[ExI] Modes of failure Re: FW: How Electricity Became a Luxury Good

[Mirco Romanato]

Il 14/09/2013 20:29, Rafal Smigrodzki ha scritto:
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 10:50 AM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:


> ---------
>>
>> Actually, one of the reasons was insufficient bread.
> 
> ### Because barbarians slaughtered the peasants, because the corrupt
> state did not maintain military supremacy.
> -----------------

Actually the corrupt state taxed the peasants so much the run out to
live with the barbarians, then the barbarians had a lot of bread and the
empire a lot less.


>> This would not have been necessary, had we acted on time (1970s/1980s).
>> Now a managed collapse appears a prerequsite for a sustainable
>> recovery. At this stage, further growth is postponed until we
>> can tap extraterrestrial resources. We've run out of everything
>> down here, due to our numbers, and our increased resource use
>> per capita.

> ### I don't agree. Native populations in all areas crucial to further
> technological growth (Europe, North America, China, Japan) are either
> collapsing (voluntarily) or barely holding. There are more resources
> than we can use, especially when it comes to energy sources.



>  Poland just raided the
>> retirement pension funds. Germany is a low-wage country relying
>> on exports, and will collapse if the exports stop coming.
> 
> ### Low-wage???
> ---------------

This is entirely on the eye of the beholder.
They are paid low wages compared with their productivity, but high wages
compared to what, for example, earn Italians with the same job and the
same productivity in Italy (because in Italy the government take half of
the check).


> ### I think Eastern Europe recovered very well. Measured by per capita
> living space, per capita income in real money, life expectancy,
> scientific output, you name it, all states in Europe are vastly ahead
> compared to the time at the end of the war, and still vastly ahead of
> their pre-war status.
> --------------

In fact, in the last few years, a lot of Romanians have packed and
returned in Romania. Unfortunately, they were the most productive
workers. The low life instead prefer to stay in Western Europe, because
in their home country they have no qualms to throw them in jail and beat
the crap out of them when they are caught robbing, killing or stealing
and no welfare for them, if they have no honest job.


> ### We do know a lot. The world was very globalized before WWI, and
> there was no global collapse despite horrendous losses in the key
> industrial/scientific engine of the world, Europe, which recovered
> well, was smashed again in WW II, and then recovered again.
> Wirtschaftswunder, anybody?


Mirco