Just look at the Russia Ukraine war as an example of this. Total combat death is somewhere between 500k and 1m depending on sources. Probably the nastiest modern war since Korea and still the media portrays it as being sterile and almost clean. The horrors are mostly suppressed and forgotten. The almost no discussion of what daily life is like in the war zone or civilians nearby.
Urban density has increased greatly in select areas but building laws are such that building new housing is both difficult and expensive. Seems unlikely to change in western countries
Wars reset all debts and China has all the capacity to sustain a massive war economy equal to USA during WW2. I think people underestimate what they could do if provoked or desperate
This, exactly. Underestimate to our detriment...surely military intelligence assesses it clearly, but the prevailing story in the press is the reverse. I wonder why that is?
Racism is a big part of it. Every race thinks they are superior and somehow other people are stupid, orks, apes, subhumans etc.
When wars break out though it generally turns out that people are equally capable of killing each other and logistics is what makes or breaks any prolonged conflict. Technology helps as a force multiplier but it won’t save you if the logistics break down and you run low on ammo or manpower.
Yeah, every group is racist, mostly to the same degree I think...but, I can only talk with certainty about the places I've lived, as I'm only a member of one group, and I've only lived more than a year in a few places, so I don't really know outside of that: degrees could indeed be different, I guess in the ones I don't know. In my limited experience of Earth so far, I've seen racism expressed differently by different groups, but every group is racist indeed.
I wonder if this the press angle we were talking about is historically consistent? As in, pre WWI and WWII, did what would become allied powers have press that downplayed the ability of axis powers to fight? And vice versa?
I know once things got started it was like there was racist propaganda, but I'm not sure about prior. Based on our discussion I'd say: probably. But I don't know.
It's weird, it's sort of like perhaps the "silver lining" of negative racism from a recipient's point of view: you are chronically underestimated. This in turn gives you the advantage that any opponents you may have are chronically unprepared.
I like your point about: generally turns out that people are equally capable of killing each other and logistics is what makes or breaks any prolonged conflict seems very salient and succinct and accurate.
One thing I wonder about tho (and we are likely getting way off topic here, so I apologize for that!), is how does this factor into occupation / unconventional warfare?
I can't seem to reconcile right now the ideas that the US has the most advanced and powerful military on Earth, with the fact that is has failed (at least it seems to have failed, but I'm not an expert) in its last few unconventional conflicts. One reason I find this hard to reconcile is because I would think that logistics, people and ammo were abundant in Vietnam, and the Middle East, yet...victory was elusive, and certainly not decisive.
I suppose the technology caveat you mention breaks down when you have "step change" technology, like nuclear weapons, or a UFO breakthrough or whatever. But I suppose the advantage of that is reduced to the extent that it's evenly distributed. The bigger the step, the easier it is, I guess, to prevent that distribution. Nukes? Relatively easy to prevent getting into the hands of everybody. Guns? Not so much.
Anyway, way off topic, so yeah. Any interesting resources you recommend to know more about this stuff?
You forgot all the pending African crisis. Probably a few more in North Africa as well. Food costs have hit the threshold where global instability in poor regions is high.
The UN food price index is a great predictor of global instability. The last time it spiked we had the Arab spring. Looks like more trouble in the Middle East this time too.
Mm, I love that kind of historical measure thing, where you can find some correlations, a simple metric that syncs with huge real world consequences.
It shows the fundamental nature of economics, and how everything is connected, and how people's behavior in crises is surprisingly predictable. Thanks for sharing that! :)
NK would bring SK down to NK levels of civilization. I doubt SK has enough weapons and ammunition to fully counter NK. It would run low on ammo quickly. NK is already a post apocalyptic wasteland not much would change if you bombed it to the Stone Age.
They used to be easy to find, but some years back they redesigned seemingly all pill bottles to hide the instructions. It’s a frustration and makes me wish ill on whoever is behind it, every single time I need to use such a medicine.
The concept of a voting shareholder is a myth. Most shares are owned/managed by funds so they are the true voters. They just vote to make sure the that the boat isn’t rocked too much.
The modern system favors executives as opposed to owners. The executive class has figured out how to extract a significant chuck from to owners share for their own coffers.
