Another Rising Dystopian Market: The Cobalt Pipeline
Yet another economic combo for more planetary and social devastation.
The world’s mad scramble for cheap cobalt?
Why? Because the Rep Dem Of Congo's currency is deemed worthless by Western markets, so everything is ultra-cheap there? So let's go there and plunder as if there are no tomorrows?
According to the WPOST investigation (link below), an estimated 100,000 cobalt miners in Congo use hand tools to dig hundreds of feet underground
What would be the price of cobalt if all the Congolese workers received decent equipment and machinery, do you think. And how would this affect the price of our electronics further?
Yet 60 percent of the world’s cobalt originates in Congo — a chaotic country rife with corruption and a long history of foreign exploitation of its natural resources
Crapitalism mindset: if you have no education, we have the right to exploit you. (and we'll make even more profits)
The industry should be a boon for Congo... About 90 percent of China’s cobalt originates in Congo
It is not working that way because greed corrupts leaders and corporations, and consumers are part of the problem because the vast majority is more interested in cheap electronics.
The price of refined cobalt has fluctuated in the past year from $20,000 to $26,000 a ton.... and is projected to at least double again by 2020
Demand? When realizing how the Internet Of Thing is shaping our lives and increasing the demand for cobalt, maybe is it time to rethink our electronics addiction and cut it by half, because we do not need that much. What for? To dump onto Agbobloshie (the world's largest e-waste dump as shown in this video) in Ghana all the electronics we deem obsolete?
Global E-waste To Hit 49.8 MILLION Tons By 2018.... It’s a problem across Asia, with the volume of e-waste increasing by 63% in the five years ending in 2015..... Forbes.com
Moreover, if we were living in a money-free world, people would dedicate themselves to the best technology (cleanest and most efficient) to address the demand for cobalt instead of forcing people to literally ruin their lives to satisfy global speculation.
Though ironically, it is also very likely that in a money-free world, electric and oil engines would no longer exist, because research evolves so fast. And, in turn, that would precisely make speculation vain and futile.
The electric car had its chance to dominate the markets -- for a while -- but the oil cartel decided otherwise. Who killed Electric Car?
Heavy speculation slows down progress once cartels become monoliths. New concepts may give the impression of a boom but later on, one has to assess the damages of the illusion. Further, this is not just about the electric car but anything we can think of. Monopolies always squeeze out people's wallets all they can before going extinct -- leaving trails of environmental destruction and lots of human sufferings in their wake.
Lastly, thinking that most mining sites offer workers more safety to turn a blind eye to the issue is not an option, because it is well known that multinationals are the biggest planetary polluters. To give you an idea, consider the "staggering price of gold" and the dire pollution inflicted by our so-called modern mining techniques.
http://www.earthcustodians.net/blog/2018/06/25/the-staggering-price-of-gold/
Time for a paradigm shift!
FURTHER READINGS
Clean electric cars are built on pollution in Congo
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/05/africa/congo-cobalt-dirty-energy-intl/
THE COBALT PIPELINE (2016)
Tracing the path from deadly hand-dug mines in Congo to consumers’ phones and laptops. Workers, including children, labor in harsh and dangerous conditions to meet the world's soaring demand for cobalt, a mineral essential to powering electric vehicles, laptops, and smartphones,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/congo-cobalt-mining-for-lithium-ion-battery/
Friday, 09 March 2018
The Hidden Cost of Electric Cars: Government Subsidies and Manipulated Markets
In the past few years of heavy marketing and media attention in the form of favorable media coverage that amounts to a combination of free advertising and incessant pressure, one would expect that the electric car market would have taken off. It hasn’t, though. It survives on government handouts.
https://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/economics/item/28459-the-hidden-cost-of-electric-cars-government-subsidies-and-manipulated-markets
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Hmm, I wonder how you would get the cobalt out of the ground if you had NO money to pay the workers? Who would be dumb enough to work in those crappy mines for NO pay?
lolz!
