“My FIL got in a car accident taking my kid to and front school and is in the hospital. I was supposed to visit him there, but as soon as I think about how, when my mom passed away, my kid didn’t even get to see her one last time, I can’t bring myself to visit my FIL. This is the deepest hurt in my heart. I never think about it usually, so I can pass my days in a daze, but this sort of situation brings it up a lot in my mind. I can’t seem to get past this.”
OP attaches screenshots of her texts with her husband while her mom is in the hospital.
OP: “You at work yet?”
Husband: “Almost there.”
OP: “How many vacation days do you have left?”
Husband: “About 7 days.”
OP: “Why don’t you take 2 days off work and drive baby Yuan over here, so my mom can see him again?”
Husband: “Why would I go over there with Yuan? Do I have to drive again?”
OP: “Could you? Just to see her for the last time?”
Husband: “Nah.”
OP: “Are you really not coming?”
Husband: “No.”
OP: “My mom can’t talk anymore. I just found an alphabet sheet so she can point to characters, and it took forever for her to spell out a sentence. And it turned out to be, “I need to pee.” She’s lost her sense. Forgot that she’s been using diapers forever now.”
Husband: “It’s not gonna be the next two days. Hurry back. Stop wasting your time and vacation days.”
OP: “My mom just died. Getting cremated next Wednesday and buried on Thursday.”
Husband: “I still need to do househunting on Tuesday. Can you come home Tuesday so you can go to work?”
Comments say, “I honestly can’t understand. If you haven’t divorced him yet, make sure you never do, so this kind of trash never comes back on the market.”
“Um…it’s like they’re having two completely separate conversations. Are they really husband and wife? How do they live with each other?”
“Are you married to an actual human being? What if your son turns out to be the same kind of person as your husband?”
“How come French people are so lazy, always taking time off, and yet French GDP is so high and their technology is so strong? We have an answer from an internet commenter.
Let’s take the shipbuilding industry as an example.
Large LNG ships are often called the jewels of the shipbuilding industry. It’s one of the most technologically advanced, fanciest civilian ships in the world. Only Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group can build them in China.
Not that they build any in all of 2018. All the orders for LNG ships that year, all 66 orders, have been taken by the three biggest shipbuilding companies in Korea. It sounds like Korea won, right?
Actually, no. The GTT Corporation in France is the biggest winner.
The core technology to LNG ships is the liquid cargo containment system, that is, the LNG cargo tanks have to store liquid natural gas at -163C.
Whether it’s the Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group, or the three biggest shipbuilders in Korea, they have to use the GTT Corporation’s Mark III or No.96 Liquid Cargo Containment System.
The GTT corporation doesn’t even need to manufacture any products. It just has to license its patents.
It costs about 180~200 million USD to make each 170K cubic metre LNG ship. And the GTT corporation doesn’t charge their patent fees based on how much it cost them to develop the technology. Instead, they charge a straight 5% of the cost of building the ship, roughly 10 million USD.
That’s exactly how unreasonable they are.
And how much money can a shipyard make off of an LNG ship? Based on the information I looked up, Korean shipbuildings have a profit margin of about 5-7% on each LNG ship. Hudong Zhonghua takes longer to build an LNG ship than their Korean counterparts, so their profit margins are even lower.
And all the LNG ships built at Hudong Zhonghua are made using French GTT patented technology. And every LNG ship built in Korea used French GTT patented technology.
Based on the 2018 annual report at GTT, they have 342 official employees, and made a net profit of 143 million euros, an average of 418K per person.
These last couple of years, GTT’s net profit margins have been maintained at over 50%. In 2018, it even reached the record height of 58.1%. You can dig through any company on the stock market, and you won’t be able to find any with a net profit margin that high.
But can you really do without GTT?
Not really. There’s no alternative out there.
There’s only two companies that provide LNG liquid cargo containment systems in the world, France’s GTT’s Mark III and No96 liquid cargo tank, and Norway’s Kvaerner’s MOSS can-shaped liquid cargo tank.
China and Korea have always used GTT’s technology, while Japan uses Kvaener’s. Right now, GTT has over 90% of the market share. As for why nobody uses MOSS can-shaped liquid cargo tanks, that’s an answer for another time.
And with the technology level of Chinese and Korean shipbuilders, just digesting GTT’s technology and successfully building the liquid cargo tanks is the limits of their capabilities. They can’t just develop their own system.
