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Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

economist.com

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Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#201

Post by tambourine_man »

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 will export millions of dollars in products that I produced here, or I will die trying

Why? Really. Maybe I’m in a midlife crises but I care about money less and less. I used to get a a lot of satisfaction from the simple fact of seeing the number on my bank account increase. Not so much in the past decade.

My computer, phone, speaker, camera and other tech toys are amazing and not that expensive. Great food and beverage are not that hard to come by. A good house is indeed expensive in most of the world, but after that, what does one need that requires “millions of dollars”?

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#202

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

__pache__ wrote: post #189
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

No examples needed. You can't adequately define "what you create", because nobody can. Where does your contribution begin, and end? Where does the contribution of your parents, your neighbors, your friends, your society begin, and end? To what extent did you create anything, or was it just a remix? Is everything a remix? Who are you? You have a unified, continuous sense of self, but most contemporary psychology finds it fairly easy to take people through processes that break this down (as do a number of psychedelics).

We don't need simplistic randian objectivism - it fails to describe the nuance, the beauty, the depth, the wonder, the complexity and the truth of reality.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#203

Post by pbourke »

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…

Canada isn’t a single language market.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#204

Post by magila »

friendlyasparag wrote: post #188
pseudo0 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As someone with a chronic condition who has had to make many appointments with specialists over the years, 6-12 months is a gross exaggeration. IME the typical wait time to be seen by a specialist in the US is between 2 and 3 months. The worst I've seen is 4 months.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#205

Post by EFreethought »

safety1st wrote: post #102
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…

Labor laws in various countries tend to push companies toward one end or the other of a spectrum. One end of the spectrum is hire fast/fire fast, the other is hire slow/fire slow. The US is very much toward the hire fast/fire fast end of the spectrum, relatively speaking. For tech companies in particular hire fast/fire fast seems to have worked well. It creates a more competitive labor market. That makes sense becaus…

Frankly, the US for a lot of people seems more like hire slow/fire fast.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#206

Post by EFreethought »

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.

Microsoft has entered the chat.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#207

Post by D_Alex »

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…

In addition to siphoning wealth, America has been very successful in siphoning talent. Which is why this kind of news should be pretty concerning:

https://sciencebusiness.net/news-byte/scientists-leave-uk-ch...

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#208

Post by WalterBright »

awesome_dude wrote: post #199
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.

The Japanese directly intervened in their manufacturing companies, and shaped their economy via the Bank of Japan to "rebuild" and grow their economy. They also have a notoriously closed (to outsiders) economy.

Cuba's economy is closed to outsiders. Didn't make them prosperous. They have a state run bank, too. Didn't make them prosperous.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#209

Post by WalterBright »

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.

Example?

And you're right that democracy is not a requirement for free markets, though they usually go together.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#210

Post by areyousure »

jutrewag wrote: post #112
crop_rotation wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is common sense, but saying that for some reasons gets lots of pushback from several people (both in Europe and America). People seem to forget that countries are only able to take modern moral stances due to their prosperity, and once the prosperity is not there, the voters forget morality in an instant.

America wouldn’t be nearly as entrepreneurial without immigrants. Something like 50% of all unicorns currently have atleast one Indian immigrant co-founder. Four out of ten unicorns have first gen immigrant founders. https://m.economictimes.com/nri/invest/indians-top-the-list-...

In case anyone is curious, the source linked above states that 11% = 66 of 582 unicorns have an Indian immigrant founder.
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