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How the U.S. Engineered Its Sovereignty
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- shapefrog 4mo agoKinda glossed over the whole IP theft industrial espionage thing. Not at all ironic given the shrieking about China.
- mc32 4mo agoBack then there weren’t as many conventions and treaties governing IP, as one might imagine —which is why the British attempted export controls!
- shapefrog 4mo agoI guess the same goes for why the Americans attempt export controls in 2026
- pocksuppet 4mo agoEvery successful country has done it. First they make liberal use of others' IP then when they are generating IP themselves they try hard to protect it. Not limited to IP, they also do this with real property when they can. Not limited to property, they do this with every single regulation. Think about Europe and chlorinated chicken.
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- hyko 4mo ago"In 1839 [...] the United States had already defeated Britain’s navy in two wars" This statement is wrong and trivially falsifiable. Perhaps the author meant that the U.S. had by that point won some naval battles against the British?
- fusslo 4mo agoyeah, it's worded strangely; as if both conflicts were exclusively/divisively maritime. Which is a shame because the role of the Colonial Navy and later the U.S. Navy in the war of independence and later in the War of 1812 is actually fascinating and often overlooked John Paul Jones, for example had an amazing (as in interesting, not 'goodly') life ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Jones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Jones ) And the Battle of Lake Erie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_Erie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_Erie
- mapt 4mo agoI completely fail to recall that time we burned down Buckingham Palace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington We did flex quite a bit on lesser powers, though, even in the 1800s. The US Navy was infamously rebuilt after the revolution to fight a war against Tripoli. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tripoli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tripoli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_corsairs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_corsairs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars Before the end of the century we'd fought a hundred or so largely forgotten wars. Who remembers that time we invaded Korea? No, the other one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_expedition_to_Korea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_expedition_to_Ko... Or Fiji? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1858_Fiji_expedition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1858_Fiji_expedition Or New Orleans? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811_German_Coast_uprising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811_German_Coast_uprising
- snowpid 4mo agoSome nationalistic articles are just cringe.
- yomismoaqui 4mo agoRemenber that nationalism if based on 2 things: - Hating people you don't know - Being proud of things you didn't do
- homeonthemtn 4mo agoThis article is cherry picked nonsense.
- fusslo 4mo agoIt's a 4 minute read.
- pasquinelli 4mo agois that meant as a response?
- well_ackshually 4mo ago[flagged]
- mc32 4mo agoWe’re not the only ones with a wealth of natural resources. Canada, Russia, Argentina, Australia, Brazil all have per capita even more natural resources at their disposal.
- canucktrash669 4mo agoWith shitty climates. The surface area of optimal climate in the US is likely larger than that of all the countries you've named combined. What's optimal? For example in Canada most farmed areas yield only one harvest per year. And most of the land is barren wasteland. You have some of it as well, but it's not the majority of the territory.
- wslh 4mo agoArgentina seems like a counterexample here: the Pampas are one of the world's major temperate agricultural regions.
- canucktrash669 4mo agoArgentina's arable land is just 27% of what the USA has. Fact-checking myself... the USA has more arable land than Canada, Australia and Argentina combined. Russia has a lot, but the USA has the most. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_arable_land_density https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_arable_la... Not sure where to find an aggregate growing days figure, but there's clearly less of them per arable surface area in Canada compared to the USA.
- wslh 4mo agoThe thread was about climate. US is 3.5x greater than Argentina.
- kevin_thibedeau 4mo agoIn 1939 the US had an outdated navy, army, and air corps. European instability is the direct cause of the change in US military and economic dominance.
- pjmlp 4mo agoIt helped that US soil was barely touched during both WW.
- red-iron-pine 4mo agoit helped that the US was an unspoiled economic powerhouse akin to China today. the rest of the world annihilated itself while basically nothing happened on US soil, Pearl Harbor & Aleutian Islands notwithstanding
- jmyeet 4mo agoOne of my favorite historical fun facts was that despite the Wright brothers flying the first place in 1903, at the start of WW1, the US was completely incapable of building an airplane and had to buy them from France and Great Britain. Why? Because of patent wars [1]. The net effect of that was that Congress had to intervene and they created an avionics patent pool, a system that persists to this day. So whenever anyone says that patents foster innovation, just look at this or any number of historical counterexamples. As for WW2, the causes were historical. The US was still suffering from the aftereffects of the Great Depression and American isolationism. It's worth noting that there was a lot of sympathy towards Nazi Germany in the US with the American Bund Party who had a rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939 [2]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Nazi_rally_at_Madison_Square_Garden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Nazi_rally_at_Madison_Squ...
- MSkill1 4mo agoI don't think that the corporations and the government would allow a cell phone manufacturer or operating system to be developed that wasn't under their control.