My knowledge is limited. I don’t know how many other companies are like GTT in other fields.
The high profit from holding a monopoly allows French people to be so lazy, to go on vacation all the time. Because they have all the leverage in the world. You have to be grateful that they’re even licensing you to use their patents.
So long as they slowly improve on their existing technology and make it more complete, they can continue enjoying this monopoly, because China and Korea will never catch up.
And the reason they are able to be more advanced is because they industrialised earlier and have a more solid foundation.
Looking at GTT’s official website, it was founded in the 1960s. Back then, they were already making LNG liquid cargo tanks, while China and Korea were still worrying about putting food on the table and didn’t have any idea what an LNG was.
They had a 50 year head start on making liquid cargo containment systems. That’s enough time to fill a moat with an eyedropper. You can’t make up for 50 years in the blink of an eye.
Heavy industrial work isn’t like internet companies. Technology takes a long time to update. The cost to trial and error is too high. For a product that prioritises safety and reliability like LNG liquid cargo tanks, no shipping company is willing to risk using a new model.
This is the advantage of the countries who got a head start. There’s simply no shaking that advantage right now.
Compared to GTT, Chinese shipbuilders have always been at the stage where they’re still struggling to feed themselves. And that’s the stage that western countries want to keep us in.
For European and American companies, their ideal outcome is for them to keep making money on technology monopolies, and make us produce cheap industrial products, and nail us to the very bottom end of the manufacturing chain.
And for us, the only way to break out of this status quo is to rely on more companies like Huawei, who actually put time and effort into R&D, to slowly catch up in industry by industry. Catch up to them, overcome them, and that’s the only way we, or our descendants, can live the lives they’re living.”
Comments say, “I want to go to France.”
“GTT’s patent license fees are only 3%. They’re only taking 3% of the total cost of making a ship, how are they the biggest winner? 80% has been taken by the manufacturer. France is the biggest loser. They have the technology, but they can’t actually get more of the profit for themselves. It’s not like GTT doesn’t want to build their own ships. They don’t know how.”
“Is it 2018 right now? At least update your statistics before you start making shit up online.”
A tiktok video of a Korean girl and her mom making lard out of pork fat according to a Chinese instructional video, and using it to make noodles and eggs:
The mother comments at the beginning, “That’s enough pork for a whole year.” While the girl comments, “I didn’t know pigs had this much fat.”
You cut the pork into cubes and blanche it, then put it back in the pot and heat it to reduce the lard out. Use high heat until the pork turns milky white. Once it’s milky white, turn down to low heat and add in green onions, ginger, and onions. Wait until the pork has been fried to burnt yellow and fish it out. Then put spices like soybeans, anise seed, and sichuan peppercorn in a pot and filter the lard into it. Leave it somewhere cool overnight, and it’s ready to use the next day.
You can make noodles by putting in a spoonful of soy sauce, aged soy sauce, oyster sauce, Lao Gan Ma, sugar and a spoonful of lard, and dump the noodles in. They also fry an egg in lard.
The girl comments, “How come it even tastes like meat?” While the mother says, “It’s not greasy at all!”
Comments say, “I’m sure Korea will be declaring this their historical relic any day now.”
“Food really is tastier made with lard rather than vegetable oil.”
“You can eat lard the same day, you don’t have to wait a day. And why would they add so much shit to it while making it? Fucking Koreans. They’re all copycats, and they’re bad at it, and they love declaring things their historical relics.”
A tiktok video of someone making the most amazing cakes:
Comments say, “I can’t imagine how happy I would be if I was her kid!!”
“Can someone explain? Is this made with vegetable cream? Can you even shape animal cream into such delicate shapes?”
“She didn’t wear a glove the whole time, why is no one complaining about how unhygienic it is?”
“Aren’t 3D printed molds poisonous?”
A compilation of answers to the question: “How did you find out your classmate was super rich?”
“2010, got a transfer student at my high school who became my roommate. His parents forgot to give him living expenses, so he borrowed 200 bucks from us. And that weekend, his dad showed up in a Bentley and took us out to steak as thanks.”
“My friend’s dad got issued an arrest warrant by the Central Overseer Committee, for operating a casino. In the biggest case, he made over 60 million in just commission.”
