Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 528 posts

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#181

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

euroderf wrote: post #129
Gareth321 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> America operates on the principal that it is better to fail quickly and rebuild than it is to defend what’s not working to preserve the status quo for as long as possible. In a century marked by rapid technological change, it is probably better to hybridize the American and European approaches, allowing faster bankruptcies and more flexible job termination in Europe while also providing a more generous safety net i…

I'm no expert but afaik Denmark combines business flexibility with a decent social net. It is a dessert topping AND a floor wax.

I always viewed Canada as a similar blend, except with frigid winters, more snow, moose and yet still unpleasant summers except on the southwestern and southwestern coastlines.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#182

Post by vkou »

PostOnce wrote: post #166

My 2 cents, some of the reasons America succeeds: (fact) America is a single market with a single language with basically a single set of regulations. Expansion is cheap in America. It makes a hell of a lot more sense to expand to another US city than it does to expand to Norway or New Zealand; but for a company in those countries, expansion is very expensive, expanding requires new laws, regulations, business entiti…

> (fact) Americans are ambitious to a fault.

All 350 million of them?

And if you mean 'some of them are ambitious', surely you will have to accept that there are people in other countries who also share that property?

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#183

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

It's true the US knows how to succeed. The top x% is doing really well. The mid is doing well in terms of being able to acquire everything they need to live at a reasonable level. The big question is how do we get the bottom percentage to have a life where they don't have to struggle to find a place to live and making sure they never go hungry?

Success can never be success if we have homeless encampments in our cities. What do we do?

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#184

Post by vkou »

ttul wrote: post #34
non- wrote: post #6

> The flexibility of the labour market helps employment adapt to shifting patterns of demand. Already many of the workers in America who were laid off from Alphabet and other tech firms at the start of the year are applying their sought-after skills elsewhere, or setting up their own businesses. In continental Europe, by contrast, tech firms are still negotiating lay-offs, and may think twice about hiring there in fu…

America operates on the principal that it is better to fail quickly and rebuild than it is to defend what’s not working to preserve the status quo for as long as possible. In a century marked by rapid technological change, it is probably better to hybridize the American and European approaches, allowing faster bankruptcies and more flexible job termination in Europe while also providing a more generous safety net in…

> America operates on the principal that it is better to fail quickly and rebuild than it is to defend what’s not working to preserve the status quo for as long as possible.

It says it operates on that principle, but the stranglehold that establishment industry has on the country says otherwise.

Consolidation of capital and political power is exactly what we're seeing in banks, fossil fuels, mega-agri-firms, retailers, insurers, and healthcare providers. All of it results in a nightmare that is 'not working' for the public, but works very well for the people at the top.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#185

Post by [deleted] »

tormeh wrote: post #68
marianatom wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are walkable US cities, and one can move to NY, Chicago, Boston, Seattle or its outskirts. However, people choose to stay in the suburbs because they can afford it.

Isn't it the other way around? People have to stay in the suburbs because they can't afford to move to NYC?

[deleted]

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#186

Post by [deleted] »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #179
PostOnce wrote: post #166

My 2 cents, some of the reasons America succeeds: (fact) America is a single market with a single language with basically a single set of regulations. Expansion is cheap in America. It makes a hell of a lot more sense to expand to another US city than it does to expand to Norway or New Zealand; but for a company in those countries, expansion is very expensive, expanding requires new laws, regulations, business entiti…

I think your point about USA benefiting from a single big market is a strong one. Consider for contrast Canada, also a single language market, also geographically isolated, and sharing many of the inherent benefits of NA that America has. Canada though, not often considered a real economic dynamo in the same way as the USA. Well one big difference is that Canada is a relatively small population spread thin over an en…

[deleted]

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#187

Post by stcroixx »

camillomiller wrote: post #76
crop_rotation wrote: post #8

How would Europe even compete with America in the long run. America just has so many advantages (massive influx of talented workers, one country, better equiped with natural resources, the supremacy of the dolllar). There are many other reasons some of which might not seem clear cut. The average American or European life requires an economy which is on average much better than the average for the world. If you do not…

It’s so damn American to dismiss any other way of doing things. No better way than the American way, am I right? Europe is sick and tired to be the sickly buddy of the world’s bully. And we don’t care about the wonderful ways the bully keeps finding to build his muscles and reinforce his attitude. You yankees will never really get it though, so I’m talking to the wind.

I’m American and I’ve enjoyed every country in Europe I’ve been to. As far as know, none of those countries would allow me the freedom to work as I do here and I doubt I could find a house large enough for my family of 6 or the 20 acres for my horses and other livestock. I’m open to any way of doing things, provided they give me equal or better results. My family left England for lack of opportunity in 1750 and we have done fine here since.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#188

Post by friendlyasparag »

pseudo0 wrote: post #140
Teever wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you've got cause and effect backwards. Or rather, you don't quite realize that it's a feedback loop. Canada heavily subsidizes the healthcare and post secondary education of all those people who then move to the US, often those people move back in retirement for the healthcare. That no doubt has a detrimental effect on the Canadian economy as Canada pours resources into people and America reaps the benefits o…

They generally don't move back. Anyone who qualifies for Medicare (10 years of employment in the US) will get significantly higher quality healthcare through Medicare than they would receive in Canada. The problem is that Canada's healthcare system is a command economy. The government decides how many med school spots there are, how many residency places, and how many procedures will be funded each year. In order to…

To be fair...

- The US government also effectively decides the number of US residency places by how much they will fund Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

- Many places in the US won't see you if you are on Medicare.

- It is quite common to need to wait 6-12 months to see specialists in the US too.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#189

Post by __pache__ »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #180
__pache__ wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Seems to me owning what you create is the key, instead of having it ripped from your hands.

As if you can cleanly define "what you create". Or "you". Or "create". Back to the philosophy playpen, John G.

I mean, yeah?

Markets are great at finding how much something is worth. uhhhh

Want to give some examples?

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#190

Post by ETH_start »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #175
WalterBright wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider Japan: (fact) a single market with a single language (fact) geographically isolated (fact) not much space (fact) burned to the ground in WW2 and yet for a while it was an economic powerhouse on the world stage. Taiwan, Hong Kong and S Korea, similar stories. So what is the common thread? Free markets.

Plenty of underdeveloped countries are free markets as well. China is attempting to show that not even democracy is needed to be prosperous.

>>Plenty of underdeveloped countries are free markets as well.

All less developed free market economies have been free markets since relatively recently.

The wealthiest economies are generally those that adopted market based rules the earliest, e.g. the Anglosphere and North West Europe, which were free market based since the 19th century.

Post reply on HN