I think the problem you’re running into is that your definition of “low wage” isn’t in reference to their applied fields. I don’t think it’s right to assume that people are going to compare a pilot’s low wage to someone doing manual labor.

The point he is making is that corporations aren’t hiring people under h1b because there’s a lack of skilled labour. They’re hiring people under h1b because they help drive down labour costs, or they don’t want to absorb the cost of training new skilled labour.

If it were really because there was a lack of skilled labour, and demand was so high, then there shouldn’t be a gap in pay between H1b and local skilled labour. If we want the best and brightest from everywhere, why are we paying the best and brightest lower than the industry standard?

This is just the sunk cost fallacy though. You can inflate the paper value of assets by playing games like this, but the bill always comes due in the end. Yes, companies that do this can juice their books a bit in the short term, but they’re harming themselves in the long term.

I mean… That’s kinda what late stage capitalism is all about, squeezing blood from stones on a quarterly basis.

You could create a subsidiary and have that company rent out some of your floor space for absurdly high rates. But you’re ultimately just robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Reminds me of the twin towers. One of the reasons it was such a catastrophe is because the towers were such a money sink that the city of New York subsidized the development by relocating a ton of government offices to there.

Fuck, these companies might actually be violating the law. Deliberately choosing unproductive business practices just to cook your real estate books is something Enron would do.

Pretty much the standard quo nowadays…why invest in things like labour when you can just inflate the worth of assets for free? Capitalism is about reducing cost while simulating growth, there is no reason to actually invest in the company if you can simulate investment enough to make share price go up.

“Let’s build this “refugee shelter” in the middle of the everglade, far away from any ngo or logistics center, also…be sure to have really tall fences, guard posts, and don’t forget to order all that barbed wire.”

Were you born yesterday?

Also, government contractors have…contracts. If they were told to build something other than what they were contracted to build, the contract is no longer enforceable.

Maybe if capitalism actually relied on competition for growth as capitalists often claim, however it’s pretty easy to recognize that corporations often work together to create their own demand.

I feel like everyone did a partner swap during the Iran Iraq war at least once.

Iran

established positive ties with many countries including Syria (under Hafez al-Assad), Libya (under Gaddafi), North Korea (under Kim Il Sung), Bulgaria (under Todor Zhivkov), Poland, Yugoslavia, East Germany, China (under Deng Xiaoping) and eventually the Western Bloc (after Switzerland who indirectly sold Iran western ammunition, Argentina also reached out to Iran proposing arms sales and agreed to also train Iranians in TOW production) to purchase arms for the IRGC. Iran’s recovering army, however, had its own logistics support who reached out to Western Bloc countries including the United States and, indirectly, Israel to purchase ammunition and spare parts for their Western-made military equipment. Syria, Libya (who supplied Iran with approximately US$900 million dollars worth of free arms and 30 Scud-B missiles[5] and North Korea (who later supplied Iran with between 200 and 300 Soviet-built Scud-B and Scud-C missiles and transferred missile production technology to Iran)[6] were the first suppliers of arms to Iran. Eastern Bloc followed suit under financial pressures as the Soviet Union no longer had strict policies on sanctioning Iran. Rafighdoost maintains that the equipment Iran received from the United States following the Iran-Contra affair, were non-functional and broken, and were only made usable after repairs. He was also contacted by a third-party with ties to Switzerland who agreed to provide Iran with Western-made ammunition. Rafighdoost also claims that he was approached by an Israeli arms dealer in his hotel room while he was in Switzerland, and he rejected him.[citation needed]

Iraq

Iraq’s army was primarily equipped with weaponry it had previously purchased from the Soviet Union and its satellites in the preceding decade. During the war, it also purchased billions of dollars’ worth of advanced equipment from France, China, Egypt, Germany and other sources.[10][better source needed] Iraq’s three main suppliers of weaponry during the war were the Soviet Union followed by China and then France.[11] The United States sold Iraq over $200 million in helicopters, which were used by the Iraqi military in the war.

