Thread

1. andsoitis · 1790687134 · focus · HN ↗

   The more countries trade with each other and depend on each other, the better things are for peace and human advancement.

   The zero-sum mindset that's de rigueur at the moment needs to die soon or the world that we'll inhabit is gonna suck.

   1. adrianmsmith · 1790691929 · focus · HN ↗

      > The more countries trade with each other and depend on each other, the better things are for peace

      I previously thought the same, with Europe and Russia doing lots of trade e.g. Germany buying lots of gas from Russia, and many western companies being present in Russia. It seems obviously true.

      But Russia still started a war anyway, so I guess it's not actually true.

      1. jacquesm · 1790696150 · focus · HN ↗

         You can never rule out irrational acts. Merkel was ignoring the writing on the wall for much too long, it was pretty obvious that russia was on the war path long before she was still happily inking contracts that financed russia's machinery. You can not get a country that is already waging irrational wars to change their way by trading with them. But I'm pretty sure that for instance Trump right now is restrained to some degree by the certain knowledge that the US economy is at the mercy of outsiders.

         1. someonebaggy · 1790696492 · focus · HN ↗

            None of that stopped Trump raising the gas price to $10, or ending the petrodollar, either. It seems to have been empirically demonstrated that economics cannot restrain powerful idiots.

            1. jacquesm · 1790702593 · focus · HN ↗

               We can only live in one world, but I can easily imagine a much worse alternative where there had been no restrictions at all. The question here is a matter of degree, it isn't an on-off switch.

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