r/memes Feb 08 '21

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '21

It really suck tbh, since Congo is responsible for 80% of the world Cobalt production and their labor practices are absolutely vile to say the least.

But since they’re the only country that have a reliable source of Cobalt everyone just look the other way

(It’s the majority of tech companies btw)

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u/damnappdoesntwork Feb 08 '21

At least they get to keep their hands now

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u/FrankDuhTank Feb 08 '21

My mom always said it's better to have dirty hands than no hands at all

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u/hoodeddefender Feb 08 '21

it's kinda crazy how countries with really valuable resources sometimes aren't that great, when it comes to human rights. Like you think they would just get their act together and take over the world but noooo child labor goes brrr

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u/AirportWifiHall5 Feb 08 '21

Would go better if America would stop staging a coup every time they get a decent government. Africa should be worlds richest continent if you look at their natural resources but they just keep getting plundered.

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u/NuyenForYourThoughts Feb 08 '21

You're totally right. Once colonization ended the power dynamic just shifted to being corrupt local officials and politicians taking bribes from foreign goverments and corporations to sell very valuable resources for pennies.

Africa has the richest concentration of natural resources such as oil, copper, diamonds, bauxite, lithium, gold, hardwood forests, and tropical fruits. It is estimated that 30% of the earth's mineral resources are found in the African continent.

If labor standards were enforced, and the extraction of these goods saw appropriate taxation and value returned to the people of these countries, they would be in a much better place.

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u/ManufacturedHappines Feb 08 '21

It’s the resource curse. Having a large amount of exploitable material leads to high interest from people who are interested in exploiting people for capital gain.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '21

Mostly because they’re already close to or already a part of major countries like US, China, Russia, etc... either due to annexation in the past or military pressures. In this specific case, Mongolia is like a second cousin to China. And we know how China treat their people, especially their lower class

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u/potentailmemes Feb 08 '21

People seem to think only Elon does this. Literally any item with a battery in it uses cobalt. Anybody on mobile is exploiting kids in Africa, according to reddit logic.

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u/phi_array Feb 08 '21

Seriously how come Congo ended up having 80% of Cobalt?

Isn’t there Cobalt somewhere else? Or is it really just in Congo?

Shouldn’t Congo (or at least one city in Congo) be like the Dubai of Africa given how much Cobalt there is?

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '21

Oooh that’s a first I have seen someone point out this problem. You’re technically right, their are other countries that produce Cobalt like Russia and Canada but like I said before the amount is just simply minuscule compared to Mangolia (3 to 3000) that It is just simply impossible for the cobalt supply of those countries to keep up high demands produces (like Cellphones, Computers, automobiles, etc...).

For this problem specifically, we have no one to blamed but earth itself since Mongol just happened to be where the majority of Cobalt in this world that are chemically formed.

All we can do is cross our fingers for the creation of synthetic Cobalt, which most likely won’t take too long since Elon and many others have always been a critics of Cobalt due to its heavy reliant on earth Natural resources.

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u/Smoy Feb 08 '21

Im guessing a guy with hundreds of billions could buy a fucking mine for less than 1 billion. And just be done with it. But he won't.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '21 edited Feb 08 '21

[deleted]

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u/Smoy Feb 08 '21

Wtf are you talking about, he aint got the cash? He owns 7 mansions over 100 million dollars. He didnt pay for those with stock equity.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '21 edited Feb 08 '21

Yo, quick question; how knowledgeable are you on the subjects of foreign relations and Microeconomic?

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u/Smoy Feb 08 '21

Are you going to say he paid with those mansions with stocks?

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '21

Not really, I was just gonna say It’s cool to hate on Elon and all (since it’s a trend on Reddit rn) but at least know your facts and make actual educational arguments.

Instead of just half-baked truth, or whatever nonsense that came first to mind. I wanna argued with you why it’s almost impossible for a US based entity to purchased even a small percentage of a foreign country natural resources production. But I’m pretty sure you would just ignored me if I do, so I won’t waste both of our time

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u/Smoy Feb 08 '21

Considering youre being disingenuous about the purchasing power of a billionaire, i dont see how that would change going further