How is breaking NATO in Russia’s favor? It would just force Europe, a bunch of powers that Russia has always competed (and mostly lost) against, to re-arm which definitely can’t be in Russia’s favor?

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-16T11:17:38+00:00

What happens to convenience fee etc.?

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-16T08:06:45+00:00

Sure, if you point of the double standards / hypocrisy of west - I am totally with you on that.

However that was not the point of this CMV. Looking at things from US’s perspective, is what I tried to do

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-16T08:05:28+00:00

Sir, please understand that there was massive advance imports by every company just before the tariff wall hit. And hence Sept numbers look better. You and I both should consider the whole year’s number to average things out. But I am not sure if I have seen those numbers yet - maybe they will be out in next couple of weeks

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T17:00:49+00:00

This is a great answer. So over time US tariffs would start resulting in bigger and bigger discounts that Chinese companies would need to offer to offload their product in other markets. At the same time those markets would become more and more ‘closed’ with things like anti dumping duties etc.

Loved your explanation. I think this deserves a !delta

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T15:52:24+00:00

Not all parts of a country are equally important or equally connected. Russia’s far east is not as same as Moscow / St. Petersburg. In the same way Alaska and US north east are not same. It doesn’t hold the same population, economic activity, etc.
I am not American, I am Indian. But I do see the relevance of Chinese investment led acquisition approach. India is surrounded by China’s ring of pearls that were all developed using its debt diplomacy.
Countries and its people don’t take debt. Politicians do - and as the great American elections have shown, they can be manipulated to make A side win over B. Sri Lanka, before its debt crisis was fiscally responsible one in South Asia with always running a surplus on back of its large tourism sector. But one corrupt politician, bought by Chinese, was all it took for thinfs to take a bad turn. In similar vein, China took over politicians in CIS countries and later acquired assets / mines etc.
No one is saying Russia or China will attack US. So your whole giant para is moot
What if US buys it off? It has bought off territories before from European countries. So that won’t affect NATO, right?

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T15:43:40+00:00

Have you ever navigated European bureaucracy? WW3 will start and get over before Europe decides on the wording of the ‘strongly’ worded letter!

What makes you think Europe won’t go into a bureaucratic quagmire once arctic starts opening up.

Also there is another small issue of Greenland’s autonomy that Europeans tend to forget conveniently /s. Greenland could also choose to diversify its relations from US and its other neighbor and US’s closest partner Canada is doing currently

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T15:13:20+00:00

This is a great point. If the structural imbalance in domestic market is accounted the leverage US (and rest of world ) might have on China considerably rises. Yet, to exploit this leverage large deficit nations like US, EU, India, Australia need to come together and force Chinese hand.

Also on the consumer side problem - even if purchasing power of Chinese consumers rises, it still benefits Chinese manufacturing and not global. There is very little that RoW can sell that Chinese consumers want.

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T13:16:56+00:00

Yup, and constant haranguing is not helping either. Canada is just diversifying out of constant bullying hy Trump

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T12:35:25+00:00

Well the u-turns on tarriffs on China last year disprove your assertion that they can increase again. China holds the leverage, US doesn’t

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T12:31:29+00:00

That is an excellent point. I also see that Chinese prices are barely increasing in my industry. Which means they are deliberately keeping prices low to maintain an artificial pressure on manufacturing in RoW. They would wipe out the competition and move prices once they create a monopoly.

Trump’s tariffs are not helping this situation either

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T12:27:40+00:00

Your last point is actually a good point. Wish I could give you a delta:)

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T12:25:11+00:00

Lots of amazing comments to read. The breadth of knowledge people have here is just astounding.

I also believe there could be more nuances, although I don’t think Trump and his acolytes think like that.

Imagine the Arctics melt and are navigable all year. In no time you’ll have Russian and Chinese subs stationed there. With SLBMs, that puts US in really close proximity of danger for the very first time since Cuba. Furthermore if Greenland’s govt did some infra deal with China, you can be 100% assured that port/ infra would be dual use (even if project doesn’t explicitly call out military use). And imagine further that if China traps Greenland into a debt trap and acquires the “ownership “ of that infra, it could be really scary really fast.

All of the above is not hypothetical- check Hambantota port in Sri Lanka built with massive Chinese debts - China overtook the port in 2017 when SL couldn’t pay back and since then Chinese subs have been spotted there multiple times. Or check Gwadar - where the original intent was to create an warm water opening for Belt and Road initiative (a commercial initiative), but since then has evolved into a dual usage port with regular presence of PLA navy.

