hello c2, just back from somewhere that looks like so
jakarta, 6-hrs flight from money rock hk
samarinda, 2-hrs flight plus 4 hrs car from jakarta
simple loader & truck operation that be 2-hrs car from samarinda
china mining engineer, french creole hakka chinese trinidadian tobagojack, middle eastern trader, on indonesian site financed by indian adventurer via coop-aggregation style ops, all looking to engage with china for and on behalf of micro mines for hopefully moolah galore, to supply the new sovereign's insatiable need for quality energy
another pit
comment: the fashion dictated by mining bubble is not different than the clothing called for by the idotnet and eslashcom bubble: teva sandals, timberland pants, timberland sport shirt, rolex yacht master, 24/7/52 natural tan :0)
i wear classic, attire for all bubbles ;0)
... passing on recommendation from in-tray
A good book that I have been reading is titled, "The Victory of Reason" by Rodney Stark.
An exerpt from page 73-75:
"No wonder that progress is slow and uneven within despotic states. For it is not only portable wealth such as Ali Pasha's that is in danger of being confiscated by the state; anything of value - land, crops, livestock, buildings, even children - can be arbitrarily seized, and as the Chinese iron magnates learned, it often is. Worse yet, the tyrannical state invests very little of the wealth it extracts to increase production but consumes it instead - often in various forms of display. The Egyptian pyramids, the Tuileries, and the Taj Mahal were all built as beautiful monuments to repressive rule; they were without productive value, and were paid for by misery and want. This is why the economic system of despotic states has come to be known as the "command economy" - both markets and labor are commanded and coerced rather than allowed to function freely, and the exaction and consumption of wealth is the primary goal of the state.
Command economies began with the earliest states and have lasted in many parts of the modern world - indeed, command economies still attract ardent advocates. But command economies neglect the most basic economic fact of life; all wealth derives from production. It must be grown, dug up, cut down, hunted, herded, fabricated, or otherwise created. The amount of wealth produced within any society depends onto only the the number of people involved in production but on their motivation and the effectiveness of their productive technology. When wealth is subject to devastating taxes and the constant threat of usurpation, the challenge is to keep one's wealth, not to make it productive. This principle applies not merely to the wealthy but with even greater force to those with very little - which accounts for the substantial underproduction of command economies. Faced with exorbitant taxes to enrich the few, even free peasants become far more concerned to hide portions of their crops than to increase their yields, while those engaged in forced labor - be they slaves or peasants required to provide an annual period of free labor - can benefit only to the extent that they manage to do as little as possible. As for the rich and powerful, they typically sneer at those who, despite the hazards and handicaps involved, manage to keep the economy afloat.
Consequently, the fall of Rome was not a tragic setback; had the empire prevailed, there would be nothing to call Western Civilization. If Rome still ruled, Europe would be mired in a brutal command economy, there would have been very little innovation of any kind, and the rest of the world probably would be much as Europeans found it in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Empires are the enemies of progress!
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