Acquired Industrial Deficiency Syndrome - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15053586
Free trade is like free love. If you have different sex partners, you need protection. If you have different trading partners, you need protectionism.

Failure to take this precaution will expose your nation to Acquired Industrial Deficiency Syndrome, in which manufacturing muscle is replaced by service sector fat and the body becomes vulnerable to such parasites as derivatives traders and hedge fund managers.

As young cells struggle on low wages, a greater proportion of the body’s energy (Social Security and Medicare payments) is used to sustain old and dying cells.
#15053846
Robert Urbanek wrote:
Free trade is like free love. If you have different sex partners, you need protection. If you have different trading partners, you need protectionism.

Failure to take this precaution will expose your nation to Acquired Industrial Deficiency Syndrome, in which manufacturing muscle is replaced by service sector fat and the body becomes vulnerable to such parasites as derivatives traders and hedge fund managers.

As young cells struggle on low wages, a greater proportion of the body’s energy (Social Security and Medicare payments) is used to sustain old and dying cells.



Protection is really only useful as a temporary nursery for business trying to get market share.

We have a number of problems. The government needs to regulate, and the rich simply buy politicians, and usually get what they want.

A lot of our problems arise from income inequality, and this is a result of that.

A mature economy needs to innovate. We used to create huge numbers of new businesses, but what big business has done is create an environment that is well suited to their needs, but is actually hostile to small business, and discourages a lot of innovation.

In Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jane Jacobs talks about import replacement. Economic growth is often about domestic production replacing imports. But that process gets reversed in aging empires. Their wealth means countries with lower costs can easily gain market share. That's what American did to the British Empire in the late 1800s.

We need to work the problem, to make innovation a top priority.
#15053884
late wrote:We need to work the problem, to make innovation a top priority.


Believe me, as long as there are technology thieves and oppressive giants like China, the West will keep having innovations for the right things, not less because the most innovative minds from those backward places will continue to flee, simply in pursuit of safer lives.
#15053885
Patrickov wrote:
Believe me, as long as there are technology thieves and oppressive giants like China, the West will keep having innovations for the right things, not less because the most innovative minds from those backward places will continue to flee, simply in pursuit of safer lives.



There's more to it than that. Solar panels were an American idea, and we had made more progress with them. But China gave their solar industry a lot more support that we did. Actually, instead of support, Republicans used Solyndra as a political football. The result is that China dominates what will eventually be one of the world's big money makers.

Then there are all the other pieces to that puzzle, improving primary and secondary education, making things business friendly to small business (at the expense of big business...) and welcoming students from abroad. Many Nobels that were won by Americans were won by Americans born in other countries.
#15053888
late wrote:There's more to it than that. Solar panels were an American idea, and we had made more progress with them. But China gave their solar industry a lot more support that we did. Actually, instead of support, Republicans used Solyndra as a political football. The result is that China dominates what will eventually be one of the world's big money makers.

Then there are all the other pieces to that puzzle, improving primary and secondary education, making things business friendly to small business (at the expense of big business...) and welcoming students from abroad. Many Nobels that were won by Americans were won by Americans born in other countries.


If the Chinese could they would have done it long ago. But they stuck to their Imperial System in the old times, and now, the totalitarian Communist Party.

Much of their innovation is now spent on how to deal with (either circumvent or enhance, depending on which side one takes) governmental censorship and oppression.
#15053896
Patrickov wrote:
If the Chinese could they would have done it long ago. But they stuck to their Imperial System in the old times, and now, the totalitarian Communist Party.

Much of their innovation is now spent on how to deal with (either circumvent or enhance, depending on which side one takes) governmental censorship and oppression.



I'm more interested in our failures, than theirs.
#15053902
late wrote:I'm more interested in our failures, than theirs.


Their failure is the key to the success of My Honourable Friend's camp.
#15053904
Patrickov wrote:
Their failure is the key to the success of My Honourable Friend's camp.



Doubt it.

In any case, if we don't do the things we need to do, we'll decline as a result of our stupidity.

They are making a lot of progress, in a lot of areas. While we decline, rather rapidly, thanks to Trump.
#15053914
late wrote:Doubt it.

In any case, if we don't do the things we need to do, we'll decline as a result of our stupidity.

They are making a lot of progress, in a lot of areas. While we decline, rather rapidly, thanks to Trump.


I rather more believe the decline is because of people spending their time hating or aiming to remove Trump, just like how the Lib Dems and Labour spending their time hating the Tories.

This is just not the season of My Honourable Friends.
#15053920
Patrickov wrote:
I rather more believe the decline is because of people spending their time hating or aiming to remove Trump, just like how the Lib Dems and Labour spending their time hating the Tories.



First, empires decline and fall, typically one a century.

Second, our political bickering has almost nothing to do with it. The tax cut, the trade wars, the erosion of our alliances... all that and more is pure Trump.
#15053922
late wrote:First, empires decline and fall, typically one a century.

Second, our political bickering has almost nothing to do with it. The tax cut, the trade wars, the erosion of our alliances... all that and more is pure Trump.


The trade wars in fact hurt China more. They do not even dare to crush us.
#15053941
late wrote:Protection is really only useful as a temporary nursery for business trying to get market share.

It's actually effective in the long term.
A lot of our problems arise from income inequality, and this is a result of that.

Though it causes problems of its own, excessive income inequality is just a symptom of a much more serious disease: privilege.
A mature economy needs to innovate. We used to create huge numbers of new businesses, but what big business has done is create an environment that is well suited to their needs, but is actually hostile to small business, and discourages a lot of innovation.

IP has become a huge barrier to innovation.
We need to work the problem, to make innovation a top priority.

We need to make liberty, justice and honesty our priorities. And AI. Whatever governments are spending on it, it justifies more: it's the ultimate winner-take-all technology.
#15053942
late wrote:First, empires decline and fall, typically one a century.

Second, our political bickering has almost nothing to do with it. The tax cut, the trade wars, the erosion of our alliances... all that and more is pure Trump.


Trump is only unique in the degree of distaste with which one is obliged to regard him as a human being. His politics, particularly his economic policy, is right down the center GOP/Mitt Romney. Whatever disagreement you have with US economic policy, please remember that the Democratic and Republican Parties agree 95% of the time. Joe Biden would have been a splendid Republican President in 1972 - maybe a bit right of Dick Nixon, but in the ballpark.
#15053962
Robert Urbanek wrote:Free trade is like free love. If you have different sex partners, you need protection. If you have different trading partners, you need protectionism.

Failure to take this precaution will expose your nation to Acquired Industrial Deficiency Syndrome, in which manufacturing muscle is replaced by service sector fat and the body becomes vulnerable to such parasites as derivatives traders and hedge fund managers.

As young cells struggle on low wages, a greater proportion of the body’s energy (Social Security and Medicare payments) is used to sustain old and dying cells.


Free trade means regulated trade. Only those who are completely ignorant of the real economy believe that free trade means the law of the jungle. The freer the trade, the more regulation you need.

Like most Anglos, you confound the effects of the market with the effects of imperialism. The hollowing out of the industrial base in the US and the UK is due to the Dutch Disease known in most empires since at least Roman times. The solution is to get rid of the empire and not the market.

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