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The west does not, generally speaking, support government industrial policy. That is, neither the US and EU political sphere thinks that guiding industrial act

by rmah 4y ago

The west does not, generally speaking, support government industrial policy. That is, neither the US and EU political sphere thinks that guiding industrial activity (setting priorities, etc) is a good use of government power. Instead, our political philosophy is that "the market" is the best mechanism to sort such things out. This is, of course, a gross generalization with lots of exceptions. Especially in the realm of "defense" technologies. But given this philosophical trust in markets to determine the whos, whats, whens, wheres and hows for industries, they tend to intervene late or weakly even when the public clamors for action. Also... this philosophy has created the wealthiest societies in the history of humanity. And while past performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance... it's certainly something.

yrgulation 4y ago
The west generated wealthy societies because it constantly transformed itself into something better. With the risk of sounding too pessimistic, right now all i see is a lack of leadership and direction, i see a west increasingly fractured, ridden with debt and populism. At most we are in maintenance mode putting out fires as they come, we are reactive. Even if there is some growth its nowhere near the spectacular growth we saw with the industrial revolution, invention of the internet or the advancement of knowledge in physics and chemistry. Iterating iphones, creating new ubers and facebooks or new programming languages isnt growth. I think we can do better.
fragmede 4y ago
While there's no denying our current wealth as a society, there are enough variables that it's impossible to say that's actually the reason for the prosperity. We could very well just look at the history of war throughout the ages and observe how the victor gets the spoils of conquest prolonged the Roman empire's economy, why would that not also simply true for Pax Americana? The age of prosperity was especially true immediately after WWII and the military industrial complex has been humming along nicely.

by rmah 4y ago

yrgulation 4y ago

The west generated wealthy societies because it constantly transformed itself into something better. With the risk of sounding too pessimistic, right now all i see is a lack of leadership and direction, i see a west increasingly fractured, ridden with debt and populism. At most we are in maintenance mode putting out fires as they come, we are reactive. Even if there is some growth its nowhere near the spectacular growth we saw with the industrial revolution, invention of the internet or the advancement of knowledge in physics and chemistry. Iterating iphones, creating new ubers and facebooks or new programming languages isnt growth. I think we can do better.

fragmede 4y ago

While there's no denying our current wealth as a society, there are enough variables that it's impossible to say that's actually the reason for the prosperity. We could very well just look at the history of war throughout the ages and observe how the victor gets the spoils of conquest prolonged the Roman empire's economy, why would that not also simply true for Pax Americana? The age of prosperity was especially true immediately after WWII and the military industrial complex has been humming along nicely.