First rule of capitalism;
Steal copper cables, preferably with the invisible hand
I mean I know you're joking but still
Does it though? Capitalism has brought Hollywood, Broadway, UPS, and the Detroit big 3 to a grinding halt (or nearly so) since April. The US government has almost shut down four times in the past six months because of capitalism. Capitalism shut down high speed rail in the US. Arguably capitalism does just about everything but keep society running.
And more broadly, by some estimates 2.5 billion people have died since the Industrial Revolution who could've contributed to society if they hadn't died of hunger, war, lack of access to healthcare, and slavery that were caused by capitalism. Capitalism kills proven plans that would help lift members of the lower class out of poverty because they're unprofitable, or because capitalism requires people to be poor at the bottom of the pyramid. Capitalism leaves 15 million homes vacant while 600,000 unhoused people are on the streets. Capitalism gave us companies removing stock from their streaming apps to exploit tax loopholes.
If capitalism is a free market, we've tried it and found it wanting. For a market to be truly free, the buyer and seller must have equal power; that has never existed in Western society. Our capitalism is actually oligarchy.
If you are truly free, are you free to form a collective which competes against other collectives?
Sure. That's called a union; or at large enough scales, a government or other regulatory body. And that's... really the entire point I'm making here.
See I was thinking, at that point it becomes a company or corporation. And then you’re back to where we are today.
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Buddy, if prices keep rising like this. I will be a criminal pretty fucking soon. Shit is bonkers out here.
Acknowledging the causes for crime isn't defending criminals. You will not be able to condemn these effects away.
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You don't get many thieves in reasonably wealthy countries with reasonably level stratification
Made me livin in the fiber optic mines. Mine all day, mine all night in those fiber mines.
I was living in a world where I wasn't aware that it's a thing to steal cables. Thanks. But aren't fiber optic more expensive?
Generally when I hear people discussing fiber the big costs is actually running the cables and terminating and splicing the ends, the actual cable itself is relatively inexpensive from my understanding.
But with regard to stealing cable, you really can't do much with a fiber cable on the secondary market besides using it for fiber, and you also would probably need to re-terminate it that can be very costly. Compared to copper or other type of metal cables that can be sold very easily for scrap metal. That can be melted down and made into something else or just reused as cable.
Probably, but I don't think you can easily melt it down and sell the raw materials like you can with metals... Just a hunch
Fiber optic cables are very much not recyclable, at least with the current recycling technologies.
Sure, but the glass core is only 8–9 µm wide, it's a minuscule amount of glass compared to copper cables so it's not really worth it to melt it down.
Most optical fiber is 125um of glass with 250um coating. The coating and the jacketing that make up the cable (mostly non-recyclable plastic) are the real problem.
I don't know of any fiber that the core is 125 microns. Can you link to one? Neither Single Mode nor Multi Mode fiber is that large.
You are right the core of most optical fibers is either 8-9um for singlemode, or 62.5 or 50um for multimode. The cladding, which is also made of glass, surrounds the core and this is almost always 125um. Often there is more than one layer that makes up the cladding glass to help reduce the bend radius before you start to attenuate your signal. You need both the core and the cladding of different refractive indexes to create total internal reflection, which is how fiber optics work over long distances with low loss.
The glass (core + clad) is the only part of the fiber that is really recyclable. Everything else is plastic that is difficult to chemically remove.
There's a lot of really bad literature out there on fiberoptics, so I don't really blame anyone for not knowing this stuff. Here's a pretty good article that sums up how fiberoptics work I pulled off google: https://www.ofsoptics.com/faq-guide-to-fiber-optic-cable/how-do-communications-fiber-optic-cables-work/
No, Fiber cables are really cheap. They are basically just glass with some reflective coat.
It is just that the connectors and more importantly the work of attaching those connectors to the cable that makes them expensive. They need to be welded in a dust-free environment, and require lots of skill to get right.
Also, copper cables capable of transmitting high data rates aren't easily manufactured either. Think of shielding, twisted pairs of wires, etc. And they don't even contain a lot of copper.
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I remember when the USSR collapsed and most people lost their jobs or their workplace did not have any money to pay, all types of cables were cut for sale. Even high voltage lines. Man, crazy times these were...
I love seeing people explain the obvious to accounts I've blocked, especially when it's clear they said some racist shit.
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You know someone is extra racist when they manage to make a racist comment on a picture whose only sentient being is a dog.
Damn, and here I was thinking we left all of the garbage like this comment and poster back on Reddit.
Guess we really can't have shit in Detroit