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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

#231

Post by WalterBright »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #202
__pache__ wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If it wouldn't exist without your efforts, then you created it. There's no mystery to it. People freely willing to pay for it with their own money is sufficient evidence.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#232

Post by [deleted] »

awesome_dude wrote: post #219
awesome_dude wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whilst your comparison is problematic on the grounds that Cuba suffered from decades of economic sanctions, it still manages to do better than similar nearby economies, Haiti, Jamaica, etc. The point I was making was that the person I was replying to was claiming that Japan's economic prosperity was due to it have a "free market" which it does not (unless you count socialism for the companies as "freedom").

One other thing that should be noted about the Japanese "miracle" is the fact that, at a crucial point in time, their manufacturing got a huge cash shot from the USA, due to a need for vehicles for the Korean War.

[deleted]

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#233

Post by agent281 »

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…

Couple points:

- Canada is an English and French speaking country. - Most of Canada's population lives next to the Great Lakes region so it is somewhat dense there, but most of the country is empty

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/8pmzd7/pop...

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#234

Post by WalterBright »

pigsty wrote: post #220
WalterBright wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Japan doesn’t have a nearby superpower that makes sabotaging your entire economy a yearly campaign point in order to prove your country sucks. Cuba’s had that for well over half a century.

The US was very helpful in protecting Cuba from the competition from the US economy.

Somehow, that didn't work out for Cuba.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#236

Post by WalterBright »

awesome_dude wrote: post #229
WalterBright wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> suffered from decades of economic sanctions Protecting an economy is the same thing as economic sanctions. You can't claim that one results in prosperity while the other explains economic malaise. > which it does not It certainly does. It wasn't a perfect free market, though, as nothing human is perfect. But it was close enough to do the job. BTW, I wrote that it was a free market.

>> suffered from decades of economic sanctions > Protecting an economy is the same thing as economic sanctions. You can't claim that one results in prosperity while the other explains economic malaise. Uh, no. Hard no. > BTW, I wrote that it was a free market. Yes, I realised it after I posted, but did not care to update what other people can see for themselves.

Embargo - hitting the other guy's foot with a hammer

Protectionism - hitting your own foot with a hammer

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#237

Post by CydeWeys »

tambourine_man wrote: post #226
fnordpiglet wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not dying when you no longer have health insurance

Most countries are not like the US with its crazy health system.

You still get better and prompter health care when you pay more money in pretty much every country.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#238

Post by pigsty »

WalterBright wrote: post #234
pigsty wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan doesn’t have a nearby superpower that makes sabotaging your entire economy a yearly campaign point in order to prove your country sucks. Cuba’s had that for well over half a century.

The US was very helpful in protecting Cuba from the competition from the US economy. Somehow, that didn't work out for Cuba.

Probably because every powerful economy of the past 6 centuries got there due to strong trade, which the US has gone out of its way to prevent Cuba from doing.

No country with a strong economy got there by being forcibly isolated from the world.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#239

Post by klipt »

D_Alex wrote: post #207
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...

I imagine 99% of the scientists moving to China were originally from China, and decided to return rather than stay in the US.

I don't think many non-Chinese foreigners are learning Chinese to move to China and chase the "Chinese dream" the way people do in America.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#240

Post by antman »

WalterBright wrote: post #168
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…

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.

(fact) Market was not free, US imports were taxed for decades and Japanese exports to the US were not effectively subsidizing Japanese economy for political reasons
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