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Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

economist.com

491–500 of 528 posts

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America takes in more poorer immigrants though

Poor but qualified? Unless it’s through the green card lottery I guess and I’m not sure what percent of new immigrants that makes.

Yes, America has a family based immigration system. My parents came to this country via family sponsorship, no jobs no money or anything. The H1-B system is over-represented on hacker news because of the industry we're all in. Most immigration to the US is family-based.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not the case.

It is. Add that with the rest of the problems Canada has, it might be the worst of the first world countries.

I, for one counterexample, have gotten excellent healthcare on every occasion that I've needed it, and I have yet to be immediately dying. Obviously not everyone has had good experiences, and our healthcare system fails many people, but to say that you get no healthcare whatsoever unless you are immediately dying is absolutely hyperbole.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being from Europe, my perspective might be as biased as American fatalism but as the article says I think the key most important aspect is lacking a true single market and I'm sceptical of us ever achieving it. The more we fall behind the more we'll cling to tradition and avoid further integration, a continuous cycle.

Why can't an European company sell to the US?

They do, and unsurprisingly it's the relatively culturally-close countries of Ireland and the UK that sell the most to the US. But no European country has a free trade agreement with the US, and industrial standards are different because the EU is big enough to act as it's own trade centre.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, being the only country left with any manufacturing after a catastrophic world war is one major reason. Also, navigable waterways. Transporting goods by water costs 1/100th what it costs to transport over land. After the US established a corp of engineers to dredge our waterways to make them passable, the ability to transport goods increased substantially, making internal trade extremely cheap.

> Well, being the only country left with any manufacturing after a catastrophic world war is one major reason. This is not the reason. Post WW II Europe was able to rebuild and for a long time they had some of the biggest companies and for a long time EU as a whole was a bigger economy than the US. It's only in the last 2 decades where the US is significantly outpacing the EU. And there are no signs of slow down. WW…

They were able to rebuild… because the US funded it.

The Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program, was a U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War II. It was enacted in 1948 and provided more than $15 billion to help finance rebuilding efforts on the continent.

That’s about $187B in 2022 dollars. In addition to technology and trade.

… followed shortly after Breton Woods, which secured trade for the rest of the world in exchange for not joining up with the Soviets.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#495
post #108

Kind of ignores income inequality and that any benefits are going to top income earners. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-... The article claims income-tested benefits have doubled since 1979 and that incomes for the beneficiaries has increased. At the same time, earned income as a share of the economy has decreased - those folks need the extra benefits because they are unable to earn it, n…

Thomas Sowell once pointed out that billionaires are correlated with millionaires, and millionaires are correlated with a middle class. Most countries without billionaires are not great places to live and work. Governments without rich people to tax do not accomplish much in the way of welfare. Take a look at a map of countries with billionaires.[0] I would argue those with billionaires are much better at providing s…

I'm not arguing against billionaires. I'm arguing that billionaires make most of their money through investments and those investments are taxed at a lower rate than labor, where most of the middle class makes money through labor. If the wealthy can keep a few percent more of their income year after year then you end up with the inequality I'm pointing out. We can have billionaires and fair tax policy. Trickle-down does not work.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#496
post #371

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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).

Maybe I missed that, what carrier do you have in mind?

Mint MVO on T-Mo network

https://www.mintmobile.com/plans/

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#497
post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Maybe I missed that, what carrier do you have in mind?

There are a lot. Mint Mobile is $30/mo for unlimited if you pay for a year at once (a little more if you pay monthly). Visible is $30/mo but goes from 5G to 4G after 50GB (more expensive options have higher caps). There are lot of other ones out there, mostly trying to get people in the $20 range but with smaller limits on total data.

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#498
post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I missed that, what carrier do you have in mind?

There are a lot. Mint Mobile is $30/mo for unlimited if you pay for a year at once (a little more if you pay monthly). Visible is $30/mo but goes from 5G to 4G after 50GB (more expensive options have higher caps). There are lot of other ones out there, mostly trying to get people in the $20 range but with smaller limits on total data.

Right right right, my bad.

Now I remember why I switched from cricket. From time to time, I need data in Europe. On my US phone. That being said I should just switch when appropriate.

Thanks for reminding that.

I took the opportunity to check what the prices are in France now.

€20/month, and €10/month if you bundle it with your internet connection. ( bringing to a total of €40 )

I just checked the operator that historically has the better price. ( free.fr )

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada, England, Brazil are far poorer and have way better health systems. I don’t understand how that’s a No True Scotsman fallacy.

The US has the best healthcare in the world, period. It's just not cheap. Brazil isn't even remotely comparable.

The best healthcare system is the one available to most people, period.

And you’re right, Brazil’s is not even remotely comparable to the US. It’s universal, completely unrestricted and covers continental distances for over 200 million people. It’s not only free, but a fundamental right guaranteed by the country’s constitution.

If one has a serious disease like cancer and is not a millionaire, guess where there’s a greater chance of survival.

Also, when large scale sanitary solutions must be applied, like, you know, during a pandemic, wouldn’t it nice to have a way to reach millions of people other than improvising mass vaccination campaigns in stadiums and fairgrounds?

Re: Lessons from America’s astonishing economic record

#500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I guess the US has this problem too. I lived in a town where a significant portion of the population didn't speak English fluently

Well, even if you put language aside. Each European countries is still wildly différents. Less and less, that’s true. But regulation, borders, culture, habits, buying power, taste… The first startup I worked for was wildly successful in France. We had dream of conquest of all Europe, of course. Each new country was a headache, nothing to do with langage. ( language was the easy part ) People wanted different stuff. W…

US has some unifying things, and maybe it isn't on the level of Europe, but there are massively different cultures in the US. States have a lot of power with regards to regulation.

It is true you can do business in other states pretty easily.

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