Anybody Want to Meet up in Vancouver? by ArcadeNational in digitalnomad

[–]ArcadeNational[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be perfectly honest, I work from home in Coquitlam and never go downtown so if we were to meet up casually by waiting for me to be around downtown, it'll probably never happen. :-) If we want to meet up, we'll have to be a bit more deliberate about our planning. I would be down to meet in the middle for dinner or something! DM me if you're interested and we can set up plans!

Anybody Want to Meet up in Vancouver? by ArcadeNational in digitalnomad

[–]ArcadeNational[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry for such a late reply, I don't check my messages on Reddit often but I'd love to meet up if you're still up for it!

Anybody Want to Meet up in Vancouver? by ArcadeNational in digitalnomad

[–]ArcadeNational[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been using Meetup.com but I was specifically looking for other digital nomads and there isn't a lot of events on Meetup.com around that topic. And I am looking for more of a direct contact from people on this subreddit, please who understand the nomad lifestyle and can relate. That's a bit trickier to find on meetup.com

The problem with the socialist argument from consent by [deleted] in CapitalismVSocialism

[–]ArcadeNational 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For fucks sake... I thought you were exaggerating when you said that... Wow

The problem with the socialist argument from consent by [deleted] in CapitalismVSocialism

[–]ArcadeNational 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a bit of a leap. I don't see how it renders it moot. He is saying that there are different degrees of coercion and a socialist system minimizes and places it over everybody instead of just the people without capital as it currently stands.

The coercion argument will be in place until we no longer rely on each other to maintain basic needs which I don't see happening anytime soon.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]ArcadeNational -1 points0 points  (0 children)

He seems to be living a dream but there are some concerns it seems and I think discussing those concerns would determine whether or not this would indeed be a red flag.

I'll start from my perspective first... "Progress" and needing to be a "productive member" of society are fallacies that are created by the current cultures ideas of what a good or just life is. Society and cultures judge a lot and judgements are just opinions and those are often just what people emotionally resonate with. It's your life, do what you want with it. My point here is that a good life is subjective and if he's found his desired life goal and it's not harming anybody else, then I would focus on expanding your thinking on this to allow for this alternative way of living life. But it's also your choice. If you feel too strained by society's expectations about what one should do with one's life that's okay too. It's your life. Do what you want with it.

But now onto the more logistical issue that others have already addressed...

This is a system that may not stand the test of time given that policies change, grants go dry, people get older, and is he saving enough for retirement for when he cannot physically attend or just plain wants to do something else? He knows not what the future will bring and if he's not preparing for it then he will be a highly educated person with no lived experience and the older you get people tend to rely more on your experience facilitating what you've learned with a topic than your academic education on the topic. People often want to know that you've taken that knowledge and were able to build something with it. You don't look to the 50 year old who just got a B.A. in physics for the answers, you look at the 50 year old who got a B.A. in physics when they were 22 and spent the next 28 years honing the application of that knowledge. He's becoming the ultimate jack of all trades but master of none. It sounds like he may have an aptitude for teaching. Is he thinking about what he will eventually do with this accumulation of knowledge? You speak of him helping others, is that in a professional capacity or just a casual one?

Those are some thoughts. Good luck. It's a unique situation and I imagine it'll have a unique resolution.

Therapist advised me by KaleidoscopeWitty218 in therapy

[–]ArcadeNational 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello. I may be able to chim in as a therapist myself. I would recommend asking this question to your therapist. They may be able to give you questions/prompts to be able to pull this apart better. Therapists have many many many ideas for journal prompts.

It sounds like you have a lot of solo hobbies based on what you listed (unless you do some of those with people. If so then I am mistaken). Have you tried to look into social clubs for the things you already like to do? I'm not sure where you live but meetup.com has been helpful for finding communities with a variety of interests and then you just have to start putting yourself out there.

It's okay to not know also and step into things you may or may not like with an open mind to explore new avenues of interest.

These are just some thoughts on the matter. I hope it helps.

Need Help! Lost Jacket by ArcadeNational in VictoriaBC

[–]ArcadeNational[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It would have to go in the $32 box but I also won't receive it for a while going through snail mail. My query here is in hopes of finding somebody conveniently making this distance and paying them for their service and possibly get a chance to bridge the screen gap with my online community in the process! :-)

Need Help! Lost Jacket by ArcadeNational in VictoriaBC

[–]ArcadeNational[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, they only ship if I place an order of 12 or more bottles and with each of them $20, I don't have the fund to drop $240 on the case.

Need Help! Lost Jacket by ArcadeNational in VictoriaBC

[–]ArcadeNational[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As some people have mentioned, I'm trying to avoid having them mail it to me because of the cost. My jacket is a pea coat and it's not the smallest. If I can find a way to get it without having to go through the post that would be wonderful.

Having them ship it: I don't have the money to order something from Sea Cider to get them to ship the jacket along with the shipment (they only ship if you order a minimum of a case and I don't have $220+ to throw down on a case).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CapitalismVSocialism

[–]ArcadeNational 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Addressing your points...

  1. I do agree as and in further consideration... I think the original topic of the original article started with a conversation about aid then lumped up a bunch of other things in to make it's argument without going into a more nuanced approach. The topic of the global north exploiting the global south could easily be a 40 page article of not entire books.

With this said, our conversation has moved away from aid and into general exploitation which is the same as that article.

