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My 2 cents, some of the reasons America succeeds: (fact) America is a single market with a single language with basically a single set of regulations. Expansio

My 2 cents, some of the reasons America succeeds: (fact) America is a single market with a single language with basically a single set of regulations. Expansion is cheap in America. It makes a hell of a lot more sense to expand to another US city than it does to expand to Norway or New Zealand; but for a company in those countries, expansion is very expensive, expanding requires new laws, regulations, business entities, and languages, and shipping costs more. (fact) America is geographically isolated from war, can't be invaded, isn't saddled with war or reconstruction debts. (fact) Also by virtue of geography, America can produce everything: it has plenty of space to create anything it needs, from mines to farms to factories. (fact) Americans are ambitious to a fault. I am an American living overseas, and possibly one of the most offensive things anyone has said to me here is "you should lower your expectations". I am constitutionally incapable of lowering my expectations. I don't give a shit if I live in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, I will export millions of dollars in products that I produced here, or I will die trying; 9 to 5 in the suburbs is not an endgame for me. (opinion, maybe fact) The consequences of failure in America are lower; in some other countries, you're forbidden from starting a new company and they will revoke your passport for some time. People don't try because there's no "try again". They also have no access to capital, essentially. (opinion) America also siphons wealth from every other nation; for example, it seems like people are more likely to invest in public markets in America than in their own countries a lot of the time. That means access to capital on the stock market is more accessible for American companies than others. It also seems like as soon as someone gets rich overseas, they move to America. On the other hand, it's not all doom and gloom overseas, here in NZ all I have to do to start a business is walk outside and start selling shit. To file taxes for that all I have to do is fill in my Net Income on a 1 page web form and click Submit. There's no medical debt, car insurance costs $100 a year, and nothing has a barrier to entry; I can talk to the person in charge at just about any company or organization in NZ.

