>If America didn't have to compete with the free market to ship an attractive product, it would be a different story
That's why you invest in it until you have a competitive product. The "free market" is a myth anyways. Most of the competition is playing with house money.
Forty-five years ago, there was no high-tech industry in most of Asia. Now it's the only place where you can get most electronic goods made at scale. Why? It's not just the cheaper labor. If that were the case, companies wouldn't have stayed in China or South Korea nearly as long as they have. It's because the governments in these countries, China especially, said "damn the externalities, full speed ahead" on a category of manufacturing that would give them incredible leverage over world affairs.
They dumped products into the market, knowing that some Wharton-educated coke addict in lower Manhattan would cry "Uncle!" when he saw the prices his investment targets were going to have to compete against. Pump more money into manufacturing, lather, rinse, repeat. Now the majority of consumer goods of any type sold anywhere are Chinese.
We could do the same, you just have to tell the Wall Street types it's their necks on the line if the US loses its competitive edge.
That's why you invest in it until you have a competitive product. The "free market" is a myth anyways. Most of the competition is playing with house money.
Forty-five years ago, there was no high-tech industry in most of Asia. Now it's the only place where you can get most electronic goods made at scale. Why? It's not just the cheaper labor. If that were the case, companies wouldn't have stayed in China or South Korea nearly as long as they have. It's because the governments in these countries, China especially, said "damn the externalities, full speed ahead" on a category of manufacturing that would give them incredible leverage over world affairs.
They dumped products into the market, knowing that some Wharton-educated coke addict in lower Manhattan would cry "Uncle!" when he saw the prices his investment targets were going to have to compete against. Pump more money into manufacturing, lather, rinse, repeat. Now the majority of consumer goods of any type sold anywhere are Chinese.
We could do the same, you just have to tell the Wall Street types it's their necks on the line if the US loses its competitive edge.