Threat Level Midnight
Threat Level Midnight
107 comments
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Um yeah. I'm a programmer. My livelihood kind of requires computers.
people would have to pay more for phones
No. You don't understand. TSMC is the only factory that can make the iPhone chip in the world. When Taiwan is attacked, we're almost certainly going to lose iPhones all together as the supply line locks up. If China permanently captures Taiwan, then it is going to be years before Apple can switch to Samsung / Korea or some alternative. Literally years, maybe nearly a decade. This isn't "few less phones", its "literally no iPhone chips for an extended period of time".
Do you remember the big chip crisis of 2020 ? That was TSMC falling behind on a few orders. No chip factory ever got shutdown, it was just a minor supply blip from TSMC. Do you remember how that little blip cascaded into no cars, record high prices in electronics and other such disastrous events to our economy?
Now we're trying to build a new supply chain that's resilient to minor blips like that. But that takes even longer (and the Arizona TSMC plant continues to face delays in opening).
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I don't really think it's important enough to go to war over. We have enough chips here to run things as is, and if there is a need we can have factories elsewhere. There are enough used phones to go around in the meantime. Most people don't need new devices all the time. Our economy is based on the lie that growth is infinitely possible and that that's something we want.
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Every single Li-ion battery has a safety chip inside of it, a computer, likely made in Taiwan.
An EV requires absurd numbers of chips to build the battery management system, as well as all other electronics.
At a minimum, electrification will be stalled out when Taiwan gets attacked. Much like how we ran out of cars in 2021, it will be far worse.
This isn't just consumer electronics yo. It is fucking everything of the modern world. Antilock brakes? Thermostat. Industrial plant automation. Weapons. ECG monitor / healthcare.
Even the COVID-19 vaccine was made on a supercomputer simulation.
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This isn't alarming enough to me to justify our military. We got though the pandemic fine, things were just more expensive. We already have chips in our brakes and everything, we just need to take care of what we have and build capacity for production in the meantime.
And the fear isn't that they'll go away, it's that China will control Taiwan right? And if the US needs chips, we'll just be able to buy them from China who would be happy to sell them. Of course I support Taiwan's independence, but I support that because of their right to self sufficiency not because of their economic value to the country I live in.
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We got though the pandemic fine, things were just more expensive
We had to shutdown multiple factories on just a minor blip of computer chips.
What we are talking about is a major disruption, a loss of Taiwan would mean no chips for YEARS, not just a few weeks worth of blip.
We already have chips in our brakes and everything, we just need to take care of what we have and build capacity for production in the meantime.
All the people working those factories will be furloughed or probably even laid off if the chip supply doesn't get stabilized. In fact, they were furloughed over a minor blip in TSMC production.
And that's not even tech workers like me who are directly impacted by the computer industry. I literally can't do my job without chips.
2021 supply chain crunch wasn't a "small thing" for many, many people. And that was a small chip disruption, not a big one like China invading Taiwan would be.
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I'd rather the tech workers lose their jobs then send American soldiers to die in a war over global power. Like I said, China could just sell us chips if we need them so badly.
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If China wins the war of Imperial Expansion vs Taiwan, they'll continue attacking outward, risking Japan and Philippines next, or maybe Korea. Hard to say what their next priority would be, but its up and out in any case.
That's the funny thing about war. When someone wins a war, there's no reason for them to stop. And these ancient empires have memories.
The safest time to handle everything is when the smallest flames of war begin. You snuff it out before it grows any larger. We're going to fight anyway, the question is if we fight for Taiwan, or if we fight at a later stage.
This is the same "Red China" that funded North Korea expansion / the Korean war. They have huge imperialistic and expansionist ambitions. Always have.
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Why should I care if China is the empire vs the United States? The United States has been an imperialist, expansionist empire for centuries. You're fear-mongering, but you're really just worried about yourself and you're willing to throw soldiers into a meat grinder for your own job security.
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but you’re really just worried about yourself
Yup. I'm a selfish asshole who lives here and cares about my job, my livelihood, and the people I support.
Fuck you too.
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But you don't care about the people you want to send off to die? Don't you see how that is selfish?
It's especially bad when you look at the class background of military recruits compared to tech jobs. You're sending the poors to die.
You can get another job, but those families can't get new sons and daughters.
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But you don’t care about the people you want to send off to die? Don’t you see how that is selfish?
My uncle is in the marines. So are many of my close friends. Of course I care. But there's also our interests that must be protected.
It’s especially bad when you look at the class background of military recruits compared to tech jobs. You’re sending the poors to die.
Marines in the family yo. You ain't gonna be able to play this card on me. And its the Marines specifically who'd be tasked to protect Taiwan, given the terrain. (Island hopping specialists). Believe me, I know.
You know who are some of the most gung ho people with regards to going out and fighting for us? Even more so than US Army, US Navy or US Air Force?
Marines. I'm serious. If you knew them, you'd know what I'm talking about. Do you know any marines or are you just hypothetically laying out this discussion on me as if I'm an ignorant dumbass? Our job, most of the time, is to hold the Marines back from fighting. They are a bit mad and war-mongery more so than the rest of us. Its in the culture of the Marines.
So its our responsibility to point them in the right direction of what is worthwhile to fight, and what isn't worthwhile. Taiwan would be much, much more important than the desert we sent them to last time.
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107 comments