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Class War | 85 comments (85 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Class War (4.00 / 3)
Mechanical watches is another amazing thing. Why are people willing to spend so much for a mechanical contraption when a $10 Timex works better? <-- Rhetorical question.

So the thing to do is find some existing old brand name that is undervalued, and revive it with over-priced new stuff. Best if the stuff is made in Europe, to maintain the aura. Maybe get the components made in China and then final assembly in the EU somewhere. Get a copy of a fashion magazine from 1960 and hunt down a brand that went broke...

???

by asdf on Fri Aug 23rd, 2013 at 07:54:27 PM EST
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Re: Class War (none / 1)
Good luck with finding the brand that somebody hasn't already snaffled.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Aug 24th, 2013 at 02:18:07 AM EST
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Re: Class War (none / 1)
asdf:
Best if the stuff is made in Europe, to maintain the aura.

that's all we got left, folks...

but it is the cultural mecca it claims to be, chinese, (and the rest of the rich world) worship at the shrine of euro aesthetics, millions for an old ferrari indeed.

some of this aura can be remade in china, but it's a long road to accumulate all the cultural icons we have here, some, like the colosseum, hard to break up and move abroad.

although americans, back in their hegemonic economic growth heyday, did dismantle a london bridge and remake it in arizona, so...

we should run the whole continent as a historical museum, as, except for the germans and their bmw's, panzers etc, we're pretty much running on funny money fumes right now.

onward to the past, the glorious yesteryear!

meanwhile italy has run out of funds to stop the colosseum falling over on the tourists, and with imminent social breakdown on the streets, what tourists are going to come queue outside the louvre, or come and gawk at the acropolis?

riots are everywhere these days, we need peace in the streets to serve those 10E coffees in front of st mark's in venice.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Aug 26th, 2013 at 03:07:37 PM EST
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Re: Class War (4.00 / 2)
Europe is going to need to do something more than just keep the Colosseum from falling down to maintain its place in the world. It does take a while to develop globally desirable cultural icons, but as China's economy and overall situation improves--assuming it continues to do so--then they will start to build them up.

Consider Japanese cars. Nothing worth even looking at until around 1960, but then compare the Mazda Cosmo 110S (~1965) to the Lotus Elite (~1960), for example. Both made in roughly the same small number, both technical innovators, and both now worth roughly the same amount on the classic car market. So it is very possible, over a period of only a few decades, to get those cultural icons going.

And China has lots and lots of interesting stuff, and a long history...they just need to clean up some of the historical sites...

by asdf on Tue Aug 27th, 2013 at 01:06:47 PM EST
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Re: Class War (4.00 / 3)
China still has the perception of being cheap, nasty, unreliable and rather communist.

Unlike jolly old Europe, which is cultural gravitas personified.

It's easy to forget that Chinese and Indian culture have been around so long they make Euro culture look adolescent.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Aug 27th, 2013 at 01:44:33 PM EST
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Re: Class War (none / 0)
ThatBritGuy:
Unlike jolly old Europe, which is cultural gravitas personified.

haha, yes i am aware that china is just as interesting as europe, as attractive to tourism from all over etc.

also how incredibly pompous and constipated the cultural gravitas of which you speak!

the important distinction with an economic difference is that the emergence of a burgeoning chinese middle class with disposable income combined with the current global mania for cheap air travel makes for a window to open wider, cultural tourism is low impact compared to other types like waterfront disfigurement a la torremolinos, or casino gambling a la macao/atlantic city.

we have been saturated with chinoiserie for centuries, they are ready to return the favour and learn from our archetypes.

it's far from ideal, but it can help us tide over the interim between a crumbling oil-maintained infrastructure and the uptake of sensibly sustainable alternatives that still have regrettably low traction, due to suicidally tenacious interests who would rather crash the titanic fantasy world economy as long as they can continue to eat our lunch off gold plates.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue Aug 27th, 2013 at 05:44:32 PM EST
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Class War | 85 comments (85 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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