WalterBright 3y ago
Consider Japan: (fact) a single market with a single language (fact) geographically isolated (fact) not much space (fact) burned to the ground in WW2 and yet for a while it was an economic powerhouse on the world stage. Taiwan, Hong Kong and S Korea, similar stories. So what is the common thread? Free markets.
- zzzzzzzza 3y ago
  mortgage slavery is the common thread for some reason this motivates people. primordial need for land ownership. the call of the feudalism. engine runs out of steam once the growing cabal of landlords eat the last marginal production in excess of rate of interest america has more land relative to its population so takes longer to nimbify it all
  - __pache__ 3y ago
    Why? Seems to me owning what you create is the key, instead of having it ripped from your hands.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
      As if you can cleanly define "what you create". Or "you". Or "create". Back to the philosophy playpen, John G.
      - __pache__ 3y ago
        I mean, yeah? Markets are great at finding how much something is worth. uhhhh Want to give some examples?
        PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
        No examples needed. You can't adequately define "what you create", because nobody can. Where does your contribution begin, and end? Where does the contribution of your parents, your neighbors, your friends, your society begin, and end? To what extent did you create anything, or was it just a remix? Is everything a remix? Who are you? You have a unified, continuous sense of self, but most contemporary psychology finds it fairly easy to take people through processes that break this down (as do a number of psychedelics). We don't need simplistic randian objectivism - it fails to describe the nuance, the beauty, the depth, the wonder, the complexity and the truth of reality.
Tiktaalik 3y ago
I think your point about USA benefiting from a single big market is a strong one. Consider for contrast Canada, also a single language market, also geographically isolated, and sharing many of the inherent benefits of NA that America has. Canada though, not often considered a real economic dynamo in the same way as the USA. Well one big difference is that Canada is a relatively small population spread thin over an enormously large area. In Canada there's a natural and easy North/South transportation and trade links, but East/West nature of the country breaks that. I read somewhere that prior to Canadian Confederation the Maritime provinces did thriving business with the North East United States trading easily using sea links, but after confederation tariffs ruined this trade, and trade with Quebec and Ontario was more expensive and not as viable. The Maritimes never really recovered their pace. It would be remarkably simpler for a Vancouver company to expand into Seattle and Portland for example, but keeping within the Canadian borders the next natural expansion point is all the way over in Calgary, dramatically far away and a (surprisingly) remarkably different politicial and cultural environment. Some of these problems for Canada mitigated after NAFTA in the 1980s, but still one can see here how the USA is in a better position with its huge and spread out population.
- deleted 3y ago
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- foobiekr 3y ago
  A big issue for Canada is that the government focused on resource extraction.
  - randomdata 3y ago
    The bigger issue is that isn’t just one government. And those governments largely do not allow free trade, especially historically. Only recently was a limited free trade agreement finally signed between provinces. In the US, the federal government supersedes the individual states. It can come down heavy handed and say that trade between states is there to go nuts with. In Canada, the federal government is only an equal to the provinces and must stay in its lane. Matters like interprovincial trade is beyond its jurisdiction.
vkou 3y ago
> (fact) Americans are ambitious to a fault. All 350 million of them? And if you mean 'some of them are ambitious', surely you will have to accept that there are people in other countries who also share that property?
- TulliusCicero 3y ago
  Culture is real. Americans tend to be optimistic and positively inclined towards entrepreneurship. This is often refected in business practices and regulations.
  - vkou 3y ago
    The only thing those business practices and regulations reflect is that the 'entrepreneurs' get a lot of political and regulatory rights, and the people who work for them get very few. That kind of arrangement works out very well for the former, but just because a king is doing well for himself doesn't mean that the serfs are 'positively culturally inclined towards autocracy.' ---- A country's regulations and politics aren't an average of its culture. They are an average of the culture of the politically powerful. All that you've demonstrated is that 'entrepreneurs' are a politically powerful group in America [1]. That says nothing about the average culture. [1] Way less powerful than incumbents, but for some strange reason, it's not sexy to point at Comcast and Kaiser and Exxon-Mobil and Wells Fargo as examples of brilliant entrepreneurship.
    - TulliusCicero 3y ago
      Way to move the goalposts. > All that you've demonstrated is that 'entrepreneurs' are a politically powerful group in America [1]. That says nothing about the average culture. I haven't demonstrated anything yet. I've only asserted things.
- dopeboy 3y ago
  OP is pointing out relative differences and more importantly, culture. The very concept of the "American Dream" is proof positive of that.
wslh 3y ago
I will add that US is a strong "legal platform" for business. It has a very good law system and with more complex cases as precedents that other countries in world. It has also extra territorial reach.
tambourine_man 3y ago
> I will export millions of dollars in products that I produced here, or I will die trying Why? Really. Maybe I’m in a midlife crises but I care about money less and less. I used to get a a lot of satisfaction from the simple fact of seeing the number on my bank account increase. Not so much in the past decade. My computer, phone, speaker, camera and other tech toys are amazing and not that expensive. Great food and beverage are not that hard to come by. A good house is indeed expensive in most of the world, but after that, what does one need that requires “millions of dollars”?
- mensetmanusman 3y ago
  Build a school for those left behind.
  - klipt 3y ago
    If you want to build schools, why not get a job at the department of education?
    - omginternets 3y ago
      Is that a serious question?
      - klipt 3y ago
        Look I know hacker news is biased towards thinking the solution to everything is "do a startup, become a billionaire, use your money to solve it" but there are legitimately other ways of getting things done, for example engaging with the civic process to get things solved through democracy.
        omginternets 3y ago
        I couldn't agree more. Where I think we disagree is the idea that working for the Dept. of Education will have one "opening schools" in the same (meaningful) way as the parent comment intends.
