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

381–390 of 528 posts

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#381

Post by BartjeD »

solidsnack9000 wrote: post #215
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.

Japan is a relatively populous single market with a single language -- about 125 million people at present. It's smaller than the USA, at about 332 million; but almost 60% larger than the most populous Western European country, Germany.

Your data are wrong.

Germany is home to approximately 83 million people. Japan 126 million. Japan is 40% bigger than Germany, not 60%.

US is roughly 334 million. Europe is rougly 748 million, of which the EU is roughly 447 million.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#382

Post by SiempreViernes »

janalsncm wrote: post #372
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 defa…

Well, it is not that simple, the unions in France have substantial power but rather modest membership:

France

Collective Bargaining Coverage: 98%

Proportion of Employees in Unions: 8%

------

Sweden

Collective Bargaining Coverage: 88%

Proportion of Employees in Unions: 70%

------

United Kingdom

Collective Bargaining Coverage: 29%

Proportion of Employees in Unions: 26%

--------------

From https://www.worker-participation.eu/national-industrial-rela...

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#383

Post by csomar »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #334
csomar wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are shooting yourself in the foot if you are comparing a US state to say, eh, Moldova. The countries you named are only European by geography. They are on par or worse than North Africa. That being said, life expectancy is a very bad measure in my opinion. Americans consume a shit-ton of junk food.

It's almost as if people who can afford to eat better, do eat better.

This is wrong. Food is very much linked to culture. Many countries eat better than the US. Most countries in the world (except some in Africa in some situations) don't have problems feeding most of their society.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#384

Post by hnarn »

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…

You have a strange definition of “facts”.

Your first point, “America is a single market” is a fact, and a pretty uncontroversial one.

America being “geographically isolated from war” is conjecture. Whether Mexico will invade, or whether Pearl Harbor is part of your definition of “America” is irrelevant, it’s not a fact.

America “being able to produce everything” is not a fact and much too vague to ever be a fact. To begin with there are 20 mineral commodities that the US fully relies on imports to acquire. Could these be found in the US? We don’t know, and this is only one example, regardless it’s not a fact.

Americans being “ambitious to a fault” is not a fact, it’s your opinion and generalization based on the americans and non-americans you have met and interacted with.

A fact means something, it doesn’t mean “like an opinion but a really strongly held opinion”.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#386

Post by arethuza »

refurb wrote: post #330
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Definitely not my experience working overseas in a few countries. There are certainly lazy Americans, but I’ve worked in multi-national offices where youd get fired in the US for the type of slacking i saw.

The US doesn't have particularly high GDP per hour worked:

https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm

Slightly above Sweden and slightly below Denmark and quite a bit less than Ireland.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#387

Post by mandmandam »

ThorsBane wrote: post #299

It’s a land of freedom, bravery, respect, kindness, love, law, and innovation. Of course great minds will abound and innovate faster in those places. America is amazing. The land of innovation. A land of huge scale and growing rapidly still. Just wait and see how much more growth ahead once they resume QE now that the money supply is tight enough again that inflation is under control. Time for brand new mega cities a…

[flagged]

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#388

Post by pif »

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…

> The consequences of failure in America are lower;

Several fellow commenters have already pointed out as the contrary is actually true, and I'd like to add a corollary: risking everything you have in a business is simpler in the USA than abroad because the society knows that they will lend a helpful lend should you lose everything.

Safety nets are a thing worldwide, and they cost money; thus some responsibility is imposed to each individual in order to limit the risks.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#389

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#390

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]
Post reply on HN