“I saw my friend’s dad on the news from my primary school’s computer as a business owner who owed nine figures in debt T_T”
“When I first met him, all I knew was that he was a degenerate just like me. He used to brag to me all about fucking all the lolis and MILFs. I thought it was all bullshit until I saw his Lambourgini.”
“The trustfund brat I went to tech school with has a family with businesses from gas stations to every aspect of eating, drinking, living, and everything. They have factories in every field. They live in different mansions all around the year. In order to get a close by place, his family bought a house right next to the school. He only had a 15 minute walk from the school’s gates to his door.”
“During covid, our school locked down and nobody was allowed to leave. My classmate called his family, and that afternoon, a helicopter showed up in our field to pick him up.”
“My classmate’s nickname was “Richie Rich”. Every day he’d come to school, he’d have the driver park the car super far away so we wouldn’t find out, until some idiot decided to beat him up.”
“I had three best friends in middle school. Now, one of them is a Top Ten Outstanding Youth working at the municipal government, one had a Porsche 911 when he graduated highschool, and another one had a BMW X5. I still don’t understand why they ever hung out with me.”
“I was going to go to her house, and she showed up in a Cadillac to pick me up. Something was wrong with the engine on the way, so she called her dad to drive over a new car, and it was a Panamera. The next day, we went to her mansion, and I saw there was a Mercedes-Benz parked in her front yard too.”
“My deskmate in high school had epilepsy. One time, he had an episode at school, and the very next day, his parents took him to buy a 350K insurance. He had a ton of friends, and he’s an only child. He’ll never get through all of his parents’ money in one lifetime.”
“We have four people in our dorm room, and one of them is this really quiet and inconspicuous girl. We’ve never talked the whole time. She’s almost never around the dorm, and she’s super low key the way she dresses. We all thought she was from a poor family and was working overtime or something. So even though we never talked, I’d share my snacks with her and stuff.
Until it was almost graduation time, and the three of us found identical boxes on our desks. We opened it up, and it was an LV bag inside!!! I was so shocked!!
Then we learned that this quiet girl’s family owned a company. They’re super rich. The reason she was never around is because she joined a charity organisation that helps stray animals in the area.
I suddenly felt so much regret, that I didn’t get to know her better in school. She’s so rich, and so low-key, and so nice, and helps out little animals all day. So I literally yelled in my dorm, “Ah! God! How can people be so different from each other!!”
Three. LV. Ah God.
仨 LV 啊 神
Sa LV A Shen
Salvation: preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss.”
[A newly popular meme on the Chinese internet, where people make up dramatic and engaging stories to sneakily insert knowledge into your head. Kind of like a story suddenly taking a turn to become a Genshin or KFC commercial, but you get to learn English words or math equations from it.]
Comments say, “If they’d invented this form of learning back in the day, I would’ve gotten full marks on English.”
“Holy shit. And that’s how I learned a new word today.”
“Knowledge just kicked down my door, threw in a flash bang, and dashed inside.”
“None of these have stuck as much as “heritage.” [He —> he Ri—> fucked Ta—his Ge—> brother.]
“Big event these last few days. The Central Bank [China’s Federal Reserve] has said that they are going to maintain a steady rise in the cost of products. And honestly, I felt a chill go down my spine. Why? Because they’ve acknowledged that we have a deflation problem. But the tactic they’ve come up with to combat it is a little scary.
Why do I say this? In a normal, healthy economy, no policy maker would ever think it’s possible to endlessly print money while avoiding that money becoming worthless. Of course, nobody would think that rising costs wouldn’t be a huge problem in society. But we’re different. We’re still playing around with supply-side economics. We’re still trying to increase the cost of products by increasing the cost of production. What the hell are they thinking?
I can understand why they’re doing this. Because we’re going through deflation. And deflation is a hell of a lot messier to work with than inflation. Low prices could easily cause a chain reaction in economic recession, and become a systematic crisis. But the problem is, do we have deflation because cost of goods isn’t rising? Of course not. You only need a rudimentary understanding of economics to see that the reason we have deflation is because total demand is going down in society.
Why is demand going down? The first reason is that we’re losing our exports. I’ve said it countless times that the concept that China’s economic engine is being driven by three horses [export, spending, investment] is just a delusion. We’re basically nothing more than a huge export processing plant. The only reason anyone invests is to expand our exports and make accessories for them. The only reason anyone spends money is because they’re making money from exports to begin with. The only way our economic runs is export —> foreign currency flows in —> converts into Chinese currency —> credit goes up —> investment —> spending. Right now, with no exports, of course there’s going to be less spending. Do experts really not see this?
