As Germany’s defence stocks go ballistic, armsmakers are tooling up
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Sure for individual companies, but what about their owners?
Bet most governments would question where the owner got the bazooka from if it's not coming from the company
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On what grounds? Are you suggesting a soviet style government takeover of existing business? If you would like to do it in the "civilized way" you would have to buy that business and while it might be profitable in a very long run it would cost you much more now just (and state owned companies tend to get less efficient).
The German constitution allows this kind of nationalization in times of crisis.
My suggestion would be to refund these speculators the (inflation adjusted) pre-war value of the stock. That's currently less than a tenth of the current stock price, to give you an idea how much they have already profitted.
And it is a bit funny to argue state owned companies are less efficient and the same time fear-monger about the Russian war economy that is now fully state controlled. But yes, in times of peace when companies can freely chose what to produce, non-state owned companies tend to be more efficient.
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The German constitution allows this kind of nationalization in times of crisis.
My suggestion would be to refund these speculators the (inflation adjusted) pre-war value of the stock. That's currently less than a tenth of the current stock price, to give you an idea how much they have already profitted.
And it is a bit funny to argue state owned companies are less efficient and the same time fear-monger about the Russian war economy that is now fully state controlled. But yes, in times of peace when companies can freely chose what to produce, non-state owned companies tend to be more efficient.
Russia has allocated 25% of its current (2025) budget to military spending.
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Yeah keep sticking your fingers in your ears and pretend everything is fine
You're not even listening. Probably haven't even read my comments. I never suggested that everything is fine.
I'm just pointing out your constraint world view. If you don't change it, your frustration will just end up in more frustration. Emotional and irrational people are being stomped on or ignored at best. You won't accomplish anything.
The first step towards change is accepting the current situation and using it for your best advantage.
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You're not even listening. Probably haven't even read my comments. I never suggested that everything is fine.
I'm just pointing out your constraint world view. If you don't change it, your frustration will just end up in more frustration. Emotional and irrational people are being stomped on or ignored at best. You won't accomplish anything.
The first step towards change is accepting the current situation and using it for your best advantage.
Says the person that literally just held a sermon on the core believes of capitalism that have very little to do with the real world
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Bet most governments would question where the owner got the bazooka from if it's not coming from the company
It's coming from another company that owner owns. We are talking about huge multinational investment fonds here.
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I hope some people will finally realize who really profits from all the increased defense spending. Because the people of Ukraine will not be it.
Because wars are for the profit of the people, right? The people of Ukraine will be busy for half a century or more paying back the US already.
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It's coming from another company that owner owns. We are talking about huge multinational investment fonds here.
Mate what.
It's not like the state is oblivious to ownership.
If a person own a company in another country that sells armaments to an enemy country, the stat would smack down on that so hard. -
Mate what.
It's not like the state is oblivious to ownership.
If a person own a company in another country that sells armaments to an enemy country, the stat would smack down on that so hard.On an US American investment fund? How exactly do you think the German government is going to "smack down" on that?
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Paywall? https://archive.is/uSwsF
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Ah, because Nazis in Germany magically appeared with Hitlers birth and all magically disappeared when he committed suicide?
As I already said elsewhere, Rheinmetall itself might not sell, but the profits go to people that can invest them into other businesses that can sell and/or otherwise support fascists regimes around the world.
Rheinmetall was founded in 1889. The NSDAP was founded after the 1st world war. There's literally no way Nazis founded Rheinmetall because it predates Nazism by about thirty years.
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And look where this kind of thinking got us: Ecological collapse and the climate catastrophe. Have fun eating money I guess
I think both things have some points.
You're right that military industries should be nationalized, and I agree to a degree (I'd also rather not have the military industry power be 100% controlled by the state, so maybe 50% only).
But also capitalism, if done as it was designed to be done and heavily regulated, can also spark innovation.
Battery technology was in part invented really early on because someone wanted to get wealthy by creating a better mode of transport than the piston engine for example (it's older tech than people realize). The issue was that once the piston engine was growing in popularity, there wasn't heavy handed regulations in order to slow down it's growth and prevent them and eventually the oil companies from using their new power to stifle electrics research.
I don't think the solution to capitalism's (and democracy's by extension) downfalls has been invented or even solved on paper yet. But in the meantime, something in the middle might be the best solution than either extreme.
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Rheinmetall was founded in 1889. The NSDAP was founded after the 1st world war. There's literally no way Nazis founded Rheinmetall because it predates Nazism by about thirty years.
I wasn't only talking about Rheinmetall, and while the Rheinmetall founder died in 1923, the company went on to be a major part in the Nazi war production.
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I wasn't only talking about Rheinmetall, and while the Rheinmetall founder died in 1923, the company went on to be a major part in the Nazi war production.
Can't wait to see how you move the goal posts next!
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Can't wait to see how you move the goal posts next!
People really need to learn how to read here. It is astonishing
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So what's your alternative? Do nothing as Russia invades country after country and hope that they'll stop before it's our turn?
Noone should profit of war. Arms production is something that the state should do. We devinetively should communism arms production.
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I hope some people will finally realize who really profits from all the increased defense spending. Because the people of Ukraine will not be it.
I hate war, I hate profiteering off human misery and I hate that the only way to deterr others from attacking you is to be ready for war yourself because humans still can't get over the drive to dominate and exploit.
But that despicable reality of the Security Dilemma means we need to spend money on defense. We cannot yet trust other humans enough that disarmament is viable. I consider myself a pacifist, but I am not so naive to think violence can be checked by words along. The feather may be stronger than the sword, but only if it lives long enough to write.
I hate that so much production has to be wasted on means of destruction. I hope we never have to use them.
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People really need to learn how to read here. It is astonishing
It’s lemmy.world, people here are mostly liberals, agreeing with your would make their world collapse. I’m happy downvotes don’t mean shit on Lemmy though, because imo you’re right and it’s pretty fucked up how we‘re all being manipulated into hooraying for more war, more arms, more destruction just to make some oligarchs even richer.
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So what's your alternative? Do nothing as Russia invades country after country and hope that they'll stop before it's our turn?
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/TQqQIZEXDuE
Russia will never destroy our way of life!
/s obviously but all of this warmongering is scary as fuck, and I hate that the ultra rich will just get even richer from this.
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Mate what.
It's not like the state is oblivious to ownership.
If a person own a company in another country that sells armaments to an enemy country, the stat would smack down on that so hard.Dude that’s not a conspiracy, that’s just capitalism. E.g. NBC is owned by General Electric, one of the largest American defense contractors. So obviously NBC has a conflict of interest if they’re critical of warmongering.
The same goes kind of for every bigger news outlet, if you look at their ownership structures they’re all owned by oligarchs and their main interest is in protecting capital, not being ethical and uphold journalistic standards or criticize how the government acts if it protects the interests of the ultra rich.
The shareholders of public companies are, well, public information and it’s kind of hard to find a large company that’s not partly owned by Blackrock, Vanguard and the likes. Now, if you dig deep enough into their portfolio, e.g. through their emerging markets funds I would not be surprised if they have some shares in Chinese defense companies, unless they’re sanctioned and even then you can probably still invest if you set up some shell company that isn’t sanctioned.
And the government will obviously not go against Blackrock, Vanguard, etc. because they have so much influence on public opinion that the government would be history pretty quickly. Oh yeah, the (most likely) new chancellor of Germany is ex-Blackrock, think he’ll care?
