Good video w/ John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs

I like Mearsheimer, I've been following him for a while. He's on Judge Napolitano's program frequently. So is Sachs, but I'm not as big of a fan of him.

I listened to this a week or so ago, so it's not fresh in my mind, but iirc Sachs takes the position of saying we should continue to keep our manufacturing in China, which really means his Wall Street buddies can continue to exploit their cheap labor. He doesn't gaf about what became known as the Rust Belt, because that's not a part of his or his friends' world. It's probably because he's a Jew, and so is most of Wall Street.

I think Mearsheimer is right in that China isn't as big of a problem now because it's not powerful enough. I'm all for everyone in the world improving their standard of living as much as possible, but that's not our responsibility as Americans, but as they both rightfully point out that's never what the US is doing anyway, it's just a false pretext for exploiting other countries while enriching our 1%.

Wasn't Sachs involved in the looting of Russia and other ex-communist countries in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union? I've always heard that about him.

Anyway, they're both right imo about Russia and Israel. It's an interesting interview.

coast2coastam wrote:I like Mearsheimer, I've been following him for a while. He's on Judge Napolitano's program frequently. So is Sachs, but I'm not as big of a fan of him.

I listened to this a week or so ago, so it's not fresh in my mind, but iirc Sachs takes the position of saying we should continue to keep our manufacturing in China, which really means his Wall Street buddies can continue to exploit their cheap labor. He doesn't gaf about what became known as the Rust Belt, because that's not a part of his or his friends' world. It's probably because he's a Jew, and so is most of Wall Street.

I think Mearsheimer is right in that China isn't as big of a problem now because it's not powerful enough. I'm all for everyone in the world improving their standard of living as much as possible, but that's not our responsibility as Americans, but as they both rightfully point out that's never what the US is doing anyway, it's just a false pretext for exploiting other countries while enriching our 1%.

Wasn't Sachs involved in the looting of Russia and other ex-communist countries in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union? I've always heard that about him.

Anyway, they're both right imo about Russia and Israel. It's an interesting interview.

Sachs tried to help Russia adopt a market economy. The IMF refused to give Russia aid. If they had, Russia would have been a lot like Poland right now. But some hard line people could never help the Soviets.

The problem is if you accept Mearsheimer's view, the end state of mankind is endless war, and nuclear war is inevitable. Because every other country is a theoretical threat, and so a hegemon must constantly keep everyone else in the shitter to "remain secure", but these very acts will unite a coalition against us. Mearsheimer only thinks in simple terms because he isn't a game theorist. He doesn't understand how this system actually works and how and why we build order from the anarchial chaos. He correctly concludes WHY states are taking certain political actions, but he is forever trapped in this nihilistic game of Risk.

Sachs recognizes what JFK and Khrushchev, and to a lesser extent, Stalin and Truman recognized about the world. We are in a trap, and if we do not escape said trap, we WILL all destroy ourselves. It is not a question of if, but when, if we stick to this game of Risk view of the world.

Mearsheimer also forgets states are not permanent entities. There is always fragmentation and the desire to divide. We live on a big planet. There are many disagreements. But if we can build a framework for just and peaceful settlement, we can make war unnecessary. That is the point of the UN.

The more we view China as an enemy, the more we will make it so. It is in our interests to work closely with other great powers to build a secure and stable world for future development. We won't agree on all matters of law, but we can submit to a just settlement and agree to negotiate our issues like men, rather than fight like beasts and die pointlessly.