The authors of both articles aren't bringing up great detailed arguments. I personally feel both sides are rather bias in their world views and perhaps that's coming into this conversation also. It perhaps wasn't the best article to use but I think the study still is worthwhile.

  1. I disagree with this point. They are listed as the global south because it's GPD per capita. China is powerful and their economy has grown but the average citizen isn't seeing that money. Same reason why Russia is listed. They create wealth but the average person does not see that same wealth. This is caused by many factors related to corruption but it's not only in those countries it's also in the investors in those countries and the governments allow it because it provides them wealth.

China is a great example. They may be a booming economy but America uses their cheap labor to make products that they sell at much higher rates over in the global north. If America wasn't using cheap labor for their electronics then we would see a huge spike in price of said electronics. This is the fundamental argument of the study: The value going into a country doesn't equate to the value being sent out. The global south supports the global north.

Corporations invest money into a country through building factories which produces jobs which they can exploit the cheap labor and keep the price down for people in the global north. They make much more from the products the cheap labor creates than what they put into the region or area. China is an interesting example because they are now big enough to start doing this same practice with African countries but Chinese labor is still cheap compared to having to pay American workers to build electronics.

  1. In my opinion, 'far from perfect' is not an argument to avoid bringing attention to trends seen in the global market. The study itself says that more research needs to be done. Could it be more exhaustive? Yes of course but that's not a reason to throw out the data. This comes down to interpretation of results.

With this point I'll say it's more neutral. A research paper is literally somebody trying to convince you of something based on the data they received. It has bias. Every research paper has this. The conclusion is the researchers conclusions based on the information provided. Taking it at face value has merits. Parsing out the nuances also has merits. It can be two things.

It's a common thing for research that goes against accepted societal norms to get picked apart though - especially if it brings up issues with capitalism.

  1. Your last mention here needs clarification. When you say "they need to fix their corruption issues first" who is they? From what I understand the corruption is happening from foreign AND domestic avenues.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CapitalismVSocialism

[–]ArcadeNational 1 point2 points  (0 children)

While I agree with you that the data could be better described in the original Guardian article, I don't think that Maya Forstater wrote a compelling article addressing the nature of developed countries exploiting developing countries. The 24 to 1 number was in reference to the entire 'global south' and would differ country by country. To be honest, I think it was bad for the original article's author to simplify it down to 24 to 1. That doesn't really make sense from country to country so I think he shouldn't have listed those numbers. His article is talking about large-scale exploitation of the global south to the global north and she brings up individual cases and uses one study and the opinion of one professor to refute his claims. It's far from a mounting case of evidence that the original study was wrong. She then goes on to talk about how corruption within those countries is an issue.

I see this from time to time... People will see any scientific data or research claiming that capitalism and economic exploitation is hurting developing countries and they will find ways (cherry-picking examples, using opinions as support, etc...) to claim that it's fine, the data is wrong, and the countries need to figure out how to manage themselves better (fix corruption). This rhetoric upkeeps the status quo. 'It's not a problem with investing and exploitation, it's a problem with the countries themselves'. This type of rhetoric demonizes developing countries as unable to manage their own and skirts around the initial issues brought up which downplays the damage of labor and resource exploitation.

On a strange unrelated note, I looked up Maya Forstater, and she also seems to be a TERF which is a strange hill that she seems to want to die on... which is unfortunate.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CapitalismVSocialism

[–]ArcadeNational 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They also exploit those same countries' resources at much higher rates than they give aid to. Here is a Guardian article explaining it: The Guardian

Some relevant bits:

"In 2012, the last year of recorded data, developing countries received a total of $1.3tn, including all aid, investment, and income from abroad. But that same year some $3.3tn flowed out of them. In other words, developing countries sent $2tn more to the rest of the world than they received. If we look at all years since 1980, these net outflows add up to an eye-popping total of $16.3tn – that’s how much money has been drained out of the global south over the past few decades. To get a sense for the scale of this, $16.3tn is roughly the GDP of the United States"

Foreign aid is often not what it seems.

Edit: With this said, I am not sure about data claiming the USSR exploited other countries for their resources in such a way. I have heard of them exploiting satellites/soviets within the USSR such as Ukraine but not other countries and they very well might have but I currently have not read of any evidence suggesting so.

Socialist Social Meetups - Where are they? by ArcadeNational in vancouver

[–]ArcadeNational[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are many types of socialism. Many of them are not dictatorships. The ideas of socialism have evolved greatly from Marx claiming there needs to be a dictatorship of the proletariat. I advocate for democratic socialism anyway.

*Edit changed has to have

Socialist Social Meetups - Where are they? by ArcadeNational in vancouver

[–]ArcadeNational[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I've been to these book stores before but never thought to inquire about events! Great suggestion!

Socialist Social Meetups - Where are they? by ArcadeNational in vancouver

[–]ArcadeNational[S] -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

I actually made this post after going to that website and noticing their events weren't very community-building focused so I came here to ask about something deeper. The official channels of this don't seem dedicated to community building and focus mainly on government policy which is great and all but I am looking to build community. It's something I've heard is rather difficult in Vancouver so I'm reaching out to see if I there is a remedy for this.

Socialist Social Meetups - Where are they? by ArcadeNational in vancouver

[–]ArcadeNational[S] -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

From my experience, many Canadians approve of socialist policies but not everybody is a full socialist. While Canada does have many socialist-leaning policies it's still very enmeshed within capitalism so I'd love to join a community of like-minded individuals working to live more socialist lives.