D_Alex 3y ago
In addition to siphoning wealth, America has been very successful in siphoning talent. Which is why this kind of news should be pretty concerning: https://sciencebusiness.net/news-byte/scientists-leave-uk-china-overtakes-us-most-favoured-destination https://sciencebusiness.net/news-byte/scientists-leave-uk-ch...
- klipt 3y ago
  I imagine 99% of the scientists moving to China were originally from China, and decided to return rather than stay in the US. I don't think many non-Chinese foreigners are learning Chinese to move to China and chase the "Chinese dream" the way people do in America.
ClumsyPilot 3y ago
> they will revoke your passport for some time. Ow, I never heard of this? > They also have no access to capital, essentially. This is like the most foundamentally important issue and you have in tucked away in a minor point Raise invesment in US, you get $million for a minor stake in the company Raise investment in UK, you get $100 K for a minor stake Raise investment in Czech republic, you get $50K for 51% Raise investment in Russia, they break your legs if you don't pay back. They don't understand thw difference between investment and debt. And if you die they will pursue your family for your debts. Raise investment in Zimbabwe.. I don't even know. This is in jest, but the overall point is roughly this: Non-westerners cringe when they hear 'Don't take China's money for Belt and road, it's a trap'. In 2nd/3rd world, securing capital for non-elites is impossible even if you just came up with a working fusion reactor. The relevant amount of money isn't just with strings attached, it can be dangerous to life and limb. > Americans are ambitious to a fault Plenty of ambitious people in Russia, the problem is their activity is usually something detrimental to society. Consider the dominance hierarchy The top of American society is a billionaire entrepreneur, not sure where to place politicians, maybe a distant third. Civil servants are basicallt nobodys, they are treated worse than people working in the private sector, called lazy, etc. Top of a society in Russia is FSB/ Security services. Second is politicians. Third is civil servants. Fourth is organised crime bosses. What do all these people have in common? They have the powet to ruin your life. And they use it. Entrepreneurs are like 6th person down the food chain, and they are preyed upon by the layers above. https://www.rferl.org/a/newspaper-says-russian-businessman-raped-tortured-killed-in-jail/29173292.html https://www.rferl.org/a/newspaper-says-russian-businessman-r... This is also what the right wing does not understand, when life gets harsh, life of crime becomes more attractive. The world becomes god-eat dog, a man who didn't take advantage of a situation to enrich himself, is not an uostanding citizen. He is a loose who failed to peovide for his family.
ip26 3y ago
I am constitutionally incapable of lowering my expectations My heart swells at this part and I want to cheer.
- phist_mcgee 3y ago
  To outsiders, this dogmatic 'exceptionalism' appears revolting. My 2c.
  - ip26 3y ago
    What is exceptionalism and what is cultural values? Is it equally revolting if Europeans are proud of a culture of having & taking long parental leave? It resonates with me because it describes me. It’s not uniquely American, but it still describes me & the (American immigrant) culture I grew up in.
  - dopeboy 3y ago
    I don't think it's any different from the French being proud of their work life balance.
  - arlort 3y ago
    Am outsider and not revolted, nor consider it particularly exceptionalist, now you have 4 cents
- dopeboy 3y ago
  I chuckled and cheered at the same time. It is who I am; it is who we are. "The chief business of America is business." - Coolidge
brnt 3y ago
> in some other countries, you're forbidden from starting a new company and they will revoke your passport for some time Where the h. is this?
quicklime 3y ago
I do agree with many of your points here, but just to nitpick... > (fact) Americans are ambitious to a fault...9 to 5 in the suburbs is not an endgame for me. So you state this as a fact about Americans in general, but then use yourself as the only proof. Isn’t 9 to 5 in the suburbs basically the end goal that most Americans dream of? I definitely think that Americans are more entrepreneurial than most, but other cultures are equally ambitious in different ways. > (opinion, maybe fact) The consequences of failure in America are lower The idea of losing access to health care, going bankrupt and still being unable to rid oneself of crippling student loan debt sounds terrifying to me, and if I were living in the US I’d think twice about taking the sort of risks that I’d be ok with taking in a “welfare state”.
- asah 3y ago
  It's relative. There's a culture of ambition, competition, success and financial reward here in the US. Other countries have it, but in the US it's organized. It's so crazy, everything is setup to compete. The latest craziness: top universities have multiple, competing startup incubator programs - each! (I have many more stories of course)
- ip26 3y ago
  They never claimed Americans are the only ambitious people, or even the most ambitious. Just “very ambitious”, in a list of factors that (put together) allegedly combined to explain the notable outcome. There are other countries that can’t be invaded, or speak a single language, or have a large market, or have ambitious people, or culturally permit failure without ostracizing people.
- MisterBastahrd 3y ago
  LOL, Americans are definitely NOT ambitious to a fault. The vast majority believe that a 9 to 5 is a great accomplishment worthy of applause. Have a job that affords you a roof over your head? Hero. Have a job where you need public assistance because your employer won't pay you enough to make ends meet? Villain. American rhetoric is ambitious. Americans in practice are just as lazy as everybody else. Americans will point to the French and claim that they're lazy and don't want to work, but would never dream of fighting for their labor rights the way the French do.
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TapWaterBandit 3y ago
> On the other hand, it's not all doom and gloom overseas, here in NZ all I have to do to start a business is walk outside and start selling shit. To file taxes for that all I have to do is fill in my Net Income on a 1 page web form and click Submit. There's no medical debt, car insurance costs $100 a year, and nothing has a barrier to entry; I can talk to the person in charge at just about any company or organization in NZ. Can I ask why you chose to move to NZ considering the rest of your comment? Do you intend to move back to the USA in the near future?
fullsend 3y ago
The consequences of failure in America are higher, that’s why we work so hard. You are a millionaire, or you are homeless. The in between is a hard and continuous struggle to get to the former and avoid becoming the latter.
- pb7 3y ago
  So which one are you, millionaire or homeless?
throwaway675309 3y ago
As a fellow American, I can't really identify with some of these points. You seem weirdly almost perversely proud of the idea of overworking oneself, towards what end, economical? I mean it's not as if there is any intrinsic purpose to life anyway, but this one feels rooted in some long-lost rags to riches Horacio Alger Gilded Age.
