Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

biccat wrote:

Joey wrote:Say you could pick any car produced in China or any car produced in any European nation...which would it be, really?

Any car? I think that's a little biased towards Europe, where some of the finest luxury cars on the planet are manufactured.

Both GM (Buick) and Ford (Volvo) make cars in China. I suspect they can make cars to Western standards.

Flip this around to electronics and suddenly Europe looks like the poor villagers trying to bang rocks together to make radios compared to asia. This whole discussions a bit stupid.

Frazzled wrote:Some of those Brit cop cars are interesting (ok the paint jobs make my eyes bleed but thats intentional I imagine).

Yeah, the markings vary between areas. Some of them look like Picaso and Pollock got extremely drunk one night and had a fluorescent paint chugging contest in the police garages

Have to say that I've been surprised by some of the markings when I've seen them


Automatically Appended Next Post:

ShumaGorath wrote:Flip this around to electronics and suddenly Europe looks like the poor villagers trying to bang rocks together to make radios compared to asia. This whole discussions a bit stupid.

Though having said that the UK does educate vast numbers of foreign students, especially in the engineering fields. I'm pretty sure that well over 60% of students doing electrical and mechanical engineering while I was at university were Chinese, and about 70% of the people currently on my masters course for biomedical/cell and tissue engineering course are from India.

America in decline? Again!!! Ha ha. America is always in decline. These kind of articles pop up every ten years going all the way back to Andrew Jackson!!

Most people on this site are either interested in military history or have history degrees so they'll probably know that at it's height in the 1890s, the British Empire was in decline according to most commentators. Poverty was rife, narcotics were freely available and the price of tea was rising, and yet, Britian still controlled 1/4 of the globe and was the only country that could shift 100,000 men from England to South Africa in under two months (good for the time) for the Boer war. No one else could do that

Fast forward to modern times. What is the only country in the world that could move 100,000 men or more, over a similar distance in a time span deemed comparable to modern times. It begins with U and ends with A

America has problems, sure, but they have the money and the people to fix them, if they have the will.

If people are looking for a country that is rotting from within, then look to China.

And finally, Frazz, I cannot believe you were asking about British Finance, I though you were a student of military history. It was British finance that defeated Napoleon (amongst other things) although it's went down hill a bit recently!!

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Fast forward to modern times. What is the only country in the world that could move 100,000 men or more, over a similar distance in a time span deemed comparable to modern times. It begins with U and ends with A

I don't think Uganda is that good.

RustyKnight wrote:

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Fast forward to modern times. What is the only country in the world that could move 100,000 men or more, over a similar distance in a time span deemed comparable to modern times. It begins with U and ends with A

I don't think Uganda is that good.

I dunno they are pretty damn good...

Oh yes, another call for more infrastructure spending, another more grandiose and ambitious plan than the last time, another pile of wasted cash on a dystopian fantasy world that inevitably crumbles due to arrogance, avarice and apathy.

Let the people figure this out, not the damn government. No, I don't want educated elites handling this because they, like any other kind of a fascist, cannot know what everyone in this society needs and desires. It's mathematically impossible. It always winds up being the lowest common denominator, which is invariably much worse than the first problem.

Stormrider wrote:Let the people figure this out, not the damn government.

Government is made of people.

Stormrider wrote: No, I don't want educated elites handling this because they

Lord knows we wouldn't want smart people thinking about difficult problems like education.

Stormrider wrote:like any other kind of a fascist

I'm not sure you know what that means. I suppose you could be using it wrong on purpose.

Stormrider wrote:It's mathematically impossible.

I'm not sure you know what that means. I suppose you could be using it wrong on purpose.

Ahtman wrote:

Stormrider wrote:Let the people figure this out, not the damn government.

Government is made of people.

Stormrider wrote: No, I don't want educated elites handling this because they

Lord knows we wouldn't want smart people thinking about difficult problems like education.

Stormrider wrote:like any other kind of a fascist

I'm not sure you know what that means. I suppose you could be using it wrong on purpose.

Stormrider wrote:It's mathematically impossible.

I'm not sure you know what that means. I suppose you could be using it wrong on purpose.

oh that pic is choice

Would anyone be offended if i admitted to just not understanding America or your politics?

purplefood wrote:Would anyone be offended if i admitted to just not understanding America or your politics?

Thats ok. We don't either.


Just remember, a vote for Frazzled is a vote...for FREEDOM!!!

Stormrider wrote:
Let the people figure this out, not the damn government. No, I don't want educated elites handling this because they, like any other kind of a fascist, cannot know what everyone in this society needs and desires. It's mathematically impossible. It always winds up being the lowest common denominator, which is invariably much worse than the first problem.

When you invest yourself, emotionally, in a political opinion people like me laugh our way to the bank.

My signature is appropriate here.

Nope. I do not think so...

except maybe Frazzled and his daschund army.

Zyllos wrote:Nope. I do not think so...

except maybe Frazzled and his daschund army.

I can't believe its been three pages and I haven't remarked about how Rodney's breath sometimes smells like he is in fact, rotting from the inside out.

purplefood wrote:Would anyone be offended if i admitted to just not understanding America or your politics?

Not really. We don't understand it half the time either

Stormrider wrote:I don't want educated elites handling this because they, like any other kind of a fascist, cannot know what everyone in this society needs and desires. It's mathematically impossible.

Ahtman wrote:

Stormrider wrote:It's mathematically impossible.

