[munk-a]

The downvotes agree, but the parent comment didn't try to argue against an equal propping - they argued against any propping. The US has quite clearly propped up specific private business in the past - banks that failed to responsibly offer loans were bailed out, the auto industry has been bailed out, defense contractors only exist due to the immense amount of the total tax revenue that gets funneled to them.

Amazon has past the point where vertical integration questions should be raised and a break up should be considered for the public interest - not pursuing it for them (or Walmart, or Google, or many other too-large-to-fail corporations) is another form of assistance the government offers them.

The US is not a free market and participates in private industry subsidization both with and against the public interest but, I agree, it's no where near China's levels - to keep it from getting to those levels we need to acknowledge how bad it has already gotten.