- markdown 3y ago
  He's willing to die trying to.... export things lol.
friend_and_foe 3y ago
I think you're right, but I'd like to add, a lot of rhetoric surrounds this idea that America is as successful as it is because of freedom. And I like freedom, and it has played a role, but it isn't really true. America is most of (and the most temperate region of) a vast continent, the original local inhabitants of which mostly no longer exist, with resources, some of which people didn't even know they needed when it was settled. It has direct access to both the edges of the great old world continent of Eurasia in the form of coasts on both oceans. It has an absolutely massive population, and the government has smartly invested in the past in infrastructure to transport between them both over land. In past times, america drained the population of the leading power center at the time, Europe, to populate itself. This held back it's competition at a time when the ability to produce depended on the number of hands and minds at your disposal. It currently has the third largest population of any one government in the world. It is also currently doing this to other regions of the world, although comparatively less with the population boom resulting from largely American technological advances decreasing infant mortality. There have been various theories about the grand chessboard throughout history, ideas like "whoever controls central Asia controls the world", " whoever controls the seas controls the world" and "if one power has control of all of Europe they can then move on to control the world", all with various levels of truth to them (Genghis Khan controlled central Asia for example), and the grand chessboard was tossed into the air when the continent was discovered, but that wasn't really realized until the west coast was discovered. There are ways to threaten America's position, but as long as one polity controls both coasts and the land in between it's mostly safe. You can institute any form of government and it will be a major force, maybe not the big guy, but just the territory and population itself is built to be powerful.
- LoganWhitwer 3y ago
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doryWalnut 3y ago
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HWR_14 3y ago
I have never seen any evidence that Americans are more ambitious than people from other nationalities. No studies, nothing. Not have I even ever heard a theoretical reasoning why this would be the case. I assume it's just the general "my group is the best" baseless bragging.
- revelio 3y ago
  Not sure studies would be particularly helpful for that, anecdotes and feelings are the best you'll get. But FWIW it's been my experience that Americans are more ambitious than people from other countries, including myself.
  - HWR_14 3y ago
    If you're not from the US and you meet people in the course of business, then obviously the people you meet are going to be more ambitious. It's selection bias. That's what it takes to reach across the ocean to seek out new business opportunities.
    - revelio 3y ago
      I've had friends who never left the US that I made via random channels - chatrooms and the like - and they also were more ambitious and entrepreneurial than me. Yes, people with programming skills so that biases it a lot, but, I also knew plenty of people with such skills in Europe. The difference was quite visible.
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hnarn 3y ago
You have a strange definition of “facts”. Your first point, “America is a single market” is a fact, and a pretty uncontroversial one. America being “geographically isolated from war” is conjecture. Whether Mexico will invade, or whether Pearl Harbor is part of your definition of “America” is irrelevant, it’s not a fact. America “being able to produce everything” is not a fact and much too vague to ever be a fact. To begin with there are 20 mineral commodities that the US fully relies on imports to acquire. Could these be found in the US? We don’t know, and this is only one example, regardless it’s not a fact. Americans being “ambitious to a fault” is not a fact, it’s your opinion and generalization based on the americans and non-americans you have met and interacted with. A fact means something, it doesn’t mean “like an opinion but a really strongly held opinion”.
- chrisco255 3y ago
  What are the 20 mineral commodities? FWIW, the U.S. would be incredibly hard to invade. It does have a number of geographic advantages that no other country can match (not least of which is the Mississippi River system). Even Pearl Harbor was a hit and run attack. No Japanese troops ever touched shore.
  - db48x 3y ago
    Technically Japanese troops did land in the Aleutians, but it accomplished essentially nothing useful. The US got some extra practice doing amphibious landings though.
  - tim333 3y ago
    A lot of the hard to invade stuff comes from having a bunch of guns and the world's strongest military. When it was inhabited by Native Americans the Brits, French etc. managed to invade ok.
    - chrisco255 3y ago
      We didn't have the world's strongest military until WWII, and even then, we had to ramp up to that. The Brits, Spaniards and French didn't invade, they established colonies. These colonies actively engaged in trade and defense agreements with various native American tribes. At various times different tribes were aligned with one European nation or another, with the most famous example being the French and Indian War, with the Iroquois and Cherokee allying with the British and the Wabanaki, Abenaki, Shawnee, etc allying with the French. Native American tribes and nations had deep seated rivalries and disputes going back centuries (just as the Europeans did), so there never was any kind of single unified America until the U.S. expanded across the continent. Notably the British did not succeed in the War of Independence or the War of 1812, despite having a superior military and navy.
pif 3y ago
> The consequences of failure in America are lower; Several fellow commenters have already pointed out as the contrary is actually true, and I'd like to add a corollary: risking everything you have in a business is simpler in the USA than abroad because the society knows that they will lend a helpful lend should you lose everything. Safety nets are a thing worldwide, and they cost money; thus some responsibility is imposed to each individual in order to limit the risks.
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emkemp 3y ago
"(fact) America is a single market with a single language with basically a single set of regulations." I'm probably being pedantic, but: the "single set of regulations" really is an oversimplification. Each state has it's own rules in addition to Federal regulations (trying selling cars in California that meet Federal emissions standards, but not California's). Plus, there are state taxes to consider.
- dukeyukey 3y ago
  Compared to the difference in regulations between France and Germany, _let alone_ the difference between France and Nigeria, US states have very little to differentiate them.

