blackhawkC17

This is a silly rant.

Politicians were also responsible for initially subsidizing solar to usher in the current boom.

Corporations invested heavily in solar production to create the cheap panels that are being installed rapidly.

Just because some politicians and corporations do things we don’t like doesn’t make them in general “the biggest enemy of humanity.”

> I think the bigger question here is what role Chinese policy is playing in this story. Is their involvement strictly commercial?

There's little government policy behind it. It's basically:

Chinese companies invest in massive production of solar panels and drive prices down to unprecedented levels.

Pakistani individuals and businesses, facing energy shortages and very expensive grid power, decide to invest in solar panels to get cheap energy.

> Have Chinese politicians decided on some sort of Marshall Plan-style approach to the Middle East?

Not even close, and there's no reason for them to do this.

> In other words, a job that is traditionally considered to be a basic service of the government is now being privatized by people that nobody knows if we can really trust.

How on earth is it the government's job to protect people's software? It's a mere digital product, not human life or property.

Besides, people also buy padlocks and door locks for safety. Wiz is no different.

A dumb conspiracy theory. Israel has mandatory conscription (barring some cases), and many of the smart ones are recruited into Unit 8200. It's not surprising that they go on to start cyber companies once conscription ends, given that's a major focus of the Unit.

Israelis constantly dominating the cybersecurity industry..damn

> We lose a democratic element of corporate America by surrendering our votes to a couple big custodians that really don't care either way.

By design, though, the people who invest with Vanguard do that precisely to offload decisions to experts and focus on other things.

Passive investors have neither the time nor expertise to monitor and vote on corporate decisions, so we're stuck with the current system regardless.

I think Intel is a bureaucracy that's gradually eating itself. Maybe it's harsh, but such companies might not be worth saving. They should be left to fizzle out and another should take their place.

The beauty of capitalism is that giants can fall down to earth, and smaller startups can take their place. Rinse and repeat.

True, I was referring to the modern context of aid, not colonial times with extractive economies.

I don’t think it’s fair to apply the modern concept of aid to previous eras of colonialism, wars, and frequent famines. It was a different ballgame I feel I wouldn’t be qualified to comment on except I experienced it first-hand.

> Not giving any aid today means condemning masses to death.

It’s not the responsibility of foreigners to feed other countries’ populations. Those countries have governments made up of adults (often voted in by the masses) who can take decisions for themselves…it’s their fault if their citizens are left to starve, not foreigners.

> Or you mean the Haitian leaders are paid exactly to keep the population half-starving?

It’s not intentional, but that’s what inadvertently happens. There’s little incentive to find unique domestic solutions to long-running issues when foreign saviors are willing to cover for the Haitian government repeatedly.

At some point, we should admit that it’s arrogant for foreigners thinking they’re responsible for another country’s problems and should be the ones solving them, not the locals.

The above reasoning is what caused the U.S. to spend trillions of dollars on wars and so-called nation-building in Afghanistan and Iraq, all to no avail.

It helped neither the locals nor the U.S., where these wars have contributed to political turbulence with dire consequences.

Agreed. Other countries should follow the same path instead of depending on foreign aid to solve their issues.

We’re likely in agreement. What Haiti needs is investment in domestic industries to be competitive in a capitalist world.

These investments can be provided by foreigners, but it’s ultimately the locals that need to rise up to the occasion and use it well. Unfortunately, Haiti is rooted in endemic corruption, stemming in part from aid dependency.

There’s no point of giving aid to Haiti while maintaining the status quo of the country being a little more than a raw material supplier to richer countries.

My exact complaint is that many countries give aid to feel good…and also for the recipient to do the donor’s bidding instead of what’s right for their countrymen.

Whoever pays the piper calls the tune. If Haitian leaders remain more accountable to foreign donors than their local population, there’s no incentive to improve.

No one disputes that Errol Musk had money (including Elon himself), but, as the link illustrates, it was from an engineering business and not from apartheid mines as implied by the OP.