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If it moves, tax it. If it keeps on moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it. - Ronald Reagan

culi 4y ago
Funny but it turns out subsidization is pretty much the only way we've ever gotten things done. The most productive economies have ever been have always been wartime economies when gov't basically takes full control of every aspect Look at your iPhone. That touch screen, GPS, the internet, voice-assistant AI, etc. It's all a collection of government technologies. Economist Mariana Mazzucato has written[0] about the myth of private sector innovation in depth. Even the industrial revolution was driven through purposeful government investment. Another economist, Ha-Joon Chang, has written[1] extensively about this as well. The same tools the US used to build itself up (subsidization, tariffs, gov't programs, etc) are the first things that the US (through World Bank and IMF) bans with "structural adjustment" policies when these countries inevitably can't pay back the loan that was shoved down their throats. They "liberate" the economy. In other words remove any local protections from competition by US companies that are themselves heavily subsidized. And also get rid of any government services and leave it up to the "free market" The thing is that this is just the way anything gets done. Just look at Walmart.[2] Internally, it's the largest planned economy ever invented. Many magnitudes larger than the Soviet Union ever was. Anybody who's sold a product at Walmart stores knows that once you make the deal you've basically given up all control to them. They decide what gets produced in what factories and when and how much Contrast that with something like Sears that tried the "free market" approach internally. They let their stores compete with each other and tried to have minimal centralized intervention in what each store does. Sears failed... And so did their Ayn Rand-obsessed CEO. [0] https://marianamazzucato.com/books/the-entrepreneurial-state https://marianamazzucato.com/books/the-entrepreneurial-state [1] https://anthempress.com/kicking-away-the-ladder-pb https://anthempress.com/kicking-away-the-ladder-pb [2] https://www.versobooks.com/books/2822-the-people-s-republic-of-walmart https://www.versobooks.com/books/2822-the-people-s-republic-...
JadeNB 4y ago
With no context, I'm not sure what you mean by this; but, without saying anything about the validity of the position, it's probably worth noting (as you surely know) that Reagan said this to satirize "big-government" perspectives on taxation. It was not his policy statement.

culi 4y ago

Funny but it turns out subsidization is pretty much the only way we've ever gotten things done. The most productive economies have ever been have always been wartime economies when gov't basically takes full control of every aspect Look at your iPhone. That touch screen, GPS, the internet, voice-assistant AI, etc. It's all a collection of government technologies. Economist Mariana Mazzucato has written[0] about the myth of private sector innovation in depth. Even the industrial revolution was driven through purposeful government investment. Another economist, Ha-Joon Chang, has written[1] extensively about this as well. The same tools the US used to build itself up (subsidization, tariffs, gov't programs, etc) are the first things that the US (through World Bank and IMF) bans with "structural adjustment" policies when these countries inevitably can't pay back the loan that was shoved down their throats. They "liberate" the economy. In other words remove any local protections from competition by US companies that are themselves heavily subsidized. And also get rid of any government services and leave it up to the "free market" The thing is that this is just the way anything gets done. Just look at Walmart.[2] Internally, it's the largest planned economy ever invented. Many magnitudes larger than the Soviet Union ever was. Anybody who's sold a product at Walmart stores knows that once you make the deal you've basically given up all control to them. They decide what gets produced in what factories and when and how much Contrast that with something like Sears that tried the "free market" approach internally. They let their stores compete with each other and tried to have minimal centralized intervention in what each store does. Sears failed... And so did their Ayn Rand-obsessed CEO. [0] https://marianamazzucato.com/books/the-entrepreneurial-state https://marianamazzucato.com/books/the-entrepreneurial-state [1] https://anthempress.com/kicking-away-the-ladder-pb https://anthempress.com/kicking-away-the-ladder-pb [2] https://www.versobooks.com/books/2822-the-people-s-republic-of-walmart https://www.versobooks.com/books/2822-the-people-s-republic-...

JadeNB 4y ago

With no context, I'm not sure what you mean by this; but, without saying anything about the validity of the position, it's probably worth noting (as you surely know) that Reagan said this to satirize "big-government" perspectives on taxation. It was not his policy statement.