WalterBright 3y ago

Consider Japan: (fact) a single market with a single language (fact) geographically isolated (fact) not much space (fact) burned to the ground in WW2 and yet for a while it was an economic powerhouse on the world stage. Taiwan, Hong Kong and S Korea, similar stories. So what is the common thread? Free markets.

zzzzzzzza 3y ago
mortgage slavery is the common thread for some reason this motivates people. primordial need for land ownership. the call of the feudalism. engine runs out of steam once the growing cabal of landlords eat the last marginal production in excess of rate of interest america has more land relative to its population so takes longer to nimbify it all
- __pache__ 3y ago
  Why? Seems to me owning what you create is the key, instead of having it ripped from your hands.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
    As if you can cleanly define "what you create". Or "you". Or "create". Back to the philosophy playpen, John G.
    - __pache__ 3y ago
      I mean, yeah? Markets are great at finding how much something is worth. uhhhh Want to give some examples?
      - PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
        No examples needed. You can't adequately define "what you create", because nobody can. Where does your contribution begin, and end? Where does the contribution of your parents, your neighbors, your friends, your society begin, and end? To what extent did you create anything, or was it just a remix? Is everything a remix? Who are you? You have a unified, continuous sense of self, but most contemporary psychology finds it fairly easy to take people through processes that break this down (as do a number of psychedelics). We don't need simplistic randian objectivism - it fails to describe the nuance, the beauty, the depth, the wonder, the complexity and the truth of reality.

Tiktaalik 3y ago

I think your point about USA benefiting from a single big market is a strong one. Consider for contrast Canada, also a single language market, also geographically isolated, and sharing many of the inherent benefits of NA that America has. Canada though, not often considered a real economic dynamo in the same way as the USA. Well one big difference is that Canada is a relatively small population spread thin over an enormously large area. In Canada there's a natural and easy North/South transportation and trade links, but East/West nature of the country breaks that. I read somewhere that prior to Canadian Confederation the Maritime provinces did thriving business with the North East United States trading easily using sea links, but after confederation tariffs ruined this trade, and trade with Quebec and Ontario was more expensive and not as viable. The Maritimes never really recovered their pace. It would be remarkably simpler for a Vancouver company to expand into Seattle and Portland for example, but keeping within the Canadian borders the next natural expansion point is all the way over in Calgary, dramatically far away and a (surprisingly) remarkably different politicial and cultural environment. Some of these problems for Canada mitigated after NAFTA in the 1980s, but still one can see here how the USA is in a better position with its huge and spread out population.

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foobiekr 3y ago
A big issue for Canada is that the government focused on resource extraction.
- randomdata 3y ago
  The bigger issue is that isn’t just one government. And those governments largely do not allow free trade, especially historically. Only recently was a limited free trade agreement finally signed between provinces. In the US, the federal government supersedes the individual states. It can come down heavy handed and say that trade between states is there to go nuts with. In Canada, the federal government is only an equal to the provinces and must stay in its lane. Matters like interprovincial trade is beyond its jurisdiction.

vkou 3y ago

> (fact) Americans are ambitious to a fault. All 350 million of them? And if you mean 'some of them are ambitious', surely you will have to accept that there are people in other countries who also share that property?

