B . L O G

In some cases, sanctions on a country will isolate it and negatively impact its economy - as happened with North Korea. This, however, also has some benefits and could turn out to be good in the long-term - isolated countries are also less open to global diseases and they invest more in self-sustainability and local production. If such country discards the policy of infinite growth and doesn't stimulate inequality - it could be a much healthier and better place to live for an average Earthling than overblown economies where quality of life for average is deteriorating (however, North Korea is still far from perfection). One argument for the infinite growth of population is the assumed higher probability of emergence of geniuses. This is such a stupid argument on many levels. If humans somehow do reach a population much bigger than it is now and some Einstein emerges from it, the first and the last words he would say would be: "You fucking idiots.". The truth is, we have highly intelligent people (some on par with Einstein) right now, we just don't like what they're saying, so we mock and degrade their intelligence instead. If the number of Einsteins is growing with population on this world, the amount of idiots and their sheep is growing proportionally to eⁿ, where n is the number of Einsteins (and there were at least two Einsteins at the time of Einstein). So, even if more population does imply more Einsteins, they are increasingly becoming less likely to be heard, respected and appreciated. When people lived in small tribes, these tribes were concentrated around some wise man (e.g., shaman), who was respected and listened to. But as the tribe grows it tends to get corrupted, some smartass comes up and invents democracy, so the idiots can be chosen to be the shaman everyone will listen to. And multiple tribes could unite in their ideology of idiocracy. The globalized world of the West is one such big tribe, where the biggest democracies are ruled by the biggest idiots. Sanctions on some countries, on the other hand, can produce the opposite of the intended effect. Sanctions on Russia are one such example. Why? Because its exports are massive and vital for economies around the world (e.g., oil and food) and sanctions will inevitably be partial or ineffective. The end result of EU sanctions on Russian oil, for example, is not that EU stops buying Russian oil. The end result is such that, instead of buying cheap Russian oil from Russia, EU is buying expensive Russian oil from India. Here, India profits by reselling Russian oil, no harm is done to Russia, but there's real harm done to European citizens, who are now paying much more for the same thing. Sanctions on Russian energy may have reduced Russian energy exports somewhere, but they have also increased the price of that energy. So the losses are compensated with increased prices and Russian energy companies are not losing money - in fact, they might be earning even more. Since the price of energy dictates the price of everything else, average Earthlings in countries imposing the sanctions are suffering the consequences. According to GlobalPetrolPrices, the price of 1 liter of gasoline in Croatia, for example, is currently 1.864 EUR (14 HRK), while 1 liter in Russia is 0.786 EUR (5.9 HRK). So will the sanctions on Russia (and China) produce the North Korea effect in countries like Croatia? In a way, but the problem, regarding economy, will, in the long-term here become much worse - due to liberal, free market and high taxes, local production and self-sustainability is not stimulated - instead, average Earthling is expected to work, borrow and give more so it can pay more. This however, should, in the long-term turn out to be good for nature here and, consequently, for neutral people who succeed in rejecting slavery. With increasing pressure, polarized people will move away where they can earn more money while neutral potentials should be more and more turning away from government and resorting to isolation and/or formation of communities where currency is not money, or at least where money is not prone to inflation. Loss of people and loss of support for government will lead to further increase in pressure on taxpayers, as debts and taxes will be increasing (unless government decreases its spending and borrowing, which is highly unlikely in democratic capitalism). This, in turn, will further stimulate emigration and contempt for government and the cycle continues - accelerating collapse.