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Senate passes bipartisan bill to subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips

washingtonpost.com

131–140 of 489 posts

Re: Senate passes bipartisan bill to subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips

#132

I disagree that subsidizing R&D to a few companies is going to make us more competitive. Look at GE or Boeing, it didn’t work out. What works is a free market. Raise import costs on CPUs and you’ll incentivize building in the US and more companies to form. It costs $0 tax dollars and brings in revenue and high paying jobs. Similar to what we did with car manufacturing.

How do you prevent companies from avoiding the import costs by building their data centers in Canada?

Re: Senate passes bipartisan bill to subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips

#134
Related. I'm sure there have been others?

H. R. 4346: The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32250207 - July 2022 (77 comments)

House Bill Funds CHIPS Act, Stresses R&D - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31560844 - May 2022 (111 comments)

Re: Senate passes bipartisan bill to subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips

#135
post #102

I disagree that subsidizing R&D to a few companies is going to make us more competitive. Look at GE or Boeing, it didn’t work out. What works is a free market. Raise import costs on CPUs and you’ll incentivize building in the US and more companies to form. It costs $0 tax dollars and brings in revenue and high paying jobs. Similar to what we did with car manufacturing.

> What works is a free market. If such a thing existed then you would be right.

Unfortunately, this is true. We have to subsidize the industry because other countries are subsidizing them. We can't compete on a level playing field because there isn't one.

Re: Senate passes bipartisan bill to subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips

#136

I disagree that subsidizing R&D to a few companies is going to make us more competitive. Look at GE or Boeing, it didn’t work out. What works is a free market. Raise import costs on CPUs and you’ll incentivize building in the US and more companies to form. It costs $0 tax dollars and brings in revenue and high paying jobs. Similar to what we did with car manufacturing.

How do you prevent companies from avoiding the import costs by building their data centers in Canada?

That's exactly what they do. That is why Intel has a Fab in Ireland.

Re: Senate passes bipartisan bill to subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips

#139
post #20

WaPo article, which has more details about the bill and less details about what different “personalities” are saying: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/27/senate-ch... . Overall, it looks great. We absolutely need to fund more semiconductor manufacturing. Losing that ability to China/Taiwan was just a terrible strategic mistake. The US hasn’t lost this battle (over semiconductors) just yet. While curren…

Ok, we'll change to that from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-passes-china-semicon.... Thanks!

Re: Senate passes bipartisan bill to subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips

#140

I disagree that subsidizing R&D to a few companies is going to make us more competitive. Look at GE or Boeing, it didn’t work out. What works is a free market. Raise import costs on CPUs and you’ll incentivize building in the US and more companies to form. It costs $0 tax dollars and brings in revenue and high paying jobs. Similar to what we did with car manufacturing.

There is no such thing as "the free market" - it's this mythologized idea that people keep pushing, usually to damage workers so they can ship jobs offshore. If anything, the more something resembles a "free market", the worse it is - you don't think Intel wouldn't poison the water supply if it juiced the Q4 earnings? It's always more economical to just dump the toxic waste into the local river. If anything these sub…

"The General Market's mechanisms are always operating - even when governments like to believe they've overruled it. For guns and bombs and red tape and regulations can only obstruct a consumer's quest for what he wants; they can never destroy his insatiable desire to improve his life and enjoy greater mental well-being.

The self-interest of each human being, his continual search for whatever he wants, is a natural law. Governments can make it difficult for him, but their roadblocks only cause him to seek other avenues in order to get what he wants.

As a result, the General Market will always triumph eventually whenever there's a conflict between consumer desires and government interference. And it's vitally important to understand this. For it's the reassertion of the market's sovereignty as the ruler of the world that's causing today's economic upheavals."

- Harry Browne 1974 (but just as relevant today).

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