TulliusCicero 3y ago
Culture is real. Americans tend to be optimistic and positively inclined towards entrepreneurship. This is often refected in business practices and regulations.
- vkou 3y ago
  The only thing those business practices and regulations reflect is that the 'entrepreneurs' get a lot of political and regulatory rights, and the people who work for them get very few. That kind of arrangement works out very well for the former, but just because a king is doing well for himself doesn't mean that the serfs are 'positively culturally inclined towards autocracy.' ---- A country's regulations and politics aren't an average of its culture. They are an average of the culture of the politically powerful. All that you've demonstrated is that 'entrepreneurs' are a politically powerful group in America [1]. That says nothing about the average culture. [1] Way less powerful than incumbents, but for some strange reason, it's not sexy to point at Comcast and Kaiser and Exxon-Mobil and Wells Fargo as examples of brilliant entrepreneurship.
  - TulliusCicero 3y ago
    Way to move the goalposts. > All that you've demonstrated is that 'entrepreneurs' are a politically powerful group in America [1]. That says nothing about the average culture. I haven't demonstrated anything yet. I've only asserted things.
dopeboy 3y ago
OP is pointing out relative differences and more importantly, culture. The very concept of the "American Dream" is proof positive of that.

wslh 3y ago

I will add that US is a strong "legal platform" for business. It has a very good law system and with more complex cases as precedents that other countries in world. It has also extra territorial reach.

tambourine_man 3y ago

> I will export millions of dollars in products that I produced here, or I will die trying Why? Really. Maybe I’m in a midlife crises but I care about money less and less. I used to get a a lot of satisfaction from the simple fact of seeing the number on my bank account increase. Not so much in the past decade. My computer, phone, speaker, camera and other tech toys are amazing and not that expensive. Great food and beverage are not that hard to come by. A good house is indeed expensive in most of the world, but after that, what does one need that requires “millions of dollars”?

mensetmanusman 3y ago
Build a school for those left behind.
- klipt 3y ago
  If you want to build schools, why not get a job at the department of education?
  - omginternets 3y ago
    Is that a serious question?
    - klipt 3y ago
      Look I know hacker news is biased towards thinking the solution to everything is "do a startup, become a billionaire, use your money to solve it" but there are legitimately other ways of getting things done, for example engaging with the civic process to get things solved through democracy.
      - omginternets 3y ago
        I couldn't agree more. Where I think we disagree is the idea that working for the Dept. of Education will have one "opening schools" in the same (meaningful) way as the parent comment intends.

D_Alex 3y ago

In addition to siphoning wealth, America has been very successful in siphoning talent. Which is why this kind of news should be pretty concerning: https://sciencebusiness.net/news-byte/scientists-leave-uk-china-overtakes-us-most-favoured-destination https://sciencebusiness.net/news-byte/scientists-leave-uk-ch...

klipt 3y ago
I imagine 99% of the scientists moving to China were originally from China, and decided to return rather than stay in the US. I don't think many non-Chinese foreigners are learning Chinese to move to China and chase the "Chinese dream" the way people do in America.

ClumsyPilot 3y ago

> they will revoke your passport for some time. Ow, I never heard of this? > They also have no access to capital, essentially. This is like the most foundamentally important issue and you have in tucked away in a minor point Raise invesment in US, you get $million for a minor stake in the company Raise investment in UK, you get $100 K for a minor stake Raise investment in Czech republic, you get $50K for 51% Raise investment in Russia, they break your legs if you don't pay back. They don't understand thw difference between investment and debt. And if you die they will pursue your family for your debts. Raise investment in Zimbabwe.. I don't even know. This is in jest, but the overall point is roughly this: Non-westerners cringe when they hear 'Don't take China's money for Belt and road, it's a trap'. In 2nd/3rd world, securing capital for non-elites is impossible even if you just came up with a working fusion reactor. The relevant amount of money isn't just with strings attached, it can be dangerous to life and limb. > Americans are ambitious to a fault Plenty of ambitious people in Russia, the problem is their activity is usually something detrimental to society. Consider the dominance hierarchy The top of American society is a billionaire entrepreneur, not sure where to place politicians, maybe a distant third. Civil servants are basicallt nobodys, they are treated worse than people working in the private sector, called lazy, etc. Top of a society in Russia is FSB/ Security services. Second is politicians. Third is civil servants. Fourth is organised crime bosses. What do all these people have in common? They have the powet to ruin your life. And they use it. Entrepreneurs are like 6th person down the food chain, and they are preyed upon by the layers above. https://www.rferl.org/a/newspaper-says-russian-businessman-raped-tortured-killed-in-jail/29173292.html https://www.rferl.org/a/newspaper-says-russian-businessman-r... This is also what the right wing does not understand, when life gets harsh, life of crime becomes more attractive. The world becomes god-eat dog, a man who didn't take advantage of a situation to enrich himself, is not an uostanding citizen. He is a loose who failed to peovide for his family.