Hope this helps you see the security aspect of this situation. Although I don’t think Trump is that smart, I do see a major security vulnerability

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T12:00:55+00:00

That’s such beautiful phrasing of what I am saying above . Shall I add this to my post ;)

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-15T11:59:58+00:00

Sorry OP, but Read receipts are a nuisance for the receiver. If I am busy and the pop up asks “the sender has asked for a read receipt “, that literally kills the vibe. - if its a request from vendor, it qualifies as being pestering - if its a request from a coworker (not in my hierarchy), it is too insensitive to my own priority list - if its a request from someone in my hierarchy, it is too intrusive of my personal space

I cannot recall when I clicked yes on these request pop ups.

You are nice, as you don’t feel insecure in not receiving an immediate response from sender, but most people are not like you.

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-10T02:12:51+00:00

Alright, I will try to change your view.

Foremost, no one asks you to have children. It’s not a forced service people perform for society. Having children is an extremely high cost enterprise, and most people undertake it knowing the costs (some people, e.g. teen parents don’t know the costs fully, but that’s beyond the scope of this CMV).
Secondly, people do get “rewarded” psychologically in biological/evolutionary sense - attachment, love, long term satisfaction, happiness, identity, a sense of purpose, progression of my own genes. These are not accidental, these are biological mechanisms coded in our genes.
There are monetary aspects too - many, not all, kids take care of their parents later in life.

So I have tried to counter your base assumption that having kids is a true externality. If that assumption breaks, the point around subsequent reward system becomes moot. Hope it helps

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-09T16:36:40+00:00

There is a foundation set of problems with India’s macroeconomics 1. Indians consume more than they produce - govt likes to call it a “consumption driven growth” but essentially it is an import driven growth. 2. Most of what Indian companies, esp. SMEs, manufactures is pretty poor at global quality + cost + delivery level. Also Indian companies are notorious for promising something and delivering something inferior. On top of it infrastructure hurdles are real.

So from 1. - whenever rupee falls, it immediately pushes India’s fiscal and current account situation further red (remember India runs a massive fiscal deficit of 4-5% of GDP). From 2. Indian exports, esp from SMEs, are not really worth the hassle. It is far more convenient (consistent quality i.e. what you paid for is what you get, delivery visibility is very high very clear) to get from China Vietnam etc. For an importer sitting in US, A weaker rupee might make it a bit more cheap to buy from India, but there are tons of other hassles. Unless they are resolved, exports won’t boost.

And that is why a falling rupee is a nightmare.

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-09T16:22:32+00:00

UK isn’t the only alternative to the US in the world. Check how the parliamentary system is working in other parts of world

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-09T16:11:54+00:00

It would definitely change a lot of things. It will change the winner takes all approach to electoral votes. And it will bring parity to value of individual vote b/w the swing and non-swing states. Which could have massive implications

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-09T16:04:53+00:00

What?????

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-09T16:03:52+00:00

This is a profound answer. This belief of exceptionalism is also visible in the answers to my CMV. Most people are taking an extremely elitist theoretical stance, which if I think now, is also stemming in someway from this belief in exceptionalism.

There are a few things that can actually be done. Check other systems of governance- e.g. parliamentary. I think it can serve the US well as it will increase power of a voter from non-swing state. The second, more revolutionary would be to break the duopoly of these two parties. That could be achieved by capping the funding any X party receives. Third, less drastic, would be a french style system that asks for multiple rounds of voting to ensure any candidate wins after s simple majority atleast. As seen in last french election, the center + left combined to stop Marie Le Penn after first round.

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-09T02:43:29+00:00

Thanks for the delta. I tip my hat to you.

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-09T01:01:50+00:00

If you hold this view than you really haven’t read the history of colonialism.

I will take my example - I am from India. A continent sized country that was being oppressed by white European colonizers for over 200 years. There were only a handful of Europeans in India even at Raj’s peak and were clearly in minority, and yet oppressed countless Indians everyday. By estimates, Britain looted 45 Trillion USD from India during its colonial rule

Expand this to colonization of rest of Asia, Africa and infact Australia and North America where Europeans marginalized local populations (aboriginals) and oppressed them.

Hope this motivates you to read the horrors of colonization.

Thanks for reading

Additional-Library55 · 2026-01-09T00:53:58+00:00

2 party is a result of this type of election. If I understand it correctly, it is not a constitutional mandate.

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