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| ▲ | ToucanLoucan 18 hours ago | parent [-] | | Oh there most certainly is a power struggle/corporate race, for sure. AND I don't think it's pure economics at all, when so much of the rhetoric around that struggle is framed so often with this "America has to defend itself," "China will kill us," "shoot all the communists," ooh-rah United States chest-pounding, etc., it's simply impossible to have that discussion be anything close to good-faith. If you want my honest take, I think we're well into the beginnings of the downfall of America as the center of world economics, largely and wildly by it's own unnecessary actions, and soon, she will have to learn to be "just another country" as opposed to the central unified "norm" that pervades the world markets, and I'm not sure the U.S. is prepared for that. And I bring that up because I don't think American firms have ever had to contend with other nations being on a footing to, if push comes to shove, tell them to fuck off. | | |
| ▲ | jvanderbot 17 hours ago | parent [-] | | Thank you for sharing your take. The issue, from my perspective, is that you're mixing predictions with strategy with truth. Policy/advice does not need to be true to be useful, many just wish it were. "You can do it" is almost certainly false, but by god if people don't love to hear it and it helps them accomplish more. "America is in decline relative to the world" might be true, but is it helping anyone to focus on that? There are definitely some crazy sentiments about foreign competition, but IMHO those are part of the game. they are the "You can do it" statements that are made to motivate not share factual truth all the time (because who can factually state the future or the motivations of an entire country). | | |
| ▲ | ToucanLoucan 17 hours ago | parent [-] | | > "America is in decline relative to the world" might be true, but is it helping anyone to focus on that? Helping who? I don't know that it's a help or a not-help, but it is an incoming reality I believe, and the United States as a nation, it's government as an entity, it's corporations as economic units and it's people as... well, people, are used to being deferred to on matters of taste, on matters of policy, in trade negotiations, what have you. The dollar has been the currency of Business for far longer than I've been alive. Almost any country you travel to on this planet has options for English speakers, not just because it's a nice thing to do, but because wealthy travelers from The U.S. (and Britain) are worth pandering to. We are privileged incredibly all over the world and that is largely down to economics: if you wanted to make big money on this planet, you sold your shit to Americans. That was the axiom that built several economies from dust in the East following WWII. I'm not even commentating here on whether this is good or bad and I don't really think it matters for the purpose of our discussion, but it is true. Americans corporations, leaders, and people are accustomed to a level of deference enjoyed by few other nations, and we're already seeing feathers getting ruffled and tempers flaring when that deference is no longer treated by allies and competitors as required. When America is "left out" of various international politics, it literally makes news. |
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