ip26 3y ago

I am constitutionally incapable of lowering my expectations My heart swells at this part and I want to cheer.

phist_mcgee 3y ago
To outsiders, this dogmatic 'exceptionalism' appears revolting. My 2c.
- ip26 3y ago
  What is exceptionalism and what is cultural values? Is it equally revolting if Europeans are proud of a culture of having & taking long parental leave? It resonates with me because it describes me. It’s not uniquely American, but it still describes me & the (American immigrant) culture I grew up in.
- dopeboy 3y ago
  I don't think it's any different from the French being proud of their work life balance.
- arlort 3y ago
  Am outsider and not revolted, nor consider it particularly exceptionalist, now you have 4 cents
dopeboy 3y ago
I chuckled and cheered at the same time. It is who I am; it is who we are. "The chief business of America is business." - Coolidge

brnt 3y ago

> in some other countries, you're forbidden from starting a new company and they will revoke your passport for some time Where the h. is this?

quicklime 3y ago

I do agree with many of your points here, but just to nitpick... > (fact) Americans are ambitious to a fault...9 to 5 in the suburbs is not an endgame for me. So you state this as a fact about Americans in general, but then use yourself as the only proof. Isn’t 9 to 5 in the suburbs basically the end goal that most Americans dream of? I definitely think that Americans are more entrepreneurial than most, but other cultures are equally ambitious in different ways. > (opinion, maybe fact) The consequences of failure in America are lower The idea of losing access to health care, going bankrupt and still being unable to rid oneself of crippling student loan debt sounds terrifying to me, and if I were living in the US I’d think twice about taking the sort of risks that I’d be ok with taking in a “welfare state”.

asah 3y ago
It's relative. There's a culture of ambition, competition, success and financial reward here in the US. Other countries have it, but in the US it's organized. It's so crazy, everything is setup to compete. The latest craziness: top universities have multiple, competing startup incubator programs - each! (I have many more stories of course)
ip26 3y ago
They never claimed Americans are the only ambitious people, or even the most ambitious. Just “very ambitious”, in a list of factors that (put together) allegedly combined to explain the notable outcome. There are other countries that can’t be invaded, or speak a single language, or have a large market, or have ambitious people, or culturally permit failure without ostracizing people.
MisterBastahrd 3y ago
LOL, Americans are definitely NOT ambitious to a fault. The vast majority believe that a 9 to 5 is a great accomplishment worthy of applause. Have a job that affords you a roof over your head? Hero. Have a job where you need public assistance because your employer won't pay you enough to make ends meet? Villain. American rhetoric is ambitious. Americans in practice are just as lazy as everybody else. Americans will point to the French and claim that they're lazy and don't want to work, but would never dream of fighting for their labor rights the way the French do.

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TapWaterBandit 3y ago

> On the other hand, it's not all doom and gloom overseas, here in NZ all I have to do to start a business is walk outside and start selling shit. To file taxes for that all I have to do is fill in my Net Income on a 1 page web form and click Submit. There's no medical debt, car insurance costs $100 a year, and nothing has a barrier to entry; I can talk to the person in charge at just about any company or organization in NZ. Can I ask why you chose to move to NZ considering the rest of your comment? Do you intend to move back to the USA in the near future?

fullsend 3y ago

The consequences of failure in America are higher, that’s why we work so hard. You are a millionaire, or you are homeless. The in between is a hard and continuous struggle to get to the former and avoid becoming the latter.

pb7 3y ago
So which one are you, millionaire or homeless?

throwaway675309 3y ago

As a fellow American, I can't really identify with some of these points. You seem weirdly almost perversely proud of the idea of overworking oneself, towards what end, economical? I mean it's not as if there is any intrinsic purpose to life anyway, but this one feels rooted in some long-lost rags to riches Horacio Alger Gilded Age.

markdown 3y ago
He's willing to die trying to.... export things lol.

friend_and_foe 3y ago

I think you're right, but I'd like to add, a lot of rhetoric surrounds this idea that America is as successful as it is because of freedom. And I like freedom, and it has played a role, but it isn't really true. America is most of (and the most temperate region of) a vast continent, the original local inhabitants of which mostly no longer exist, with resources, some of which people didn't even know they needed when it was settled. It has direct access to both the edges of the great old world continent of Eurasia in the form of coasts on both oceans. It has an absolutely massive population, and the government has smartly invested in the past in infrastructure to transport between them both over land. In past times, america drained the population of the leading power center at the time, Europe, to populate itself. This held back it's competition at a time when the ability to produce depended on the number of hands and minds at your disposal. It currently has the third largest population of any one government in the world. It is also currently doing this to other regions of the world, although comparatively less with the population boom resulting from largely American technological advances decreasing infant mortality. There have been various theories about the grand chessboard throughout history, ideas like "whoever controls central Asia controls the world", " whoever controls the seas controls the world" and "if one power has control of all of Europe they can then move on to control the world", all with various levels of truth to them (Genghis Khan controlled central Asia for example), and the grand chessboard was tossed into the air when the continent was discovered, but that wasn't really realized until the west coast was discovered. There are ways to threaten America's position, but as long as one polity controls both coasts and the land in between it's mostly safe. You can institute any form of government and it will be a major force, maybe not the big guy, but just the territory and population itself is built to be powerful.

