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Noah Smith
@Noahpinion
, 11 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
As long as I'm tossing out unpopular opinions that are going to get ratio'd:

I think Nigeria needs an aircraft carrier.
More specifically: Nigeria needs to BUILD an aircraft carrier.

The real goal is industrial development, of course. Aircraft carrier is a means to an end here.
Nigerian Aircraft Carrier would:
1. Unite Nigerian politicians and bureaucrats around a long-term goal
2. Create lots of spillover industries
3. Facilitate technological upgrading
4. Instill national pride and garner international respect
Building the Nigerian Aircraft Carrier would help Nigeria get a shipbuilding industry (which would then allow it to build its own oil tankers) metals industries, and a whole bunch of other industrial stuff that could later be the foundation for full industrialization.
Furthermore, imagine how perceptions of Nigeria - and maybe of Africa as a whole? - would change with a Nigerian Aircraft Carrier sailing around the seas.

Imagine how differently Nigerians themselves might perceive their own country's potential!
In 1965 America spent 0.8 percent of our gross domestic product trying to have people walk on the moon.

Nigerian Aircraft Carrier is not such a different idea.
But Nigerian Moon Landing wouldn't make sense. Nigeria doesn't need the same kind of spillovers America needed in the 60s. It needs to develop primary industry, not to invent new cool kinds of fabric and electronics (yet).
And no, a Nigerian Aircraft Carrier wouldn't be used to fight America or China or someone in a great-power war. It would be used for humanitarian missions, for peacekeeping in Nigeria's back yard, etc.
In the 1900s, Theodore Roosevelt sent the "Great White Fleet" around the world to demonstrate that America had arrived as an industrial power. The ships were militarily obsolete even before they sailed, but the demonstrate was effective.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Whi…
*demonstration
Anyway, as expected, most Twitter people think the Nigerian Aircraft Carrier is a crazy idea. But at least I've now put the idea out there for people to think about...

(end)
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More from @Noahpinion see all

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Noah Smith
@Noahpinion
I want to get rich people's money and use it to help the poor and build public goods, not make rich people's money vanish.
The answer to the question of "Should billionaires exist?" is "Yes, IF they provide a steady stream of money for our nation to build schools and houses and trains and treat people's diabetes and fix roads and do research."
This notion that making rich people's wealth vanish into thin air would be good for society? That's goofy. That's not social democracy, that's left-populism. Not interested.

Get the money, spend it on stuff that makes poor and middle-class people's lives better.

(end)
Read 3 tweets
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Noah Smith
@Noahpinion
This is incorrect. CBO calculations do assume this (or at least used to?), but economic theory does not assume this. The WaPo is in error here.
Here's the WaPo paragraph in question. I could point to any number of studies showing that employers bear some nonzero amount of the incidence of income taxes. I'm sure @KClausing could pick out the best ones.
I just realized that this is the "fact checker" column.

Remember that fact checking is about defense-in-depth.

I'm just Layer 2.
Read 3 tweets
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Noah Smith
@Noahpinion
Government takes 2% of your wealth every year to fund health care, green energy, etc.: Damn it, that's COMMUNISM!!

Asset manager takes 2% of your wealth every year to invest your money in a portfolio that underperforms the index: Well that's just good ol' productive CAPTITALISM!
Various People: "It's different because with the asset manager you CHOSE to give him all your money, whereas with the tax the leader was democratically elected to take your money"

Well, true, true...
Oh man, "CAPTITALISM" was a typo but it makes the original tweet so much better
Read 4 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
Citizen Movement of Nigeria
@CitizenMovmntNG
Our Transformation Will Be Evolutionary, Not Revolutionary.

But the evolutionary process can be quickened to shorten its time.

Cc: @segalink @CnnNigeria @Omojuwa @CivicHive @seunonigbinde @seunokin @iaboyeji @DrOlufunmilayo @MKabrik @HamzyCODE @TrackaNG @DSamsonItodo #Nigeria
The adventure to transform a nation is a process.For a nation as diverse &complex as Nig.,the process is helplessly long

Making a crucial mental shift from acute short termism to developing a long term perspective on development is a crucial part of the process

#CitizenMovement
The factors that turned us into the nation that we are, are stacked layer after layer, built through decades of iterating and innovating a corruptive culture.

