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> vested interests and rent seeking seems to be a big part of US business culture This is also true about nearly every other country that exists or has existed
by asdfman123 3y ago
> vested interests and rent seeking seems to be a big part of US business culture
This is also true about nearly every other country that exists or has existed throughout history. US is notable for being, on average, much more competitive and less corrupt.
(But it's heading in the wrong direction, and that's only on average. Many countries have caught up, and a few others have surpassed it.
- andy_ppp 3y agoThis sounds like American exceptionalism - I'm not sure the prison industry or the water industry being more competitive is good or that they are less corrupt than the state running them. Corruption of markets happens because of no regulation or because of too much regulation. I personally think where to draw this line is an art and very difficult in an extremely polarised country like the US.
- asdfman123 3y agoNo, it's not. You have to be careful about American exceptionalism, but America really did/still does lead the world in a lot of things. It's still pretty good on the corruption index, although getting worse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index.
- andy_ppp 3y agoI don’t think capturing broadband markets and preventing other players entering would count on that scale as corruption although the sums of money involved are not doubt astonishing. You’re talking about something different to the context we were in as far as I can tell.
- asdfman123 3y agoActually, believing this kind of monopolistic behavior is in any way unique to Americans is a perverse form of exceptionalism
- andy_ppp 3y agoThat’s not what I said, I said America is worse in many industries than for example the EU generally. For example farming, prisons and broadband all have various regulatory capture and vested interests that are far worse than anything we see in Europe.