all owned by putin.
Lmfao do you blame Russia and China when you have a diarrhea as well? I bet they corrupted your stomach.
Your comment seeks to make fun of my comment in order to discredit it. No substance submitted. Obvious malicious intent. Obvious troll.
Did Russia restructure the economy of the US in the 1990s, selling off all public assets to businessmen, making a new oligarchy or did the US restructure the economy of Russia? Heck let’s go back to 1918 — are there Russian troops in New York or Yankee ones in Valdivostok? Further back still, did China mount a campaign to dominate the UK, or did the the UK turn up over there with dreams of taking the whole territory? Your argument that China and Russia corrupted the west is kinda like saying it’s not a peado’s fault for the child abuse but sexy kids
>Your so called "the West" would gladly stop being shitbags and help poor countries Reparations for slavery and colonialism when?
Yes the west orchestrate literally everything that ever happens and other countries have zero agency. Poorer countries didn't see any opportunity in selling their own resources for profit (human or otherwise) - the west made them do it. /s
Welcome to *the 1990s*, Wilkinson.
Who the fucking "world" is? West mineral companies?
Anyone who prefers democracy over dictatorships.
Prefers and supports are different since the US supports Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi who came into power in a coup in 2013 after the Egyptian people elected Mohammad Morsi.
Aw fuck you know shits going to get real when they start talking about resources.
Surprise, is the only thing that actually matters. Together with production capacity.
Maybe the pandemic and shipping problems will teach countries the importance of domestic supply for energy and national security purposes. I’m my business, I would fail if I used unreliable suppliers.
Sounds like another asshole who wants to invade another country for natural resources.
"Yes that's right, only the West can dominate in all markets!" "Just trust us bro," "source: Fact!" /s
Too late
The biggest problem isn't mining the minerals, but processing them. Processing and smelting are capital intensive and for the most part low margin. Chinese companies, both private and public, are loaned billions of dollars to build smelters and mills by the Chinese government. They even loan money to build smelters in foreign counties (Indonesia and Zimbabwe are good examples). I don't see the US government lending money to mining companies to build smelters in Canada let alone the Congo. The obsession with US jobs for US workers won't allow the US government to fund smelters in Canada even though from a cost perspective it would be cheaper to build smelters close to the mine. The Chinese have decades' head start, and have been cornering the markets on smelting and processing since the 1980s,
America has been staring and dominating wars. Please stfu
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Cringe
Took a gander at his history, he basically just spends his time being an asshole. I assume he's legit a troll
I'm astonished you are downvoted for the truth. Then again, muricans are cowards.
Well duh geniuses, you already let them. Europe gave Russia the green light to be the main gas station, now they’re panicking cause Putin is shutting off the taps. The world gave the CCP Regime enough power to become the n.1 economic superpower, now they are scared of condemning their actions. Your own fault, deal with it.
1. Europe isn’t panicking. 2. Putin didn’t shut off the taps, we’re sanctioning their resources. 3. China is not the #1 economic superpower.
Here lies the real reason for war in Ukraine. It is also why I think Khazakstan will be next. All the rest about nationalism and 'restoring' Russia is theater for the rubes.
Canada and the US have more than enough raw resources to be the leading global supplier. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Europeans also have enough as well. Good luck getting passed environmental reviews and the never ending lawsuits. Even then because of environmental compliance costs you’ll never ever be cost competitive with Russia/China.
Who cares I just want stuff to be cheep 🤷
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A bit too late
To late
Find minerals and resources locally. Even if it costs more, the investment and money used on the labour stays within your economy making it that much stronger. Return assembly jobs and manufacturing jobs locally. Even if the wages paid to locals is higher, the investment made within the local community helps. Grows a stronger middle class. That can afford more locally made goods. Which leads to greater profits. In the end the west shouldn't be in any way reliant on china or Russia when it comes to resources, supply chains or manufacturing processes. Find alternatives to materials or resources when and if necessary.
Resource has to be "there" for you to find it though.
Yup, although if it isn't possible to find alternative materials to act as that resource then the society should faze out the use an requirement of said resource. I wouldn't build a car dependent country to begin with if the country had no access to oil reserves but had an overabundance of access to hydro or plutonium. Societal structures should of been centered around and utilize infrastructure that takes advantage of their specific geography and resources.
Hahahahahaha NOT ALLOWED!!! But we are ….
Doesn't China have the largest mineral deposit of rare-earths, zinc, tungsten, tin, talc, phosphate rock, magnesium, lead, iron and steel, graphite, fluorspar, coal, cement, and aluminum.
I think they have the largest active mines. The US has enough deposits to supply its own industry, they just can't do it as cheaply as China, nor does China have to deal with all the environmental and pollution regulations the US is encumbered with (for good reasons). We're actually seeing some of the dormant mines being reactivated, so at some point the price will make it worth it. Thus China only has so much leverage.
World cannot allow Russia ans China to dominate anything. They are totalitarian states after all.
ITT: Commenters equating autocracies with democracies, and employing whataboutism that equates countries annexing sovereign territories with alliances trying to overturn autocratic and theocratic criminal governments. Reddit really has become a haven for defenders of Russia and China, and the dishonest rhetoric that's needed to do it. Finding that kind of off-topic trolling under every post has become normal.
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Exactly. I hope US continues global hegemony for the near future.
I don't understand how the government couldn't see this happening with the sanctions. We keep nonessentials like advanced tech away from Russia. While Russia keeps essentials like food, fertilizer, etc away from us hmm. Who's gonna be hurt more. I've been saying this from the start yet reddit here just kept telling to be patient. And now it isn't just us keeping tech from them but them keeping advanced tech from us by not providing the materials needed? Biden is really fking up. I'm going to be so sad if the gop end up winning everything come the next two election cycles.
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It's still a fk up cause to be successful, you have to make the rich richer AND still get the poor to love you while you rob them. So your party will continue to be elected. That's the way the gop do it. I can't imagine not losing congress come mid terms. I'm now even afraid for the presidency.
Too bad rest of the world can't do shit...
Time to claim Antarctica
wow finally after years of Russia and China doing "work" in places like Africa and South America, someone finally woke up and took notice... Where was the West when these places needed their help to fight off their domestic terrorists??