Ex fascist countries have the coolest gear. Any idea why!?

Anyone notice a certain trend? Germany and Japan are kings of gear, whether it is cars or camera gear. We

buy our gear only from these two countries, and not from the countries that kicked their fannies, the US,

China, Russia, Britain and France, not to mention thier victim Israel. And of course while the Italians, that

third wheel on that axis of evil, while not making cameras, make the cars, clothes and bags we all love.

Hmmmmm... What does it all mean?

 

Forum police: Let it slide, ok? It's a fair question.

Makes me think of the evil Kodak, Hasselblads, Gitzos... not even thinking of my coolest

gadget yet, my TOMTOM from Holland...

Whatever, it's all about world peace and to think in those terms, really...

(And didn't France had, besides the Resistance and all the Vichy government ??)

Forum police, please watch this closely.

best

MS

Well, I am thinking, it must fortell a trend in the future. The three current members of the

axis of evil, Iran, Iraq and North Korea will be doing some cool things in the futuree too,

right?

I think that for building good cameras and cars, you need discipline, and Gemrany and Japan had it, and still do have it. The "winners" on the other hand did not have discipline then, neither do now (my personal oppinion!).

Technically, Germany was not a facist state, and is certainly not one today. Japan was not facist, either. It is far more complex than you think.

Pico, enlighten me.

Personally, and with no offense intended, I think it's a seriously flawed hypothesis. I can't see the correlation between a specific industrial/manufacturing area and a type of government. There is no quid pro quo here.

and what war did China win?

Although not beeing Pico, may I try to enlighten you. Building a camera or a car doesn't need a fascist theory, but engineer skills and an infrastructure. Both were established in Germany before the fascist regime took over. And Japan was AFAIK a monarchy. And your theory is not right in other terms. The films and paper I use are from GB, my developer from USA, the wine I drink mostly from France, Grapefruits from Israel, chinese products are uncountable (where's your ipod come from)...

 

Although I'm beeing aware that as a german I have a special responsibilty and have a to be alert to fight fascist tendencies, don't you think it might be able to refer to Germany in other ways than "a former fascist country", 61 years after the end of WW II.

 

Have you travelled Germany or Japan, Darius? Maybe you should visit Germany to see how our society and our economy is like.

 

Stefan Tjarks<div></div>

<i>....Pico, enlighten me.....</I> <br>

 

I am not Pico, but with just a little knowledge about history you see, that facistic party was only in Italy, in Germany has been the NSDAP, what means "NationalSocialisticGermanWorkerParty" and Japan was a Monarchy with an Emperor.

It all means: it's time to stop doing "bong" hits and posting questions.

Where does Sweden (Hasselblad) figure into your well thought out theory?

Keith - I think the phrase you're looking for is "post hoc ergo propter hoc," not "quid pro quo." The latter means "something for something," and refers to balanced bartering. The former phrase means, "after, therefore, because of." Darius's question is a classic example of Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc, "if these guys became popular engineers after the war, it must be for the same reasons that made them go to war!"

 

Allow me to suggest an alternative theory. All of the countries mentioned, Japan, Germany, and Sweden, have in common a much lower military budget than other countries. They also have a strong cultural belief in precision, detail, regiment, and duration (bad term, but my vocabulary has sucked all day -- I mean they have a cultural tradition of building things that last).

 

Japan and Germany could easily attribute their economic growth to the military sactions placed on them after WW2. Prohibited from spending money researching warfare, they both chose to dump that excess funding into education and the business sector (where else would you spend it?), and focused their innovators and researchers there. Sweden, on the other hand, seems to have learned this trick untold ages ago, and has always maintained an impressive national standard by concerning themselves only with those things that concern themselves.

 

That's a shot in the dark, as I've never made any kind of formal study of geopolitics, but it certainly seems more plausible than the idea that "facists are just better at certain stuff."

 

On the other hand, I think it'd be fairly easy to make the argument that capitalism, especially when focused on the concept of planned obsolence, isn't very concerned with building things well.

In reality your little pet theory is a complete bunch of hogwash.

All of my camera stuff came from countries that have vowels in their names.

Germany went into the industrial age from a foundation of math and physics discovery and pioneering. Then the Nazi party highjacked the industrial development. Sanctions of WWI forced Germany to be self-sufficient but Russia at the same time was also forced into self-sufficiency...when the Russian working class overthrew the imperial families and trade with American capitalists was ended. At the end of WWII Germany re-connected with the World while Russia took a defensive posture and remained self-sufficient.

 

Japan also used the begin of the industrial age to militarize and this probably from watching WWI. Europe, Russia, U.S., and Japan all had previously tried to colonize China. When Japan occupied China in WWII they had raw resources to go with industrial development. At the end of WWII with new connection to World markets Japan began to industrialize towards consumer markets. Much of what Japan did was copies of European products but the Japanese currency was weak and thus Japanese products cheaper than European products...

"What does it all mean?"

 

Nothing.

because fascism is "THE WAY TO LIVE", obvioussly!

Yea. And Calderon stole the election, but the lefties promise a challenge. Maybe he\'ll invade Venezuela and topple that socialite as he beats the Guatemalens off his southern border.

Newer factories built since the "Aerial Urban Renewal" program.

Pretty thin correlation, Darius old chap. Why don't you tell us the linkage? If this were a bluebook essay, I would be more inclined to speil on a long range history of state sponsored secondary technical education,testing,a motivated industrial workforce (based on mercantile ideology, family social interest in work ethic, government support of banking and research, and,for Germany, Holland,Swiss, ample natural resources and location,location,location in trade and commerce. Not to mention top universities with research support in the sciences and the engineering fields.Why did Germany invent aspirin and dyes? And chemotherapy? France had its hand in the Suez Canal,remember?

 

Why did England come up with penicillin? Lots of holes in such a premise,Ace. USA made some great cameras, I have a couple.And some good autos too,I owned a couple of them too. You are going after this in a simplistic way,summer fun I guess. (Thought police are on vacation,enjoy)...

 

History is a little more complex than you suggest.And less definitive in the reasons. Italy, while not an industrial powerhouse has produced some decent enlargers(Durst), good tripods (Manfrotto). And some people think Ferrari and Alfa are equal to Porsche and Lexus. "What does it all mean?."..connect the dots and get back to us.

 

Be well. Eat prunes daily.

If it's a fascist history that does the trick, why aren't we buying Spanish cars and cameras?

Something went wrong. This is how the camera industry was supposed to unfold.

 

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-136.html

 

You can read the entire interesting article if have a Sept. 1946 copy of Popular Photography in your library.

 

Dean

I guess that means we Americans will start making some really cool cameras pretty soon!

OR it could be that those countries have very very industrious customers to sell their stuff to! Now maybe it's that. You know after we designed the Transistor and the personal computer and and and and. They started using our designs and making these items for us so we could go on and invent other neat things.

darius - your understanding of world politics then and now is truly awe-inspiring. Rx