Taking those layers off takes a process. To start building again, block after block, takes a process.

#CitizenMovement
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Emeka Azuka Okoye
@EmekaOkoye
#Nigeria does not make or like #toys smh.

Africa exported $183.4m worth of toys led by the ff:

1. Tunisia: $70.3m
2. SA: $65.2m
3. Kenya: $11.2m
4. Morocco: $11.1m
5. Mauritius: $7.4m
6. Uganda: $5.8m
7. Madagascar: $4m
8. Chad: $1.2m
9. C.Verde: $1.1m
10. Zim: $936,000
/1
#Nigeria doesn't even like #toys smh.

Africa imported $1 billion worth of toys led by the ff:
1. SA: $459.4m
2. Morocco: $86.5m
3. Algeria: $78.5m
4. Egypt: $61.9m
5. Tunisia: $53.3m
6. Angola: $31.9m
7. Mauritius: $25.2m
8. Namibia: $20m
9. Djibouti: $18.5m
10. Libya: $15.4m
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140m Nigerians couldn't be #1.

Africa imported $40.1b worth of electronics led by the ff:
1. South Africa: $8.5 b
2. Egypt: $4.8 b
3. Morocco: $4.6 b
4. Algeria: $4 b
5. Tunisia: $2.7 b
6. Nigeria: $1.7 b
7. Ethiopia: $1.3 b
8. Ghana: $1.2 b
9. Kenya: $1.1 b
10. Angola: $1 b
/3
Read 10 tweets
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Chxta
@Chxta
This thread is important because it speaks to a certain truth - countries like #Nigeria and the like do not matter in real terms.

What the rest of the world is concerned about when it comes to us is simple - containment.
A look at the global sub-national HDI map tells you all that you need to know. We are in a very bad neighbourhood, and I fear that we may not be coming out of these woods in the near future.
Add to that this - Africa's share of global exports in 2016 as per @wto is 2.4%!

In real terms what this means is that we can disappear from the planet, and the remaining 97.6% of the global economy will simply keep moving along without missing us.
Read 8 tweets
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Subomi
@subomiplumptre
THE OLD MAN'S TALE: I met the old man at a presentation. I was a brand consultant on a large corporate project. The client insisted I sit on a panel to select marketing agencies. The gentleman; old enough to be my father, represented an agency in #Nigeria. #HR #Entrepreneurship
As he stepped in for the presentation, I saw the expression of the young 20-something year olds on the client's side. They were bright eyed top shots from Ivy League Universities. They were recruited to revitalise the DNA of the decades old institution.
I heard the hushed sniggers as they wondered what this "old papa" was doing there. Didn't he have staff capable of running through a PowerPoint?
Read 16 tweets
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The Red Head🔴
@SuleimannJosef
So I was in church yesterday and the pastor was talking about the resurrection of Jesus (Easter is coming ☺)

The message was enlightening but my naughty mind was just thinking what if Jesus was born, bred and died in Modern #Nigeria

#ThisisAThread
It was a hot afternoon, Jesus and them boys (the disciples)just finish causing traffic on third mainland bridge. Everywhere was blocked from the bridge to VGC. People were just offing shirt and putting palm frond on the ground shouting "Hosanna"
Me I was just in traffic thinking "which time person won come reach house today with all this traffic, o my God"
And all this because of one Jesus.
Read 50 tweets
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Arthur Kimes
@ComradeArthur
Hard Boiled - a live tweeting.
In order to see this the first time, I had to track down an obscure specialist video tape rental place in Beverly Hills. $8 for a 1 day rental!
Tequila
Something fizzy
Shake it up
Play some jazz.
Read 183 tweets

Trending hashtags

#Frenzy #Trump #Onnoghen #ThanQ #time #Osun #Uwuigbe #RippleEffect #fintech #TrustTheProcess #Delta #FakeNews #DeepState #Nigeria #Imagine #Iran #Redteam #healthcare #Patriots #billion #power #lending #Rivers #toys #2019Debate
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