Secondly, we’ve got a bit of a unique economic model. We have to import our raw materials, and we have to sell our products. Right now, we’re not selling our products, so the manufacturing industry can’t keep on producing, so nobody’s importing raw materials either. Nobody is making any more. Forget the real estate market. A lot of people are hesitating over simply eating out. How can you stimulate spending like this?
Thirdly, do you really not know why people are saving more and more money and putting less and less of it into the market? No one dares to take on debt. Not normal people. Not businesses. Everyone’s holing up and just trying to weather through these difficult times. How could there be demand like this?
Okay, let me teach you a bit of simple, basic economic common sense. A increase in demand can cause its intersection point with supply to move towards the upper right. As the demand line moves right, it means prices rise. If you increase cost to lower supply, the intersection point will move towards the upper left, and it will also cause prices to rise. But what results do these two methods produce? If you work on the demand side, while prices are rising, supply and demand are both rising. But if you work on the supply side, as costs rise, both supply and demand are falling. This will cause the economy to slow down abruptly.
The only way to make the cost of goods steadily rise is to increase demand. Pulling up inflation using demand is the only way. But what the fuck is the Central Bank doing? They’re increasing the supply of money to cause the costs to rise on the supply side, to increase the cost of goods. That’s fucking suicidal. Under the current conditions, if they don’t increase demand, but instead increase cost on the supply side, it’s going to cause stagflation.
Like, I honestly don’t even understand what the fuck they’re thinking. They’re endlessly printing money, but promising the people’s money aren’t going to become worthless. But while they’re promising to not make people’s money worthless, they’re still increasing the cost of all goods. Like, I honestly have no idea what’s going on in their brain.
I started out suggesting they just pass out stimulus checks to everyone, but they absolutely refused. Then, I was against cutting wages for government workers, because it’ll lower demand, and once again, no one listened to me. I even suggested cutting out unnecessary government departments and lower the number of management personnel, and give out everyone who’s laid off a high severance package, and turn that into a stimulus check for certain demographics, and that’ll improve how low demand is too. But what they’ve chosen in the end is to increase the cost of business.
Back in the day [in 1988], when we were reforming the price of goods, what policy did we use? Raising the minimum wage. That was an undoubtedly successful experience, and now, they don’t want to do it. They want to use rising costs to pretend at inflation, but don’t think about the demand side of things at all. Do they really think debt inherently means value?
Fine. I won’t say anything more then. I won’t even touch the topic of how to preserve assets anymore. Because if they keep doing this, then there’s nothing the average person can do except convert all their money to USD. Screw gold or houses. For the past 20 years, gold hasn’t increased in value nearly as much as house. And look at the state of the housing market? What can I say? With this sort of mindset, we’ll never come out the other side.
So, give up. Chill. You’ve won if you only lose a little money. So long as you still have a roof over your head, and rice and veggies every day, and can eat meat twice a week, you’re good. Stop worrying about preserving your assets, or finding opportunity in crisis. Pointless daydreams are the biggest enemy of the common people.”
Comments say, “They say “whatever it takes”, and we’re all whatever it takes.”
“Past experience lets me know that they’ll always pick whichever option is the worst for the people.”
“This article’s already been banned all over wechat. You can still read it, but you can’t upvote. And I don’t know how long it’s going to stay up for.”
> “I’m sure Korea will be declaring this their historical relic any day now.”
Is this about anything specific? Or is it a general sore spot in China, when other cultures borrow something from China, modify it, and claim it as an important part of their own culture, without ever acknowledging the Chinese source?
(Did you see that thing, which I don't even know if it's real, where someone pointed out that the Cantonese word for tomato sauce is basically "ketchup", implying some sort of America->Italy->Britain->Hong Kong->America loop?)
Regarding the fancy cakes, is it just me and my American palate, or is there a trend where Chinese versions of Western cakes look amazing, but ... don't actually taste very good? I honestly can't tell whether this is them focusing on the looks, or then aiming at a different flavor profile than I'm used to, or even something that everyone does but somehow I mostly notice it in Chinese bakeries?