Hacker News Reader

Comment by capableweb | Hacker News Reader

Maybe it's because I'm not American, but having someone talking about how much worse it is in Europe compared to the US while saying things like what I quote below, doesn't really entice me to continue watching the video much further, no matter how much I agree that Europe is fucked at the moment.

> (31:36) You guys wanna see what the Chinese and the Europeans are bitching about, 'cause this is so much fun. (all laughing) Europe's already in recession.

> We are looking at an energy induced depression that is affecting multiple continents probably already, but not here. This is a good problem.

> This gives us a competitive advantage in everything.

Is it generally considered funny and/or OK to shit on others misfortune while laughing about it? Bragging about how much better it is for you that others feel pain about something?

View on HN

>Is it generally considered funny and/or OK to shit on others misfortune while laughing about it? Bragging about how much better it is for you that others feel pain about something?

The video is from a talk at an Iowan Pork Producer Industry event, not an academic presentation. His audience (the Iowan Pork Industry) was likely very happy to hear this news, given that it is bad for their competitors.

>Maybe it's because I'm not American

I wouldn't extrapolate Iowan pig farmers to all United States citizens.

And why would anyone considering a talk to the Iowan Pork Producer Indusyry a valid source for the geo-political and local situation of Europe?

The LNG price graph shown a few minutes from the given timestamp is very relevant.

Because they have a vested interest in understanding the parts of the global economy that affect their competitors.

Because it's part of the economy! All sorts of non-intellectual goods make up the economy. We eat sausage, sausage comes from abroad, Germans can't make sausage because of Russian gas drop off, etc.

Anyone balls deep in commodities is necessarily deeply interested in the trends for commodities that are below them in the stack, such as energy.

I’m sure the CME a few hundred miles away is listening loud and clear and they certainly have a stake.

Then why are you sharing it?

America's Pork Producer Industry is quite knowledgeable about producing pork, which involves competing with global Pork Producers. The LNG section of the video contains insights you may apply to other aspects of your life.

Personally, I was unaware of the differences in the price of LNG between Europe/China and North America, and I was completely blindsided by how much recent developments in the Ukrainian conflict have exacerbated the differences!

Then linknto a detailed analysis of said LNG market, and note some key note to a, from an non-US piint of view, irrelevant meeting of an irrelevant industry association.

Probably catering to his audience. His books are much more even, and when he's gone on podcasts he points out how he'd like to be wrong about what he sees. That particular laugh also came off as rather forced.

Simple fact is though that America is the big winner in a European energy crisis. We get to sell Europe all the excess energy we can pump out while simultaneously gaining all the European industry that can leave/requires cheap energy.

Norway is also raking in money on gas and to a lesser extent electricity, only problem is that we also get the insane electricity prices (or to be more precise, most of us. Electricity is up to 1000% more expensive in the south than in the north). The government is getting richer while the population is sucked dry from the "smart" electricity meter.

Agree on the cash flow from energy exports. Hard disagree on industry leaving over this, the time frame to actually do so is way to short for now.

That's assuming the crisis passes relatively quickly. If energy prices remain inflated for years, and your business model depends on cheap energy, and perhaps the US government awakens from its drunken stupor one morning and starts offering incentives on top of that...

An other if: The countries currently hosting those industries do nothing to hold them. By the way, German energy prices for industry were among the lowest in Europe up to the current FUBAR situation. The brunt of electricity price increades due to the Energiewende is born by consumers.

True, but you sacrifice global competitiveness if you force a company to operate uneconomically, and Germany is an export-driven nation, even more so if German consumers are being eaten alive by inflation.

Not that said countries won't try or that the industries are leaving tomorrow, but at the end of the day the energy has to come from somewhere, and every day it doesn't those businesses are losing money, or the taxpayers are losing money subsidizing them. In the worst cases you end up like that Soviet company that exported industrial furnaces to then West Germany and was held up as a bastion of Soviet global competitiveness, when the West German buyers were literally melting down the furnaces for the raw metals because they were just so cheap and the metals so comparably valuable in the global market.

Isn't shitting on U.S. culture (e.g. "oh at least we don't do x!") while driving home with a Big Mac one of the most Euro things to do? I've seen various shades of this in the U.K., France, Italy etc. I'm not sure I would be getting out the small violins tbh as the friendly animosity is kind of funny. Western Europe is essentially NA-lite economically and politically anyway.

"Is it generally considered funny and/or OK to shit on others misfortune while laughing about it? Bragging about how much better it is for you that others feel pain about something?"

No it isn't. I'm American btw. Sorry, some people are jerks.

I'm Indian, not any of the groups mentioned by him, and I too found him way too cringe-inducing. He came across too strongly as trying to push some agenda. I did not feel like sticking around long enough to find out what the agenda was.

>Maybe it's because I'm not American, but having someone talking about how much worse it is in Europe compared to the US while saying things like what I quote below, doesn't really entice me to continue watching the video much further, no matter how much I agree that Europe is fucked at the moment.

Watch the video from the start. He takes a similar "ha ha serious" sarcastic view toward everything, including (for example) the potential for Russia to use nuclear weapons (7:35).

It's not misfortune it's a failure.

Basically, this is an inside look at American nationalism. Most Americans would not cheer at the misfortune of allies and major trading partners, but there is a segment of nationalists, probably voters of a certain you know who.

This guy makes jokes immediately after listing Russian war crimes. Not a sympathetic gentleman indeed.

It's not kind, but it is a really important point.

>Europe's already in recession.

Funnily enough, if we look at the most dumb recession criterion (2 consequent quarters of negative growth), the EU is definitely not in a recession while the US is.

> Is it generally considered funny and/or OK to shit on others misfortune while laughing about it? Bragging about how much better it is for you that others feel pain about something?

This is consistent with the American stereotype in several places… Though it is not consistent with my experience with American, but then I don’t tend to hang out with loud obnoxious jerks.

Empathy is in short supply overall.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com