Balsonaro wins in Brazil.

[Kidlicious]

I never understood this parable but it reminds me of German pluralism ...

⁴³ “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

[pchang]

German pluralism? Just add an “e” to the end.

[Aeson]

Funny enough the latter is incorrect.
Germany was the first country worldwide where some kind of universal healthcare was instituted by law (in the 1880s), by the famous Otto von Bismarck.
That was long before the Nazis, just 1 decade after the unification of germany, where germany still was an empire.

This also means that the universal healthcare was actually "invented" by (german) nationalists

The Nazis AFAIK did nothing to change anything about it, as even they knew the worth of healthy employees for the national economy.

If by universal you mean not universal (~50% of population) and by healthcare you mean being killed in concentration camps or being sent off to die in Russia, then yes, Nazi Germany had universal healthcare.

[Proteus_MST]

(O.K., I should have added: The Nazis believed in universal healthcare as long as it benefits people of aryan blood ... they strongly resembled white supremacists in these regards, just taken one step further)

[spambot]

They had a great healthcare plan for people with disabilities, 100% effective!

[Dinner]

https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/business/2018/10/bolsonaro-to-merge-finance-planning-and-trade-into-one-super-ministry.shtml?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsen

The idea of merging several completely different ministries into one mega ministry rarely achieves any efficiencies and often just results in on giant inefficient and not very good at anything ministry but the idea seems to appeal to right wingers for some reason. Logically, you want highly focused ministries/departments as that way you create areas of expertise instead of one giant ministry/department responsible for dozens of things but not really good at anything. In a Latin American country like Brazil which has a long tradition of corruption it also just increases the possibility of corruption as one corrupt official can now have his fingers in dozens of pies.

Brazil is extremely over regulated, only a few Arab economies are more regulated and unfree, so really what they need to do is streamline and deregulate thus allowing the free market to work more efficiently. Brazil's big problem is it is a high tax, high regulation developing economy which really stifles its development.

[spambot]

Just let foreign companies buy everything in the country and liquidate it and everything should work out.

[Dinner]

You are not very bright, are you?

[spambot]

Ouch I'm hurt.

[Aeson]

Unregulated foreign businesses did make an awful mess of everywhere they could when they had the chance. Thus the phrase banana republic.

[Dinner]

They bring more efficient ways of doing business and improve national efficiency; not to mention pay taxes in places where few taxes are paid so they expand the tax base. Give me an example of the supposed negative effects from foreign direct investment from the last half century. Many of these places don't have large capital reserves so injections of foreign cash allow them to modernize.

[Aeson]

The last half century there has been much more regulation in developing markets. But not enough if the right regulations still.

As examples of current horrific effects of places which aren’t regulated enough ... slavery in Africa for diamonds and child slave labor in cacao. Sweatshops in SE Asia where workers are locked in with iron bars on the windows and they can’t escape if the building burns down. Work placement agencies where prospective overseas workers are instead sold into sex slavery. Or if it’s a real placement agency they get abused by employers, or made to work in terribly unsafe conditions (maids on ledges cleaning windows on high rises without any safety gear.)

While there are still *******s in the world, there need to be regulations to keep them in check.

[Aeson]

Foreign businesses (especially those where the owners are overseas) tend to be at least as extractive as they can get away with. Developing economies have to protect themselves.

[Dinner]

The last half century there has been much more regulation in developing markets. But not enough if the right regulations still.

As examples of current horrific effects of places which aren’t regulated enough ... slavery in Africa for diamonds and child slave labor in cacao. Sweatshops in SE Asia where workers are locked in with iron bars on the windows and they can’t escape if the building burns down. Work placement agencies where prospective overseas workers are instead sold into sex slavery. Or if it’s a real placement agency they get abused by employers, or made to work in terribly unsafe conditions (maids on ledges cleaning windows on high rises without any safety gear.)

While there are still *******s in the world, there need to be regulations to keep them in check.

All of those are already illegal and are not what I am talking about. I am talking about laws in places like India, Egypt, and Brazil which make it difficult to impossible to create a chain restaurant or a chain store (even locally owned ones). How it takes months to open a bank account in many countries or up to a year to get a telephone line. Also places like the former USSR have defacto monopolies so they regulate out any competition because politically connected oligarchs just don't want to have to face competition. Brazil has a lot of problems with stuff like that. There membership in the Marco Sur customs union also is designed to be hyper protectionist (like the EU but more so) and that is why Brazil exports so little other than raw materials despite actually having a decent manufacturing center.

when you go to Brazil it is developing country with 1st world level prices even though people make much less. Yes, that negatively effects people's standard of living. Opening a business is a nightmare of over regulation so if they can eliminate a lot of that unnecessary stuff and open their markets up for business then they will see not only a lot more growth but also a big jump in living standards for regular people.

[pchang]

Foreign direct investment is often influenced by how well or uniformly laws are being applied in the country in question. Claiming that because something is illegal means you do not have to consider it is being disingenuous. Perhaps you remember the Nigerian oil industry and a fellow named Ken Saro-Wiwa,

[spambot]

Well, now you're conflating thinks like being able to open a bank account or open a restaurant with giving foreigners free reign to buy up all the assets in your country and then lobby their powerful foreign governments to protect their interests.

[Dinner]

Foreign direct investment is often influenced by how well or uniformly laws are being applied in the country in question. Claiming that because something is illegal means you do not have to consider it is being disingenuous. Perhaps you remember the Nigerian oil industry and a fellow named Ken Saro-Wiwa,

A fair point. The laws do need to be enforced. When I was urging deregulation I was not talking about repealing things like fire exits; I was speaking about Brazil's legendary red tape which makes business very difficult. A lot of times that red tape was designed to protect politically connected incumbents from new competition and that is obviously a bad thing.