- jmyeet 4mo agoI guess it's time for some jingoistic rewriting of history. If you want to sum up America's rise to power it's the slave trade, war and a healthy dose of luck (eg the Louisiana Purchase). There is a concerted attempt to rewrite history on slavery. You will hear things like "slavery was an economic drain" or "slavery was inefficient" or even "it was technology like the cotton gin that created wealth, not slavery". All of it's nonsense [1]. It's true that industrialization (particularly the railroad ans mass production of steel) was a huge driver in the mid-19th century but what really kicked the US into high gear was war [2]. It's true that material conditions and real wages started stagnating in the 1970s but this piece writes that off as Wall Street shenanigans. This was a political goal to break organized labor. We had McKinsey producing reports to argue that executives were "underpaid" [3]. The post-war era went from a marginal tax rate of 91% and the CEO to median worker ratio went from 21:1 in 1965 to 351:1 in the 2020s [4]. But also the post-war economy shifted from housing being a utility to being a speculative asset. The median house price went from $18,000 to $26,000 between 1953 and 1973 (in nominal terms) [5] and decreased in real terms. And, well, we know what's happened since. But what's less well-known is the link between money going into housing and decline in manufacturing. That's not an accident. Why invest money and run a factory when sitting on a house produces a 7%+ real returns that are government-protected? As for the whole "right to repair" bit for tractors and the like, yeah, companies engage in rent-seeking behavior in a capitalist mode of production. Film at 11. [1]: https://equitablegrowth.org/new-research-shows-slaverys-central-role-in-u-s-economic-growth-leading-up-to-the-civil-war/ https://equitablegrowth.org/new-research-shows-slaverys-cent... [2]: https://laraballard.substack.com/p/how-the-us-became-the-worlds-arms https://laraballard.substack.com/p/how-the-us-became-the-wor... [3]: https://observer.com/2013/08/the-godfather-of-ceo-megapay-mckinsey-consultant-arch-patton-didnt-invent-wealth-inequality/ https://observer.com/2013/08/the-godfather-of-ceo-megapay-mc... [4]: https://x.com/RBReich/status/1575516013009018880 https://x.com/RBReich/status/1575516013009018880 [5]: https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/ https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/
- CMay 4mo ago[flagged]
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- smashini 4mo agoidk, maybe being on an isolated continent really helped
- trollbridge 4mo agoI would consider Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean to certainly exist, and which formerly were British and Spanish colonies.
- rbanffy 4mo agoThe US has actively suppressed any development in countries that could become competitors or non-aligned regional powers. Think Chile, Argentina, and Brazil (at least twice).
- red-iron-pine 4mo agoArgentina and Brazil do that to themselves Chile actually signed very lucrative trades deals with the US and serve as a stark contrast to their next door neighbours
- rbanffy 4mo ago> Chile actually signed very lucrative trades deals with the US and serve as a stark contrast to their next door neighbours Sure. Totally worth torturing some people and throwing them off helicopters. Class move.
- fluffybucktsnek 4mo agoBrazil and Argentina also tortured and killed some people, except they got nothing in return.
- redsocksfan45 4mo ago[dead]
- metalman 4mo ago[flagged]
- brodouevencode 4mo ago[flagged]
- FergusArgyll 4mo agoHumans get jealous, it's normal. The best you can do is just scroll past it and resolve not to be that kind of person yourself
- diegolas 4mo agolmao
- brodouevencode 4mo agoI get it, but it's certainly a thing that is seen really only directed at the US.
- acheron 4mo agoThis is what HN is now, sadly.
- well_ackshually 4mo agoI'm sorry, did you believe that HN is a US-only website? Ask dang to geoblock the rest of the world then. Or maybe, just maybe accept that the US is a highly divisive country and that pretty much nobody in the world really likes you.
- red-iron-pine 4mo agowait you're telling me an English-language website run by a company in California (which is the US) is not aimed predominately at the California tech startup scene? what do you think this site is, mon ami?
- brodouevencode 4mo agoI think you're right. Made worse by those piling on that are US citizens, enjoying the fruits of what this country has produced.
- fusslo 4mo agoHonestly, this is just a bad article. The history of engineering in the USA is actually SUPER important. The article touches on some restrictions the British imposed on their colonies, but it goes much further. The fight for 'Sovereignty' took a long time and was almost never certain. I HIGHLY recommend the Yale lecture series. They're not engineering-specific, unfortunately. But still really, really, good (I mean... it's Yale) The Revolution with Professor Freeman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shTBSGoYtK0&list=PLDA2BC5E785D495AB https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shTBSGoYtK0&list=PLDA2BC5E78... America at 250 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TNcFQiqHGw&list=PLh9mgdi4rNezTQrY_6XMNBWaZqLRdgpoq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TNcFQiqHGw&list=PLh9mgdi4rN... The Civil War and Reconstruction with David Blight - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXXp1bHd6gI&list=PL5DD220D6A1282057 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXXp1bHd6gI&list=PL5DD220D6A...
- Kuyawa 4mo agoFor 150 years after its independence the US was the land of progress by toil, sweat an innovation... ...then they invented the money printer and it all became lies, bribes and plunder
- Windchaser 4mo agotbf, it's not like the toil and sweat wasn't partly the toil and sweat of the slaves.