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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

#371

Post by HWR_14 »

dopidopHN wrote: post #241
adriand wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m Canadian and I think this is insane. Free trade between the provinces seems like a no-brainer. I also think we should be taking a harder look at our protectionism against American companies. I understand the value of having healthy domestic industries but the prices of cellphone plans here, for example, are nothing short of outrageous. We already pay so much more than Americans in taxes, must the services we buy…

Just to give you additional data point with cell phone prices. I’m French but I’m living in the Us since a decade or so. Cell phone prices are considerably cheaper in France ( €30 gets you unlimited everything on mobile and €80 is a combo for fiber + mobile plan ) But yet, that a heavily regulated market. If I’m correct there is 5 licences. All other companies have to buy and resell bandwidth thought those 5 licence.…

30 euro seems reasonable. In the US you can get unlimited everything for $30 a month (well, after some amount of data in the gigs I think it downgrades from 5G in the fine print).

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#372

Post by janalsncm »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #323
quicklime wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do agree with many of your points here, but just to nitpick... > (fact) Americans are ambitious to a fault...9 to 5 in the suburbs is not an endgame for me. So you state this as a fact about Americans in general, but then use yourself as the only proof. Isn’t 9 to 5 in the suburbs basically the end goal that most Americans dream of? I definitely think that Americans are more entrepreneurial than most, but other cul…

LOL, Americans are definitely NOT ambitious to a fault. The vast majority believe that a 9 to 5 is a great accomplishment worthy of applause. Have a job that affords you a roof over your head? Hero. Have a job where you need public assistance because your employer won't pay you enough to make ends meet? Villain. American rhetoric is ambitious. Americans in practice are just as lazy as everybody else. Americans will p…

It’s not an accident the French are able to protest for workers’ rights while Americans mostly can’t. And it’s not because of differences between French and American psychology either.

No, the reason is simple: unions. Most Americans aren’t in one, which makes collective organization nearly impossible. Businesses know this, and politicians know this, which is why some of them have made it a point to demonize and defang unions.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#373

Post by HWR_14 »

nafey wrote: post #193
Tiktaalik wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I heard (not verified) that every province of Canada trades more with USA than with any other province which I think is quite remarkable.

It's not really that remarkable. 98.6% of Canadas population lives in provinces that border the US. And provinces don't have much population. Outside Ontario, no province has more people than NYC. I would imagine more trade would happen with a land-bordering country with 90x the population than with a neighboring province.

Or, to put it another way, I would not be shocked if every US state trades more with China than it does with any other state.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#374

Post by mandmandam »

anon291 wrote: post #314
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #183

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 citie…

> 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? I'm sorry this sort of thing is ridiculous. Are you European? The vast majority of American cities have multiple organizations attempting to give away food and unable to find takers. Our own church throws away so many pounds of food that we receive fr…

The US has 13 million hungry children, whether OP is from Europe or the Moon.

That's cool your church throws away food and your local homeless people aren't literally starving, but we don't need to rely on anecdata for this one.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#375

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#376

Post by pasabagi »

throwawaymaths wrote: post #365
pasabagi wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rich people become rich by paying other people less than the value of their labour. Sometimes, that's to the net benefit of the community, since the value of the labour involved is increased by a superior process. Often, that is to the net detriment of the community: for example, a landlord. The reality is, the impact of a wealthy person is almost always small, and usually negative-on-net. That's why, in the thousand…

> Rich people become rich by paying other people less than the value of their labour This is actually completely wrong. Believe it or not, many of the richest people get rich because they pay their employees more than they think they are worth.

Explain to me why you would hire somebody if they lose you money.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#377

Post by pasabagi »

j7ake wrote: post #355
pasabagi wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rich people become rich by paying other people less than the value of their labour. Sometimes, that's to the net benefit of the community, since the value of the labour involved is increased by a superior process. Often, that is to the net detriment of the community: for example, a landlord. The reality is, the impact of a wealthy person is almost always small, and usually negative-on-net. That's why, in the thousand…

Who did JK Rowling underpay to get to the top ? People can make money through success in positive sum games, which wouldn’t require exploiting other people.

Sure. It's just not the norm. JK Rowling is essentially one of a kind. The tech sector is an outlier too, in that it is normal for founders to be significant technical contributors. In most of the economy, rich people become rich through rent seeking.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#379

Post by getoj »

tcbawo wrote: post #271
l3mure wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the crucial land reform project targeting landlords: > The government forced absentee landlords to sell all their land to the government. Farmers were allowed to own a small amount of farm land that they could rent out to others ( 2.5 acres or one hectare in most parts of Japan, and 10 acres or 4 hectares in Hokkaido), and had to sell any excess to the government. The government then sold this land, us…

Given the political climate in the US — with accusations of socialism flying left and right — it is fascinating that they were able to conceive and execute literal redistribution of farmland and that is has been held up as a exemplary example of successful reforms. Perhaps there is more to the story, punishing the social class/monied interests that prosecuted the war?

There was considerable appetite for socialism immediately after the war, and the US officials of the early occupation were notably progressive (New Dealers, basically). As US-Soviet relations soured over the next 5 years, a lot of reforms were walked back or discarded, but some were obviously irreversible.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#380

Post by [deleted] »

pcrh wrote: post #273
areyousure wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case anyone is curious, as of 2021, 40 of the 50 US states have a higher Human development index than France. (France was chosen because as the OP and GP note, all 50 states have a higher average income than France.)

It's intriguing. GDP per capita comparisons between the US and Europe would suggest that almost all of Europe should have a lower standard of living than the US. However, this is not the experience of people who have lived in both places, principally because one needs a greater income in the US for the same standard of living compared to most of Europe. Perhaps this reflects over-valuation of the US dollar? As to the…

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