I’m not perplexed. When in doubt,look at the wallets. They’re out of money. The interest on the loans is starting to bite, and their revenues aren’t going up like they hoped.

Democracy is a bad way to govern. Problem is, all other ways are even worse.

On top of that, if you buy a Chinese car, you have no guarantees about how long replacement parts will be available.

The Russian population is 143 million. This means that effectively 1% of the population is a casualty. Or 2% of the male population. And the rate isn’t slowing down. How much longer can Russia sustain this?

This ethics question is from another time, where most likely both the local miller and baker were dependent on said sale to continue to feed their family, and have the resources to feed others.

I think the main dilemma behind it is more like: is it ethical to force others to work for my profit/human rights? However for this dilemma to be representative, the entire society needs to be arranged so everyone who is willing to contribute can contribute and is motivated to do so.

Also, capitalism is the best system, as long as it’s kept in check and the people inside aren’t to greedy. Neither traits currently seem to be true. Communism is the best system as long as people aren’t selfish, and aren’t motivated by physical rewards. Which also isn’t true.

The best moment to plant a tree was 10 years ago, the second best right now. I still hope we keep producing them on masse to give to the Ukrainians too.

Frankly, it’s the end of private enterprise in Russia. Wildberries and Ozon are just the start, Ukraine will need new targets in the future. Company owners have the choice: implement your own air defence, and get your company confiscated, or get destroyed.

In addition to this, most people just ask ai nowadays.

That’s just a Russian propaganda sub.

On a down note, /r/ukrainewarvideoreport. I liked following the progress of the war.

Nope, asml machines are of such complexity that no sane country/company would try to reverse engineer it.

But China isn’t driven by conventional economics nor honest trade. They want everyone else to become dependent on them as a way to get power and soft colonise others.

Selling euv to China will let them reverse engineer it and put a state sponsored competitor on the market within 5 years.

Frankly if Europe really meant business they’d put a heavy export tariff on it, so the chip companies have to produce in Europe.