Remember people, send earthcustodians your evil, earth destroying, soul crushing, and all around evil money to her patreon account. She will know how to dispose of that evil greedy filthy money, she has her eyes on some new jewelry.
you mean workers PAID peanuts for the sake of the crapitalists and unaware consumers who go into debts to afford whatever electronics? This electronic orgy is not going to end well...
Caught again defending the unsustainable and the necessary evil :)
Global E-waste To Hit 49.8 Million Tons By 2018
So, how are you going to get the cobalt out of the ground if you don't even pay the workers peanuts? Who is going to be dumb enough to do that shitty work for NO pay whatsoever?
Remember if you don't get the cobalt out of the ground, no internet for you! Your livelihood of begging for money online would be over!
caught again promoting slave labor... you do not even read the whole blog which offers solutions. We do not need to destroy anything when a society has understood that destruction and slave wages are an indication that we get it WRONG. The way nature tells us to RE-think our concepts.
So, how are you going to get the cobalt out of the ground without paying anyone? Who is going to volunteer for that shitty work so you can have the leisure to beg for money online?
Like I said, you are stuck in the crapitalist mindset, slave needed. First it is always because the demand is distorted that we plunder and exploit. In a money free society, we have a better technology (machines will do it) but crapitalists will not exist. Machines are set to taking over, then let them DO all the shitty work!!!!
end of story, but the world is so mismanaged by greed that first we must pay a price for endorsing exploitation as a model
the crapitalist model will end with a BANG
Wow, so who will you get to build, maintain, repair, and replace and operate these magic non-existent machines for free?
I have to get you back to reality somehow....
You need to understand that machines are capital, and part of the capitalist economic system. They are paid for out of previous profits. These machines then amplify the value of workers so they can get a bigger cut of profits and better their lives.
Plunder is a relative term. No one is forcing those workers to mine. They make a free will decision to go in the mine every day. If it wasn't in their best interest, they wouldn't do it. Why do they do it? Because they are the best paying jobs around. What you call exploitation and plunder is economic opportunity for those men. A thousand years ago, nobody anywhere even had the chance to better their lives as these men have.
You are soooo immoral. That is actually sad.
Crapitalism mindset: if you have no education, we have the right to exploit you. (and we'll make even more profits)
you make me think of a somebody I know, who made a fortune as areal estate broker before 2008 and now claims proudly that he succeeded because he is a smart opportunist and lectures about the importance of financial security
Of course he is deluded, he just happened to have the right career at the right time profiting from a CRIMINAL credit orgy that ended up erasing 40 trillions dollars worldwide... something he will never acknowledge.
You remind me of him, claiming the virtue of opportunism at the expenses of anybody if necessary but turning a blind eye to the deadly coercive levels imposed by monetarism throughout the ages. And coercion is by definition the enemy of freedom. Not seeing this is immoral.
But you post your idiotic line about me willing to WARN the people about the slavery system using money because, ironically, this is the TOOL that will eventually DOOMMMM the system. 300 trillion debts globally and almost a 1 quatrillion in derivatives. The system is definitely CANNIBALIZING itself.
I am merely using its nefarious dynamics to MAKE it go down FASTER and promote a solution, so the world can end its psychopathic financial coercion for good. Just as Max Igan and Peter Joseph advocate.
I am so through with your immoral mindset. You were taught deceptions, like the rest of us, and unlike me, you cannot wake up.
Every time you post your idiotic line, I will copy and past the above as a reply to you.
How will your "no money" economy work? You give no alternatives to capitalism. The rest of us here in the real world will have to push on without you.
Remember folks, earthcustodians has admitted to doing this for the money. You know that evil, soul crushing, earth shattering money that she is constantly bitching about. She wants it. She begs for it every post. Such hypocrisy. She claims she will use it to pull down civilization, but I have the sneaking suspicion that she will use it to get her nails done.
You are even too lazy to make your own research... and dont even read what I am writing. I NEVER said or implied that I am doing this for personal enrichment because I will continue to spread the word as long as I can sustain myself even without donations.
