[ReaLNero]

> creating enormous amounts of value

To be honest, the poster child for American businesses are Intuit, Equifax, that company that manufactures EpiPens, or the company that manufactures insulin etc. They all essentially exist by rent-seeking without creating value, enforced through lobbying or regulatory capture.

Painting American companies and Russian companies in such stark contrast is overly simplistic. And pretending American elites are any more altruistic than Russian elites would be insanity.

[ericmay]

Why are those the poster children for American businesses?

Wouldn't it be some combination of JPMorgan, Google, Boeing, Berkshire Hathaway, McDonalds, Wal-Mart, and Cardinal Health or something (you can mix in whatever Fortune 500 companies you want)?

The rent-seeking companies appear to me to be a far smaller portion of the economy than others that inarguably produce economic value.

[missedthecue]

Most people don't know who founded Equifax, how it makes money, who it's CEO is or how much the business is worth. Did Equifax even mint any billionaires?

Random exceptions don't invalidate the point of the parent comment.