That is sort of what China does and it seems to work.

Do you think that’s possible in the US?

capitalism will lead to plutocracy if left unchecked

But is it Capitalism if it is checked? If something stands above capitalism and controls it, then that is the governing philosophy and deserves the -ism, not capital.

Each of them wants to be a monopolist.

The monopolies, that is Capitalism. Free markets with competition is not Capitalism because then people with capital don’t have much power.

That’s a good argument.

Wasn’t it Austria though that didn’t want to join a Prussian led Germany?

Have you seen people migrate in huge numbers from X to mastodon or Reddit to Lemmy? The oligarchs in the US are fully in control. People crave Capitalism.

SpaceX was built up to not be a government agency. They have received many subsidies that could have been spent on NASA. The US had decided to privatize their space industry. Why should they undo it?

E.g. Starlink in Ukraine is just a private company. It’s not an official involvement of the US in the war.

Russia wants better access and control in the Atlantic sea

It’s one thing to conquer the Baltics and another to conquer and defend an access to the Atlantic. Russia can’t even dream of that.

The Baltics are in some danger because the EU could accept their loss instead of putting up the fight. But for the Atlantic, it’s an all out war against all major powers of Europe. How should Russia be able to win that?

making large parts of Russia unsuitable for anything.

They still have enough land to be a major grain exporter. Russia doesn’t need more land.

Austria is not to blame for that, like they are also not to blame for Germany electing a former Austrian.

They just failed.

Which means they must at least have realized that they can’t conquer Europe now, if they had planned to do so.

It’s wise to keep a strong army but I cannot imagine that Russia aims at Europe.

There’s a reason for that and it’s not lack of desire to be closer to the east.

Why not? There was no reason to move close to North Korea so far. But it is kind of South Russia, so with a better outlook it makes sense to grow the cities there now.

Yeah that’s why they made a grab for the whole country.

That doesn’t matter for this argument. They were willing to settle for less which means they are not hell-bent on conquering Europe.

there’s a reason nobody lives there

Historically. There is no need to have farming close-by. Any terrain will do if it allows them to participate in the Asian economy.

What? They’re obviously in the thick of attempting it right now.

All of Europe or just Ukraine and maybe the Baltics? Without Boris Johnson, Russia was willing to settle for east Ukraine. Why should they want more now?

What? Have you seen the geography of Russia?

I have. Their country stretches till North Korea.

Why would Russia conquer Europe when they can expand their cities in the east where the future center of the world will be?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeriepieris_circle

This war is distracting Europe from the even bigger danger that major innovations will happen there and Europe will have to follow.

Once Asia has the same level of education, the 500 million Europeans will become much less relevant.

once again

Hitler was a fully integrated German. Being stupid was up to us, and is up to us again. No matter how much Austrians or others support fascists, it is possible to say no, and we have to, because there is nobody who does it for us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_billionaires

Germany is number 4, Italy 6, France 13, Sweden 14.

That’s 400 billionaires compared to China’s 539. Add the other European countries and Europe is second or third. The list above makes it seem like they don’t live in Europe.

Where do they live? In Billionaire land? Europe has plenty of them.

In the long run, is it possible to have conflicting cultures coexist or does Europe have to unite everybody with some form of pop culture?

I think global warming and clima migration will lead to entire countries moving to Europe. Those people want to maintain their cultures which will be as different as Roma culture or more so. How can we give them space to maintain their identities?

Is this sarcasm? What gives you the hope that it could work?

The platforms are cheap. Let all politicians, influencers, athletes and musicians announce that they are going to switch next week to mastodon. Announce it in the news. That’s it. Most people will follow.

That leaves the billions for science, where they belong.

You are right. First time reading I didn’t put enough weight on populist.

There won’t be anybody left to ask their money back. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.