There are an infinite number of Brexits we didn’t get. We only got to try one. For most purposes I think it’s pretty reasonable to equate ‘Brexit’ with that one.
Frankly, I don’t think any of the Brexits we stood any chance of actually getting could have been good: it was only a question of how bad the one we eventually got would be.
And the problem with the less bad Brexits was: they would be less bad, but they would also be more directly comparable with no Brexit (e.g. “in order to improve trade we’re going to follow all the EU’s rules but not have a say in any of them”).
> (e.g. “in order to improve trade we’re going to follow all the EU’s rules but not have a say in any of them”).
We de facto do that anyway, because most of our trade is conducted with the EU and companies aren't stupid. They don't want to design and build to multiple different standards, so they just adhere to EU rules for simplicity and cost reasons. But now we don't get a say in those rules.
True. But given that's true, it would be so much better to be inside the single market or customs union. But apparently those are still 'red lines' ...
> They include some common appliances that use water, due to water use regulations. No reason my dishwasher should take over 2 hours to run
I don't think this is a great example, because saving water (and thus the energy needed to heat the water) is both a social good and a private good.
Your new dishwasher program might take longer because, for example, (a) it's more efficient to soak residues than keep blasting away at them, but it takes longer and (b) if you alternate between shooting water at the the top and bottom drawers (but not both at once) then you can get away with using half the water, in twice the time.
Most dishwashers have an 'express' programme that uses more water and energy to finish faster, so if that matters you can still have it. If it doesn't matter to you (e.g. because you're running the dishwasher overnight, or while you're at work), you and everyone else benefits from the greater efficiency.
So I think this is an unambiguous improvement. :)
The average quality of appliances is a separate question. Anecdotally, I finally had to replace a 22-year-old Neff dishwasher. I got a new Bosch one (same firm, different logo), and have been pleasantly surprised that the new model is still made in Germany, seems pretty solid, washes well, and is guaranteed for 5 years.
> Professors keep acting like this is some unsolvable research problem
I am a professor, and yes, it's trivially solvable. The solution has been well known for hundreds of years (at least). If only the institutions we work in would let us *@#$ing solve it!
Where I work, administrative obstacles have been erected to make it pretty much impossible to give my students traditional closed-book, unseen, invigilated exams. I have been fighting this for several years.
But I'm hoping management are going to have to cave in before too long, because students are surely going to realise pretty soon that their degree certificates will be worthless otherwise.
Well, maybe the purpose of higher education is to learn how to learn _for yourself_. That is: to find sources, read them, evaluate them, and synthesize them into a conclusion.
Just pointing out the idiocy of the current situation. VW was actually founded by the Nazis and even the name is not neutral, so if "activists" want to use the label "Nazi car" then surely that is as close as it gets...
VW is a public company, and everyone who was involved with that is dead. The name is different, the ownership is different, the principals are different - its ties to its Nazi past are beyond tenuous. Meanwhile the _current CEO_ of Tesla is flouncing around doing Nazi salutes. Like, if you can't see the difference, then I dunno what to tell you.
Ford might be a better example, as there's been some continuity of ownership/control there, but, well, Henry Ford is, thankfully, extremely dead. Again, that does make a difference.
It will be a comparable situation once antifascists liberate the USA, political and capital reconstruction with strong de-neonazification removes the ideology from influence and power, and after a couple generations of global veterans and victims spitting at the name, pop culture jokes and ad-fueled media rehabilitation.
Until then, I don't think it's fair to whitewash the Tesla brand with the brush that allowed the successful rehabilitation of German and Japanese industry. Elon Musk is already the eugenicist face of the destruction of USAID (>1M deaths/ year) and positioned to deploy an orbital constellation of weaponized satellites with offensive capabilities (Golden Dome). Do we really need to play this one out? It ends with tens or hundreds of millions dead, has the pursuit of money blinded so many of us to our shared humanity?
> Just pointing out the idiocy of the current situation. VW was actually founded by the Nazis
I don’t really get this.
So if we continue with this, logically Germany (and even Britain due to other reasons) should dissolve itself because it is permanently tainted as a country?
One of the reasons US seceded from Britain is because they wanted to steal more land from the natives and weren’t allowed to. It’s a country that’s basically founded on genocide (and not much better than VW)
If you do it as a blanket statement — i.e. all politicians lie all the time — then yes, I will be pretty irritated.
Some politicians spout dangerous nonsense most of the time.
Other politicians can be trusted most of the time, and when they lie it tends towards 'spin' or 'being economical with the truth' (such as: "we are spending more on education than ever before" — when this is true in nominal/absolute terms but false in real/per-pupil terms).
There is a world of difference between these positions, and treating them alike (as many do) undermines democracies.
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