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| Topic of the week: green mercantilism | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 16 2015, 07:58 PM (198 Views) | |
| Larsland | Jun 16 2015, 07:58 PM Post #1 |
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Thought I'd throw up a controversial topic in economics ![]() Mercantilism is where the government takes control of an economy to bring down the economies of other governments. Green mercantilism is where the government takes control of the green sector specifically, and tries to out-green all the other governments. An example was when China nationally exported solar panels below market rates, making it difficult for solar manufacturers in other countries (primarily the USA) to compete. However, it also meant solar panels became much more affordable and the environment may have become more green. What's your stand on green mercantilism? |
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| Triodard and Florard | Jun 16 2015, 08:02 PM Post #2 |
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I haven't heard of this before, so my stance is based on just the information you're giving me. But, from what I'm reading, I think it's a bit of a double edged sword. On one hand, who doesn't love affordable, clean energy? Cheap solar panels are a big plus. On the other hand, I imagine this would hurt the industry as a whole. If the Chinese remove the competition, they won't have as much of a need to improve their products, and as such not only will there be fewer manufacturers of solar panels, but solar panels will be of lower quality than they could be. I think in the long run it's a bad practice. |
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| Electus Dei | Jun 16 2015, 09:44 PM Post #3 |
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Have no knowledge in economics, not in my interests. Hmm... well once China has the field they can make cheaper and worse models than before and competition is healthy for the market. |
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| Larsland | Jun 16 2015, 10:53 PM Post #4 |
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Interesting how nobody ever hears about the economics topics, huh? |
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| Electus Dei | Jun 16 2015, 11:04 PM Post #5 |
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Never been interested sadly. I prefer politics and history with an interest in law and psychology. |
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| Britannia | Jun 17 2015, 06:19 PM Post #6 |
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Solar isn't precisely that viable in the longer term, nuclear is still the best way to go. |
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| Larsland | Jun 17 2015, 10:04 PM Post #7 |
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Solar is super viable in the longer term - it's the short term where it's costly on the environment due to mining and stuff. In the longer term it pays off due to low maintenance and the fact we've got some billions of years of sun remaining. Nuclear, on the other hand, becomes less viable the longer you run it due to waste, and each reactor still has a finite lifespan usually around 50 years max. Even with modern waste systems it's very difficult to manage long term and requires huge amounts of energy. |
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| Larsland | Jun 17 2015, 10:05 PM Post #8 |
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I'm still a big fan of Hydro lol... yeah, shoot me. |
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| Electus Dei | Jun 17 2015, 11:02 PM Post #9 |
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Sorry Larsland, but I'm for nuclear. Its actually the cleanest, if you don't count waste and probably the most viable. Maybe not in the long,long term but for a hundred years or so it's the way to go. In fact, the only thing against nuclear power are protestors who don't even know what they're protesting about. Anti-nuclear protestors are the reason why I hate protestors. |
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| Larsland | Jun 17 2015, 11:19 PM Post #10 |
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There's actually several reasons against nuclear other than the waste, which is actually a fairly major problem: > Nuclear is dangerous IF NOT DONE PROPERLY. Many first world nations guard their secrets for military reasons, making it hard for developing nations (such as we can see in the present world with Iran, despite Russian backing). The nuclear industry generally is what you might call "corrupt". > Nuclear is difficult to regulate. It's a constant source of power that can take hours to shut down. This can create inefficiencies in the grid and, more rarely, even temporary blackouts. > Nuclear plants are targets in case of war, able to easily cause devastation, and also by natural disasters such as earthquakes. > Nuclear plants require a source of fuel. Unless a nation has ready uranium deposits they are constrained by the market price for uranium which, as it so happens, is a fairly expensive mineral. Aside from this, nuclear plants are fairly complicated to construct. The power required to build a nuclear plant (often taking over a decade) is quite high compared to output of the plant (at least compared to other forms of energy generation). > Nuclear requires significant amounts of water treatment facilities and a ready supply of fresh water, and making it difficult to build in many locations. It's also fairly large, like wind, so carries the whole unsightliness thing. > Nuclear is extremely hard to decommission once it's running. Making a nuclear investment is necessarily a long-term proposition and nuclear plants have a long history of being under-budgeted (the UK is notorious for this). Of course I would say this, coming from a country whose greatest and proudest international diplomatic achievement was anti-nuclear lol. |
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