Kinda glossed over the whole IP theft industrial espionage thing. Not at all ironic given the shrieking about China.
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How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
41–50 of 68 posts
Re: How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
#42[flagged]
This is what HN is now, sadly.
Re: How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
#43idk, maybe being on an isolated continent really helped
I would consider Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean to certainly exist, and which formerly were British and Spanish colonies.
The US has actively suppressed any development in countries that could become competitors or non-aligned regional powers. Think Chile, Argentina, and Brazil (at least twice).
Re: How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
#44In 1939 the US had an outdated navy, army, and air corps. European instability is the direct cause of the change in US military and economic dominance.
One of my favorite historical fun facts was that despite the Wright brothers flying the first place in 1903, at the start of WW1, the US was completely incapable of building an airplane and had to buy them from France and Great Britain. Why? Because of patent wars [1].
The net effect of that was that Congress had to intervene and they created an avionics patent pool, a system that persists to this day.
So whenever anyone says that patents foster innovation, just look at this or any number of historical counterexamples.
As for WW2, the causes were historical. The US was still suffering from the aftereffects of the Great Depression and American isolationism. It's worth noting that there was a lot of sympathy towards Nazi Germany in the US with the American Bund Party who had a rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939 [2].
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Nazi_rally_at_Madison_Squ...
Re: How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
#45I guess it's time for some jingoistic rewriting of history. If you want to sum up America's rise to power it's the slave trade, war and a healthy dose of luck (eg the Louisiana Purchase). There is a concerted attempt to rewrite history on slavery. You will hear things like "slavery was an economic drain" or "slavery was inefficient" or even "it was technology like the cotton gin that created wealth, not slavery". All…
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Re: How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
#46Re: How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
#47For 150 years after its independence the US was the land of progress by toil, sweat an innovation...
...then they invented the money printer and it all became lies, bribes and plunder
Re: How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
#48I guess it's time for some jingoistic rewriting of history. If you want to sum up America's rise to power it's the slave trade, war and a healthy dose of luck (eg the Louisiana Purchase). There is a concerted attempt to rewrite history on slavery. You will hear things like "slavery was an economic drain" or "slavery was inefficient" or even "it was technology like the cotton gin that created wealth, not slavery". All…
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Russia - 1861. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom_in_Russia
It's curious that serfdom rarely comes up. Not exactly slavery, but was, practically. Not conquered peoples, not POWs, "just local peasants".
Re: How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
#49I guess it's time for some jingoistic rewriting of history. If you want to sum up America's rise to power it's the slave trade, war and a healthy dose of luck (eg the Louisiana Purchase). There is a concerted attempt to rewrite history on slavery. You will hear things like "slavery was an economic drain" or "slavery was inefficient" or even "it was technology like the cotton gin that created wealth, not slavery". All…
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While I do agree for the most part, some countries which innovated/used resources/used labor better or at the same level as the US didn't have the ability to just send their surplus labor westward to get some 'free' land. We'll never know how the Swiss would've done if they were able to get a population of 50 million.
Re: How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
#50Some nationalistic articles are just cringe.
Remenber that nationalism if based on 2 things:
- Hating people you don't know
- Being proud of things you didn't do