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Power struggle: Will Brazil’s booming datacentre industry leave ordinary brazilians in the dark?
(www.theguardian.com)
If you want to see what ideology can do to a nation's elite, look at the United Kingdom today.
London isn't a global financial center because the British have special genes for money. London is a global finance center because the United Kingdom was the most powerful global empire that the world had ever seen.
Throughout history, the powerful nations scream "FREE TRADE, OPEN YOUR MARKETS. NOW !!!" because they are confident. They know that their big corporations can be unleashed on the small countries. At the peak of its power, the UK was the most free trade country in the world. In London, the UK elite were 100% confident their corporations could dominate the world. The Chinese try to resist? They don't want to accept our corporations ? We will make them open their market, whether they like or not.
For a long period, the US was actually a protectionist country.
Why did the entire US elite became a cheerleader of globalization after World War 2 ? Extreme confidence. They know that globalization means Coca-Cola, Starbucks Coffee, Amazon, Adobe, Boeing, Microsoft and Apple can be unleashed on the planet.
From Tokyo to Mumbai, from Montreal to Rio de Janeiro, from Mecca to Sydney. They want to see McDonalds and Starbucks everywhere. They want Amazon everywhere. They want Adobe Software and Microsoft Windows everywhere. They want to see Apple phones everywhere.
In recent years, the Chinese started to build sophisticated large corporations capable of threatening US dominance in fields like Pharma, Satellites, Chips, Robotics, Technology, Planes.
That's when the US elite really started to worry. Under the Biden administration, the americans tried to throw money at Intel and Boeing. They created a powerful wall to protect car corporations against BYD. Trump is just a symptom of the american panic, but he is crude and ignorant.
The British are no longer an empire. They are increasingly a small little country like many others. And like all small countries, they are fucked by corporate empires like Starbucks Coffee or Amazon
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-19967397
https://www.channel4.com/news/amazons-tax-bill-and-government-grants-revealed
Make absolutely no mistake. Going to Amazon is worse for the economy than going to a British-owned book store. Going to Starbucks is worse for the economy than going to a British-citizen owned coffee. Anyone telling you otherwise is taking you for a fool. In one case the money is leaving Britain and increasing the foreign deficit. In another case, the money is taxed and stays in Britain.
The London elites, still believe they run the British empire. They openly scream * "We love globalization, open all markets". They went as far as selling their own water infrastructure to foreign investors and bragging about it in public ("Britain is open for business"*). It's so sad.
Now, Trump openly declared a trade war on them and their Chancellor says that calls for buying British products are bad because it's against free trade?!!!!!
That's what happens when you completely swallow your own ideological bullshit.
People should never trust Apple
They slowed down their iPhones on purpose to encourage people to buy new ones.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51413724
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/10/apple-questioned-us-senate-slowing-down-iphones-french-investigation