Finished Detectives in Togas

[conuly]

The girls were suitably happy with the ending, even though they guessed it ages ago with very little to go on. This is good, because Ana's book club assigned A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, so we're starting that tomorrow.

************

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Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change

Ivory Coast farmers face eviction, extortion in drive to save forests

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Anxieties are growing over Beijing's activities in the waterways across East Asia.

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Comments

Re: Ivory coast farmers

[conuly]

It would be nice if the pathetic governments of these wretched Third World countries made any provision for their poor, so they would not have to survive on bush-meat, crime and contraband while wreaking wanton environmental devastation. However, they don't, and there is damn little a US citizen can do to change that.

Well, we could stop being eager to buy cheap things that carry a huge cost somewhere else.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

That's one option, and I'm all in favor of boycotts. I already don't buy chocolate, though not because of the illegal cocoa trade. But expecting humans in general to stop being eager to buy cheap things is like expecting them to stop being eager to have sex: good luck with that, because the urge is built into our Bandar-log biology, which does not take much heed of long-term consequences. Social prescriptions that involve fundamental changes to human nature are doomed to fail.

I say, how can we make things that carry a huge cost somewhere else more expensive? Like, say, making and enforcing laws against importing illegally-grown cocoa or any products made with it? Seizing all such shipments, freezing the company's assets, and bringing charges against it? I'm all in favor, and if someone wants to thrash the CEOs, make them strip, and set their clothes on fire, I wouldn't think that too unjust. It would certainly curtail the illegal cocoa trade more effectively than doing that to the farmers does.

[conuly]

It would certainly curtail the illegal cocoa trade more effectively than doing that to the farmers does.

And they're surely more culpable than the farmers anyway. I don't begrudge people trying to earn enough to feed themselves, but nobody needs to be rolling around in cash like Scrooge McDuck.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I certainly agree, but then the question arises: if we set enough CEOs' clothes on fire that they totally stopped buying cocoa from illegal farmers, what would those illegal farmers do to feed themselves instead? Move to the city and do crime and contraband there?

I do begrudge people trying to earn enough to feed themselves by destroying the environment, and I favor draconic sanctions against it, both at home and abroad. (Don't even get me started about drylands cattle ranching...) However, I grant that people do have to have some way to feed themselves, and those unfortunate enough to be born in the Third World don't have many options.

I've come to think that capitalism and socialism are not opposing or mutually-exclusive systems, but rather two poles of the same system, that function best in dynamic balance. It's good for people to be able to improve their fortunes by thrift and hard work, and keep a fair share of what they make. It's also good for people to contribute to their society, so that the general standard of living continues to rise for everyone. That's what these stupid Randroids fail to grok: laissez-faire capitalism inevitably creates an underclass living on crime and contraband, which is not to anyone's advantage.

"I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

[conuly]

That's what these stupid Randroids fail to grok: laissez-faire capitalism inevitably creates an underclass living on crime and contraband, which is not to anyone's advantage.

That's charitable. I assume that they realize that poverty is profitable to somebody and are okay with this.

"I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

I had no idea he said that! I'm going to be quoting that all the time now.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

They're only okay with it because they take such a short-sighted view that they don't realize the pitchforks are coming. (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014)

*grins* Yeah, great quote, eh?

I want to see the rich paying a lot more taxes, but I also want to see the young doing a lot more work. If it were up to me, I'd make Youth Service mandatory for all citizens from the time they leave high school till their 21st birthday, which would sure buy a lot of civilization.

[conuly]

The pitchforks sure are taking their damn time.

If it were up to me, I'd make Youth Service mandatory for all citizens from the time they leave high school till their 21st birthday, which would sure buy a lot of civilization.

I don't care about age, I just think we could employ a lot more people if we put some work into repairing our infrastructure.

Though making it mandatory for a few years would, if done properly, have the effect of forcing disparate people to socialize with each other.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

It sure looks to me like the pitchforks are stirring (https://youtu.be/IUeNhfHXnrU), and that this is why our friendly neighborhood police departments are all armed to the teeth with weapons of war these days.

Making it mandatory till age 21 for everyone not in high school would have a number of salutary effects. The first, most notable one would be to get all the teen runaways, throw-aways and drop-outs off the streets, out of their bad neighborhoods, and into productive work, with room, board, and medical care. The second, equally salutary, would be to get all the children of privilege out of their fancy homes and neighborhoods, and away from their helicopter parents, to engage in productive work, etc. as equals with the underprivileged.

I definitely would want it mandatory for everyone, so it's not a program "for the poor". If the rich kids have to serve just the same, conditions and resources will be a lot better for all participants.

The third salutary result would be keeping people out of the military until they're 21, because they would not be eligible to enlist till after they'd completed their youth service. 18 is just too young to go to war; they come home broken for life.

The fourth salutary result would be on-the-job training for all kinds of trades. A lot of people are essentially done with their academic education by age 14 - why have vo-tech schools, when they could go straight into real jobs, where they'd learn more while actually accomplishing something?

The fifth salutary result would be fostering a spirit of community throughout the nation. It's harder to take infrastructure for granted when one has helped build it with one's own hands. It's also a lot harder to discount and disenfranchise the younger generation when they're out there in uniform, visibly serving their country.

We could have an awesome infrastructure, and an economy with plenty for everybody, if we had the rich paying the tab, and the young and strong doing the work.