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That's what happens when unrestrained capitalism moves production of goods outside of the local economy and into distant foreign economies which are more diffic

That's what happens when unrestrained capitalism moves production of goods outside of the local economy and into distant foreign economies which are more difficult to access. Capital aggregates in the few international trade hubs and starting a new business becomes more difficult as various gates are put in front of the newly foreign production. As capital becomes more centralized, fewer people are in charge of the decisions to invest and innovation becomes more difficult because rather than being distributed across the range of economies and lifestyles in the US (or any country) it is invested in the few who have access to the gatekeepers. Usually that requires physical access over time, which means living in an increasingly expensive city and successfully competing with an increasing amount of individuals vying for a limited amount of investor attention. Innovation comes from people responding to a wide variety of different problems and situations - how is that going to happen if everyone lives in the same place and is competing to solve the same problems that the relatively few available investors want to put money in? Markets that retain capital are much easier to find money in than markets which leak it. If an American with wealth wants to help the US economy, they should focus on rebuilding the production capacity of underfunded economies across the US by redistributing wealth from the main international hubs into smaller domestic markets. It probably won't produce optimal returns, which scares off most investors. I have seen a couple funds starting to do this, for what it's worth. P.S. Banks used to be small and local! Look at how far we've fallen: - https://ilsr.org/number-banks-u-s-1966-2014/ https://ilsr.org/number-banks-u-s-1966-2014/ - https://ilsr.org/vanishing-community-banks-national-crisis/ https://ilsr.org/vanishing-community-banks-national-crisis/

prostoalex 8y ago
I am not sure your observation is correct - in industries such as oil and gas the investment community was quick with redistributing wealth to previously underfunded rural areas of Oklahoma, Texas, Alaska, or North Dakota. Another example is Las Vegas, which prior to hospitality industry investments was essentially a piece of desert. And those are just the big-name examples. Some extended family of mine lives in a rural area of Central Washington, which anecdotally in the past decade has experienced high growth in manufacturing, driven primarily by Japanese money.
- heurist 8y ago
  Oil money is a start, though my understanding is the workers go where the work is and take the money home when the work runs out. Those also tend to be in places people don't want to live for long. Most of the oil money is also extracted to major cities like Houston, so it's not a complete solution because it's an extremely leaky bucket. Some places are doing better than others. But are they building products that solve local problems, or are they trying to primarily sell to a national or global market? Are they funded by local capital? Will the benefits of their production stay local?

prostoalex 8y ago

I am not sure your observation is correct - in industries such as oil and gas the investment community was quick with redistributing wealth to previously underfunded rural areas of Oklahoma, Texas, Alaska, or North Dakota. Another example is Las Vegas, which prior to hospitality industry investments was essentially a piece of desert. And those are just the big-name examples. Some extended family of mine lives in a rural area of Central Washington, which anecdotally in the past decade has experienced high growth in manufacturing, driven primarily by Japanese money.

heurist 8y ago
Oil money is a start, though my understanding is the workers go where the work is and take the money home when the work runs out. Those also tend to be in places people don't want to live for long. Most of the oil money is also extracted to major cities like Houston, so it's not a complete solution because it's an extremely leaky bucket. Some places are doing better than others. But are they building products that solve local problems, or are they trying to primarily sell to a national or global market? Are they funded by local capital? Will the benefits of their production stay local?