Justin James10 said:And who actually said that government intervention is a good thing in certain cases over in the West? Not a single soul, apparently.
It’s a good thing you brought up the shipyards. Those places are nothing but bottomless money pits whose peak achievement is churning out a basic tanker. And wouldn't you know it, it's never profitable because China and Korea can pump them out for pennies. So what’s the solution? Just throw more cash into that black hole without changing a single thing? 🙏 All these shipyards, petrochemical plants, steel mills, and the like are chronic losers; most went bankrupt back in the early 80s and remain a gaping wound in the American economy. Take certain chemical plants, for example. Have they ever actually turned a profit? It would probably be cheaper to just hit them with a tank of gasoline and light them up—it would cause less damage overall.☕
Look, I wasn't saying it was actually good. I was just pointing out that the kind of capitalism you're dreaming about doesn't even exist anywhere—except maybe in China, which I guess is basically every capitalist's pipe dream.
Look, regarding those companies mentioned above... I mean, they totally could've been turning a massive profit. Honestly, it’s just like those old-school American industrial giants that went bust because they didn't pivot or specialize when they had the chance. Sure, they wouldn't be these massive behemoths like they used to be, but you know, money would still be moving around and people would actually have jobs. That's way better than just having some group of elites burn everything down for a quick payday. The real issue—and it's the same now as it ever was—is that the people in charge always seem to have this exact same mindset. They have zero vision, zero actual ideas on how to run a business. It's just a bunch of crooks who can ruin something others spent decades building, all just to line their own pockets without breaking a sweat. And shipbuilding? Man, that industry is huge if you play it right. If we hadn't messed up, guys from Scandinavia wouldn't be sticking their noses in our business like that. But like I said, you've gotta specialize. We aren't going to win against the big players in massive ship construction, but maybe, I don't know, we could actually compete in smaller, niche markets.
ironpanther5 said:Why don't we just follow the lead of Ireland, Estonia (like shadowmarlin22 suggested), or even the Czech Republic? 🙂
Phil, nobody is actually suggesting we go out and deregulate the entire banking sector overnight. In our neck of the woods, just having transparent management of funds would be a massive leap forward. We’d start by cleaning out the cronies and all that redundant bloat, then move toward deregulation and cutting through the red tape—you know, so I don't have to worry about whether my hypothetical hair salon needs three specific steps or if the last step has to be exactly 25 to 58 centimeters away from the restroom just to satisfy some bureaucrat.
People are basically screaming for easier ways to run small and medium businesses, lower taxes, and an actual decent climate for investment.
Just look at how much good some of those independent local movements have done in smaller towns; they actually stepped up to stop the usual political vultures from bleeding the budget dry and forced everyone to spend money more rationally.
Honestly, I don't see any reason for county governments to even exist, let alone with this many of them cluttering things up.
Look, those county setups were basically just a brainchild of Franjo Harmon and his inner circle, and honestly? We can only guess why they even did it that way. But listen, you can't just say regulation equals bureaucracy. The US is actually a perfect example of a country drowning in massive amounts of red tape while having zero actual meaningful regulation, which is exactly why things feel so broken sometimes. My uncle’s buddy runs this pretty solid construction firm with about 50 employees, and I guess... maybe... he hasn't even seen an inspector since 2001. Seriously.🤣 I mean, I honestly doubt he’s the only one pulling stuff like this. And don't even get me started on audits or whatever... because if you just slide some cash into their pockets, they won't find a damn thing, whether we're talking about government agencies or big private corporations.
