[albertcardona]

Hasn't the USA been engaged forever in heavy market protection, tariffs for imported goods, and heavy subsidies to internal industries like metal foundries, the car industry and particularly agriculture?

Hasn't the USA at the same time demanded open markets of all other economies in which it invested or participated in some way?

Hasn't the USA's tax dollars funded most private research, yet the economic benefits have been ripped by private industry?

The double standard is just showing a bit more than usual at the moment, but nothing has changed.

[Prrometheus]

When you have a $3 trillion entity in an economy, people have the incentive to petition it for favors. Even when the government's budget was a lot smaller, businessmen could still finagle for tax breaks and the like.

Rent seeking is in the DNA of democracy.