I hit a nerve, exposed your mindset. Greed is good, too bad if many are uneducated. Nobody is forcing these africans... you are a disgrace.
You have no imagination because you cannot even envision that machines will fix machines in the not so distant future. And that most human labor will become obsolete.
The system is definitely CANNIBALIZING itself. But that you do not even see it...
Global E-waste To Hit 49.8 Million Tons By 2018... and you still dont see what is WRONG with speculation. LOL
The Size Of The Derivatives Bubble Hanging Over The Global Economy Hits A Record High
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-size-of-the-derivatives-bubble-hanging-over-the-global-economy-hits-a-record-high
You do not understand economics and your childlike accusations are crapitalist tantrums.
Wow! So you are capable of earning your own money without begging? Awesome. Perhaps you should do more of that to better your life and the lives of your loved ones. I know I know, that would mean less lounging around your apartment, bitching about everything under the sun on the internet. How horrible.
Fair trade is good. Trading value for value is moral and fair. Using a fair money is the best thing you can do.
Telling people about some utopian dream world where no one has to work to survive, one in where magic machines will do everything and build everything anyone will ever desire is being, oh, slightly unrealistic and horribly immoral. You are appealing to people's laziness to bring about a result that will kill billions of people. The reality of a life without money is a horror show. Have you even tried to live without money? Maybe you could do a little experiment try to survive without money for a few months. Let us know how that works out.
So you haven't the slightest idea how a "no money' economy might work.
Well, the closet thing we have to that is the barter and the gift economies. These were used primarily before the agricultural revolution, back when we lived as hunter/gatherers ten thousand years ago. They are horribly inefficient and really can't be used by groups bigger than a few hundred.
So what would happen if money was eliminated? First, trade would vanish. Food would stop travelling to cities as farmers would start to hoard to protect themselves. In less than a week grocery stores would be empty and city populations would start to starve and riot. The survivors of this would pour out into the countryside and plunder any food sources they could find. Gasoline would disappear and movement would grind to a halt. Heavy industry would end. The electric grid would collapse. Billions would die from starvation and exposure. Only a few small self sustaining populations on the edge of civilization would survive, like the inuit. Very nice. This is a much better result than some poor people working hard to improve their lot in life.
Or perhaps, magic machines that can build themselves will suddenly appear and save humanity from the drudgery of work. They will be invented by the far superior hunter gatherer groups of a hundred people busy trying to stave off starvation for another day. Seems legit.
One thing is CERTAIN, massive scarcity is around the corner with the WAR/GLOBAL CRASH/RISE OF AUTOMATION AND MACHINES THAT WILL TAKE OVER MOST JOBS WITHIN NEXT 10 YEARS.
either you are mind controlled by the system or you are, like in your 80s, and fantasizing about a theory that only works on paper.
and that was 10 years ago... could be like 150 trillion today because the purchasing power is gone, 1 dollar equal 2cents, 98 cents go to pay the interests... but yet you assert that "slavery is relative" . HELLO???!!!
Our $100 Trillion National Debt | August 7, 2008
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2008/08/bill-walker/the-real-federal-debt/
The only solution is to STOP clinging on a system that does not work and is inimical to 90% of population. Causes people to have jobs they hate just to pay the bills.
resource based economy, the end of OVERproducing and insane profits, and top down slavery model in the ages of the machines = money-free society. Explained here by Peter Joseph.
Scarcity is always with us. We live on a fine line between a bit extra and falling short. Capitalism allows that little bit extra to be used to best and most efficient effect.
So now machines are bad again? At least you pushed out the take over to 10 years now. Remember a year ago when you said it was 7 years out? lol. They were better than sliced bread a minute ago. Remember? They were going to build all the stuff we could possibly want with no poor people needed to dig in the ground ever again. What happened since yesterday?
Every economy is base on resources, don't be stupid. This guy is just another dreamer. The rest of us live in the real world where effort is needed to survive.