“Hey guys, do you think there’s a chance that this concentration camp we’re building in the middle of a swamp might be used for something nefarious?”

You’re forgetting the whole…" I invested entirely too much in corporate real estate".

When there’s instability in the market a lot of fortune 500 corporations will start investing in corporate real estate as a “safe bet” to hedge more risky investments.

Skyscrapers and large office spaces are on paper horrible investments and have an awful time filling enough vacancies to offset their upkeep. The only thing that makes them a “safe” investment is that every company uses them as a way to bank equity. If those same companies pulled the rug from under themselves they would all lose that safe equity piggy bank.

Idk, I feel like allegorical communication is a bit different than someone believing that building a telescope is going to destroy the universe because it takes up too much ram.

I mean there are literal cults out there murdering people because they think AI is going to punish people who dont help AI take over the world.

There is something inherent about spending too much time with computers that warps people’s brains into compulsively perceiving everything around them in digital logic.

1. The Epstein files are full of Magastanis.

I mean, if there is some list of extremely wealthy clients… It would probably just resemble a copy of the Republican mega donors list.

Most people wealthy enough to vacation on a private island also really don’t like paying taxes.

And yet the people in charge of the judiciary are more religiously motivated than they’ve been in nearly a century.

It doesn’t really matter if we as a society are less religious than ever if the people with their hands on the tiller are not. There’s a reason they are called reactionaries…

don’t know of any heroic deeds that Hitler did. Do you?

My definition of hero includes general morality… If we adopt your definition of just being brave or inspirational, then you would be hypocritical not too. He was a combat veteran who eventually went on to be the leader of his country. By your definition that’s not heroic?

didn’t say he was a hero, that was dagwoodiii a bit upthread

“I’d say that those heroic deeds by definition makes them a hero, even if it’s only in a narrow context as “American naval warfare”.”

I’d say that those heroic deeds by definition makes them a hero, even if it’s only in a narrow context as “American naval warfare”.

Again, no one is forcing you to call a child rapist a hero… It’s a pretty wild move imo.

By your own definition…is Hitler also a hero?

I think maybe it’s important when mantling someone with the title of “hero” that we weigh the positive and the negative aspects of their contributions, otherwise it can get awkward.

Ehh… If you want to proclaim your hero is the rapist of a 10 year old girl feel free I guess?

There’s a difference between the morally gray of acts committed in war, and the rape of a 10 year old girl. Which was morally reprehensible even in the perspective of 1700’s Russian society.

America’s legendary naval hero

Yeah… I’d hesitate to label him as a “hero” considering he was also a slaver and a child rapist.

Ahh… Hanging with friends gathered around a PC and trolling pedos on AIM. So weird that age, sex, and location were the primary opening lines of communication for a while. Even stranger that creepy dudes in their 40s were so honest about it while trying to pick up kids on the Internet.

Np, there’s companies who sell it as a wettable powder that you just mix in water and apply it with a sprayer. Works like a charm and doesn’t take much, think I bought a 25b bag like 4-5 seasons ago and it’s still at least half full.

Idk, if it wasn’t religion it’d be something else. Religion is a great tool to control populations, but it’s just one of many. Most human conflicts have a materialistic basis to them and things like religion or nationality are just used as window dressing.

I’d say the most destructive force on the planet is usually just rich/powerful dudes beefing over turf.

but do they actually let you have one?

Haha yeah that tends to be the real problem with the dill strategy. Typically if we actually want a dill for ourselves we’ll plant one in a hanging planter away from the rest of the garden, otherwise the greedy little guys will eat it as well.

We’ve also used fennel in the past as well, dill and fennel seem to be their favorite for some reason.

Ultimately, it was Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) which worked the best.

We’ve tried to step away from any kind of active pesticide, just because we get so many monarch butterflies where we’re at. Usually if they get on a plant we want to try and save we’ve had luck using kaolin clay. Which has a dual purpose as a sun protection during real hot summers.

When you do it it’s tyranny…when we do its democracy manifesting freedoms. You see the difference? Your soldiers had kings, our soldiers have burger king, it’s eloquently simple when you think about it.