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Comment by c_o_n_v_e_x | Hacker News Reader

I know someone who grew up near a US base in the Philippines. Her father was employed as a cook at the base. When the base was closed, they went back to eeking out a living through subsistence farming.

There are some positive economic impacts for the locals.

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https://dc-office.org/basedata#p5 I highly recommend reading the Okinawa prefectural government's DC office fact sheet. Short story: There'd be a lot more useful economic activity from developing the land these bases are on.

(Okinawa has DC offices because the prefecture and the Japanese mainland gov't are not aligned on these topics at all. The prefecture basically wants these bases gone, and don't really want SDF bases there either. Tokyo wants the bases.)

Then there is Okinawa and like a thorn, despite all their rejection, we remain unwelcome squatters.

I mean, starting a war comes at a cost sometimes.

Well, it depends on which "they" you're referring to. The Japanese love hosting the US bases there, except that Okinawa is to Japan largely as Puerto Rico is to the US, and the Okinawans themselves are quite unhappy to be the actual hosts (surely not helped by soldiers' predilections for raping local girls).

Capitalism good according to capitalism

Look at the bourgeoisie!

-- Socialism pointing at subsistence farmers happy at earning a good wage

That's how it works ruling class makes up the "party line"

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