It was "legally taken" in about the same was as Paris was "legally occupied" by Hitler and Black people were "legally enslaved and bound to forever serve their masters". It has no meaning to us today.

Saying the Elgin marbles were "looted" is not a loaded term, any more than saying legally enslaved Blacks were "murdered" is a loaded term, just because it was legal.

Drugs are actually cheap to produce though. They're only expensive in places that really try to ban them.

Saudi Arabia moment

Chopping off appendages as punishment

>The Military had such influence in the Japanese Government that Hirohito was little but a Puppet Figure in comparison to vast Military leaders.

I would say that Hirohito's influence was understated on purpose to justify keeping him there to stabilise Japan as a bastion against the USSR.

In August 1945 Hirohito wanted to surrender. Most of his commanders wanted to defend Japan down to the last woman and child.

Japan surrendered.

This says something about how much of a "powerless puppet" he was.

Except how would you explain the breakup of the USSR? Why didn't the USSR slaughter their way to unity?

The USSR did not collapse like the Ottomans or Germany - due to fighting total war, exhausting their military and losing. They had their military intact.

The Soviet military was near peak strength, with 40,000 nuclear warheads containing some 500,000 Hiroshima bombs worth of explosive yield. Half a million Hiroshimas. And tens of thousands of tanks. Yet they did not use force. The Russian tanks didn't roll in.

It's funny that Americans consider Soviets and Russians to be brutal, rights-abusing, atrocity-committing evil guys - compared to "civilised" Americans - yet expect the US soldiers to murderously suppress seccessionists in a way even the "more brutal" Soviet soldiers did not.

Just food for thought.

>Looks like Europe is doing pretty well for themselves, and I say good for them!

Europe is not doing well, the massive spike in energy prices severely damaged European competitiveness. Many companies that were going to move back to Europe from China in 2022, halted their plans solely because of the huge energy price advantage that was created. Many factories in Europe racked up debt or were forced to shut entirely.

Well the article said that the company was fined $15,000 per child, so...not reasonable for a fine at all. Way too low.

The company was FINED $15k per child.

It's insane that this is the maximum federal penalty allowed.

$15k per child may not even cover the cost advantage of using the kids. How in the world is this proper punishment?

>FOR 20 YEARS!!!

>What more proof is needed?

It was found that 30% of Pakistani pilots had fake licenses without crashing a plane or getting detected, is pilot a bullshit profession now?

A less regulated industry is going to be easier to sneak into, simple as that.

>How do they seriously still call India a democracy?

>discriminated against Indian muslims

Because that's what democracy is. In its purest form, tyranny of the majority.

There is an elephant in the room with (1) - I have a lot of popular support - that people don't talk about. It is a problem that is the cause of most violent conflicts today.

And the problem is this: Yes, let's say we accept that popular support is the source of legitimacy. But popular support among who? What should the divisional unit even be?

The Alabamans don't want to have their policies dictated by a Californian's vote. A deep Red community within California may even want their government to "get their hands off" interfering with their life.

Meanwhile, the Kurdish minorities in Turkey and Iraq demand autonomy from Turks' and Arabs' votes. Catalonia and Hong Kong want autonomy. Who gets to separate, and why? Yes, more votes within the voting arena wins - but what are the boundaries of that voting arena, and what is the basis for it?

The world has never arrived at a satisfactory answer for this. In the 20th century, the international community applied a strongly racial logic, separating nations post-WW2 and post-colonialism on the basis of race (and sometimes, religion). But this was always deeply flawed because of multiculturalism. So what is the rightful divisional unit? There is no solid answer.

Even that is too much. You need to compare a company's Economic Value Added to GDP, not all revenues.

If a country imports $200 of components to assemble a $300 Apple product it generates only $100 of GDP. But from Apple's perspective, if Apple imports $200 of components to sell a $300 product it generates the full $300 as revenue (but only $100 of EVA, which would be the correct comparison).

>More relevant would be comparing Apples operating income to GDP.

EVA should be a better measure. Operating income isn't really a good comparison - for example it excludes worker salaries, while GDP includes them.

This is true. Particularly explains why China is this low -

>Of the 130 Chinese entities in the 2021 Fortune Global 500 ranking, 93 (71.5%) are unlisted, of which 75 are state-owned. By contrast, among the 130 largest non-Chinese companies in the same Fortune ranking, only 5 are unlisted - of which only one, the US Postal Service, is an SOE.

This is true. Particularly explains why China is this low -

>Of the 130 Chinese entities in the 2021 Fortune Global 500 ranking, 93 (71.5%) are unlisted, of which 75 are state-owned. By contrast, among the 130 largest non-Chinese companies in the same Fortune ranking, only 5 are unlisted - of which only one, the US Postal Service, is an SOE.

There's basically no company in this industry that is really independent from government, anywhere in the world.

There's a reason why the stock market classifies this sector as "Aerospace and defense". They're just so interlinked.

Almost every component and technology in this industry has a military application, much of the stuff in this industry is subject to tight government regulation, export controls, etc.

The Singapore government argued that its rules ensures a proper and dignified person takes the presidency.

Local critics pointed out that under the criteria, Obama would not be eligible for the presidency - but Donald Trump would be (so would Elon Musk).

Rich CEO =/= presidential demeanour.

Um...what?

Funny thing is $392 million is not even enough for that if they distributed it among all the adults in the US who use Google.

The government doesn't even subsidise a quarter of it for the average person at today's prices.

>I'm not defending the colonial era but I have to say they built good shit back in the day... most of those British Railways are still being patched together, too

Imagine thinking the stuff in the colonial era was safe and good. 19th century construction was so extremely dangerous that even people in Britain were dying by the thousands to crappy safety designs.

Problem is that Good Samaritan laws don't protect all the time. Gross negligence is still grounds for a lawsuit, and expecting minimum wage employees to exercise dutiful care and not be negligent is still a big risk to businesses.

Yep.

In the East Asian chess game of Go/Weiqi/Baduk, AI caused many moves considered for centuries to be "bad" and "only played by beginners" to become top meta moves.