LoganWhitwer 3y ago
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doryWalnut 3y ago

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HWR_14 3y ago

I have never seen any evidence that Americans are more ambitious than people from other nationalities. No studies, nothing. Not have I even ever heard a theoretical reasoning why this would be the case. I assume it's just the general "my group is the best" baseless bragging.

revelio 3y ago
Not sure studies would be particularly helpful for that, anecdotes and feelings are the best you'll get. But FWIW it's been my experience that Americans are more ambitious than people from other countries, including myself.
- HWR_14 3y ago
  If you're not from the US and you meet people in the course of business, then obviously the people you meet are going to be more ambitious. It's selection bias. That's what it takes to reach across the ocean to seek out new business opportunities.
  - revelio 3y ago
    I've had friends who never left the US that I made via random channels - chatrooms and the like - and they also were more ambitious and entrepreneurial than me. Yes, people with programming skills so that biases it a lot, but, I also knew plenty of people with such skills in Europe. The difference was quite visible.

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hnarn 3y ago

You have a strange definition of “facts”. Your first point, “America is a single market” is a fact, and a pretty uncontroversial one. America being “geographically isolated from war” is conjecture. Whether Mexico will invade, or whether Pearl Harbor is part of your definition of “America” is irrelevant, it’s not a fact. America “being able to produce everything” is not a fact and much too vague to ever be a fact. To begin with there are 20 mineral commodities that the US fully relies on imports to acquire. Could these be found in the US? We don’t know, and this is only one example, regardless it’s not a fact. Americans being “ambitious to a fault” is not a fact, it’s your opinion and generalization based on the americans and non-americans you have met and interacted with. A fact means something, it doesn’t mean “like an opinion but a really strongly held opinion”.

chrisco255 3y ago
What are the 20 mineral commodities? FWIW, the U.S. would be incredibly hard to invade. It does have a number of geographic advantages that no other country can match (not least of which is the Mississippi River system). Even Pearl Harbor was a hit and run attack. No Japanese troops ever touched shore.
- db48x 3y ago
  Technically Japanese troops did land in the Aleutians, but it accomplished essentially nothing useful. The US got some extra practice doing amphibious landings though.
- tim333 3y ago
  A lot of the hard to invade stuff comes from having a bunch of guns and the world's strongest military. When it was inhabited by Native Americans the Brits, French etc. managed to invade ok.
  - chrisco255 3y ago
    We didn't have the world's strongest military until WWII, and even then, we had to ramp up to that. The Brits, Spaniards and French didn't invade, they established colonies. These colonies actively engaged in trade and defense agreements with various native American tribes. At various times different tribes were aligned with one European nation or another, with the most famous example being the French and Indian War, with the Iroquois and Cherokee allying with the British and the Wabanaki, Abenaki, Shawnee, etc allying with the French. Native American tribes and nations had deep seated rivalries and disputes going back centuries (just as the Europeans did), so there never was any kind of single unified America until the U.S. expanded across the continent. Notably the British did not succeed in the War of Independence or the War of 1812, despite having a superior military and navy.

pif 3y ago

> The consequences of failure in America are lower; Several fellow commenters have already pointed out as the contrary is actually true, and I'd like to add a corollary: risking everything you have in a business is simpler in the USA than abroad because the society knows that they will lend a helpful lend should you lose everything. Safety nets are a thing worldwide, and they cost money; thus some responsibility is imposed to each individual in order to limit the risks.

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emkemp 3y ago

"(fact) America is a single market with a single language with basically a single set of regulations." I'm probably being pedantic, but: the "single set of regulations" really is an oversimplification. Each state has it's own rules in addition to Federal regulations (trying selling cars in California that meet Federal emissions standards, but not California's). Plus, there are state taxes to consider.

dukeyukey 3y ago
Compared to the difference in regulations between France and Germany, _let alone_ the difference between France and Nigeria, US states have very little to differentiate them.