I'm not sure you know what that means. I suppose you could be using it wrong on purpose.

Presumption 1: It is impossible to know everything.
Presumption 2: At least one person in society desires everything.

If someone knew what everyone in society desires, they would know everything that every person desires.
Someone desires everything, therefor, the person in question would need to know everything.
This is a contradiction, so no person can know what everyone in society desires.

QED

Technocrats took Greece's recession and made sure it was a good, stout, irrevocable depression.

ShumaGorath wrote:

Rolls Royce is the second largest aeroplane manufacturer in the world, they make aero engines for British Airways, Quantus, and many others.

I'm pretty sure that's blatantly wrong. RollsRoyce is the second largest maker of aircraft engines, after general electric.

In my original post I specified "aero engines", I have several friends who work at the Rolls Royce plant in Sinfin and I know full well what they make.
Don't leap on a miss-type as evidence of my slack-jawed olde worlde incomprehension.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

sourclams wrote:Technocrats took Greece's recession and made sure it was a good, stout, irrevocable depression.

That would cause many pension funds and local councils in Western Europe to go bust.

In my original post I specified "aero engines", I have several friends who work at the Rolls Royce plant in Sinfin and I know full well what they make.
Don't leap on a miss-type as evidence of my slack-jawed olde worlde incomprehension.

Ahh, so you knew. That makes the post even less forgivable. Shameful!

When you're gonna throw around hypernationalist bs expect people to call you on your blatant and silly errors. It's part and parcel with going over-the-top.

Frazzled wrote:Thats not correct. The US was on the bleeding edge of education for a hundred years. The US was one of the first modern nations to have public education K-12.
I'd put our schools systems up against anyone until the late 1960s. Even now there are plenty of public school systems that I'd put against any nation in the world.

Education is one of those things that the entire focus of the nation needs to be put on, up to the extent of the constitution. Its a primary competitive advantage/disadvantage.

Absolutely agree.

It's worth pointing out that the rest of the world caught up to US education standards by copying what you guys were doing. The problem for the US began when we kept reforming and improving our systems, but you guys didn't. To reach the top again you need to make sure every school gets adequate funding, and that's too big a challenge for the current political environment.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

LordofHats wrote:Really it all boils down to Americans need to accept higher taxes. More money for the educational system just doesn't exist right now as a practical reality. The same is true of our aging infrastructure. A lot of what we have was built in the 30's, 40's, and 50's, and its getting a little... worn...

I agree on infrastructure, but you spend more than enough on education. The problem is that the amount spent on kids in poor areas is very low. What's needed is national model for funds allocation that ensures some level of equality between students. Unfortunately that'd be a political nightmare.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Joey wrote:America is not special. The rest of the world has figured out how to make money and they're catching up fast.
Americans are going to have to start facing up to the realities of sound government, their populace seems to be less easily swayed by artefacts of cultural hegemony.

Well, not really. No-ones really figured out exactly how to maintain high wages across the board and maintain positive terms of trade.

I don't know if you've noticed but Europe could be in an even poorer situation.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Joey wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#Education wrote:
the central budget for national scholarships was tripled between 2007 and 2009, and 223.5 billion yuan (US$28.65 billion) of extra state funding was allocated between 2007 and 2012 to improve compulsory education in rural areas
In 2009, Chinese students from Shanghai achieved the world's best results in mathematics, science and literacy, as tested by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance

You have already been overtaken educationally. Stop grasping for things you're marginally better than the rest of the world at (for now).

I will never cease to be amazed out how easily people fall for Chinese Potemkin villages, no matter how unsubtle they may be.

"Look, here are some handpicked children and they are performing much better than average children from your country, so we are smarter."

I mean come on.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Frazzled wrote:I'm sorry what industry is the UK known for again?

High end specialist & niche manufacture. They've been nowhere near as successful in developing that as Germany, but Germany had a much stronger base manufacturing industry to build upon.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:America in decline? Again!!! Ha ha. America is always in decline. These kind of articles pop up every ten years going all the way back to Andrew Jackson!!

Most people on this site are either interested in military history or have history degrees so they'll probably know that at it's height in the 1890s, the British Empire was in decline according to most commentators. Poverty was rife, narcotics were freely available and the price of tea was rising, and yet, Britian still controlled 1/4 of the globe and was the only country that could shift 100,000 men from England to South Africa in under two months (good for the time) for the Boer war. No one else could do that

I'm not sure that's really the best example. I mean, Britain was in decline and the Empire was unsustainable.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Stormrider wrote:Oh yes, another call for more infrastructure spending, another more grandiose and ambitious plan than the last time, another pile of wasted cash on a dystopian fantasy world that inevitably crumbles due to arrogance, avarice and apathy.

Let the people figure this out, not the damn government. No, I don't want educated elites handling this because they, like any other kind of a fascist, cannot know what everyone in this society needs and desires. It's mathematically impossible. It always winds up being the lowest common denominator, which is invariably much worse than the first problem.

Yeah, there's no way a government could ever figure out where to put a road. They should just leave it up to all those private citizens who built all the motorways in America before big government.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

purplefood wrote:Would anyone be offended if i admitted to just not understanding America or your politics?

The trick is realising that even though you have no idea why someone would believe something so ridiculous, that really is what they believe. Just read that post from Stormrider again, and just accept that there's no extra information needed to make sense of what he wrote. He actually believes that, and it's just as ridiculous as it seems.