CoolerOpposide [none/use name]
I had a PTO request for this week approved months ago. Then about 3 weeks ago my manager told me that they need me to not take that PTO and it’s been un-approved. I told her that’s ridiculous because my plans are already set, and I’m going to be going on my vacation. They told me it’s officially unapproved, the PTO has been readded to my PTO pool, and that if I go on vacation I’ll receive disciplinary action.
So in about an hour when we all leave the office, I’m going to be leaving my printed out PTO approval on my desk, and go on my vacation worry free. Go ahead and try to fire me you clowns. If you fail, I got my vacation and apparently I also got my PTO back. If you do fire me, good luck beating my unemployment claim lol
I think “sufficient development” to China means that it can’t get kicked out anymore for being too important. Too high tech, too much resource control, too much production, too wealthy, and most importantly TOO INTEGRATED.
China already has the WTO by the balls by tying the economy of THE global economic hegemon (USA) to Chinese industry. China could likely live on without the US, though certainly not without stress and careful planning. The US, on the other hand, could not simply find a new China. Frankly, it is evident in US foreign policy that the US knows this as well. There is no other critical game to the US outside of China. People will say Russia, or the Middle East, but they really are just peanuts comparatively. Whether it is combatting China, reigning in China, or trying to be technologically superior to China, almost all US foreign policy ties back into China somehow. I’d even argue that US policy towards Russia is simply an extension of US policy towards China at this point.
It’s the exact same reason why Russia has been so difficult to sanction/restrict for western nations since the invasion of Ukraine.
Financial sanctions work really well on countries who have no industry and are basically only in the business of ways to move money around. The west all sanctioned Russia and expected it to immediately collapse, except they forgot that they are only a small part of the world and that Russia is not only in the business of just moving money around and actually produces tangible goods.
No matter how much you say “you can’t sell that here!” regarding a tangible good, somebody somewhere will buy it. The same applies to China for many, many examples, but most recently is the electric vehicle debacle. “Oh I can’t sell these in Europe or America? Whatever, I’ll just outcompete you elsewhere. Goodbye global market share.”
A very common misconception, actually. You might be even more surprised that for a long time, not even the USSR’s mineral resources were all state owned, nor was the mineral refining process.
In fact, here’s a bit of very interesting socialist history: During the first ever 5 year plan, the USSR was unknowingly committing one of the most heinous acts in history, and nobody seems to know about it. The USSR sought foreign expertise in the oil refining sector, and signed a contract with none other than the Koch brothers’ father, Fred C. Koch, to build 15 oil refineries that ended up making him extremely wealthy.
