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> If true, that would be bad news for the spiritual home of free-market capitalism I'd question the premise that the US is the land of free-market capitalism.
by Barrin92 5y ago
> If true, that would be bad news for the spiritual home of free-market capitalism
I'd question the premise that the US is the land of free-market capitalism. America is the home of Hamilton's American system, of the Rockefellers and the gilded age, and of monopolistic competition (now Bezos and Amazon).
Startups like to describe themselves as free-market oriented but they're either giants-in-waiting or dead. There's no equilibrium of middle-sized, free market startup capitalism. That Jeffersonian ideal you're more likely to find in the artisanal, small and debt avoiding family business in the German Southwest, say.
Same goes for trade. With trade volume only constituting a quarter of the GDP[1] the US is one of the most domestic economies in the world. Compared to France and the UK at 60% or Germany and South Korea at 85%. It very much explains America's bipartisan streak for protectionism compared to much of Europe and Asia.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_trade-to-GDP_ratio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_trade-to-...
- iammisc 5y agoThis is true... But only on the coasts. In the majority of this country, the people there don't care about silicon valley and many people own businesses.
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoBut they all shop at Walmart.
- iammisc 5y agoI'm not 100% sure what this has to do with business ownership.
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoIt means there is no local supermarkets, just one large monopoly.
- iammisc 5y agoExcept there are still lots of local contractors, plumbers, specialty stores, etc. I don't disagree that Walmart has toxic effects, buy to say that it means there is no local business anymore is a stretch in my view.
- pessimizer 5y agoBut they operate on extremely low wages supplemented by government transfer payments.
- iammisc 5y agoI imagine many would say that's due to the inflationary pressure of living in a country with wealthy coastlines.
- herbst 5y agoFrom a outside perspective this free market thingy was never more than a movie plot in the US
- gverrilla 5y agoI think you're making it smaller than it really is. At this point, it's part of a world religion A LOT of people live by, it's taught in schools and universities, it's made premise for a lot of fake science, etc. Predicted precisely by Guy Debord, 50y ago - but you won't see it being studied in universities because it hurts how they earn their bread :/
- herbst 5y agoI really don't know. As mentioned I just see it from the outside. Our schools don't make America today a example for a great free market, the opposite might even be true. In fact the US is sometimes portrait as a danger to our 'free' market.
- imtringued 5y agoThe fact that there is even the idea of a global reserve currency shows that the free market isn't as prevalent as people think. In principle people should be free to pick whatever currencies they want to conduct trade with.
- HPsquared 5y agoThere's a word for these German businesses: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelstand https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelstand
- pessimizer 5y ago> With trade volume only constituting a quarter of the GDP[1] the US is one of the most domestic economies in the world. Because net trade volume is massively and surrealistically negative and has been for a very long time, assuming the fact that exports being small in relation to total domestic production means that Americans consume an unusual proportion of domestic products is not a good assumption. Especially when you bring up Germany and South Korea, who are massive exporters with huge trade surpluses.
- bell-cot 5y agoIANAL (...not a linguist) - but to me "spiritual home of free-market capitalism" very much emphasizes that, while many in the U.S. may talk big about free markets, the current reality is quite different.