[HervalFreire]

The US is very capitalistic. You may get regulation in France, but not the US.

The Corporate desire for profit will overshadow the livelihood of billions. It's been this way in the US since forever. Look what happened to the corporation that caused the Opioid epidemic. Nothing, they profited.

[Symmetry]

A more important factor than that, I think, is that the national security establishment in the US is the part of government most concerned with AI right now and they mostly see it as a matter of competition with China.

[philwelch]

If that was true, the US would be producing orders of magnitude more nuclear energy than it is today. In reality many sectors of the US economy, such as housing, are utterly crippled by regulation.

[Symmetry]

That's not entirely true. Back in the 1970s when we tightened up regulation the companies operating nuclear power plants in the US were selling power onto the grid on a cost plus basis. That is, they'd be paid for their expenses plus a reasonable percentage on top of that. And there were regulators looking at their expenses to make sure they were reasonable.

But when they, together with environmental activists, were able to get laws passed that drastically increased the cost of running a nuclear plant the regulators couldn't say no. So their costs increased, but then their profits increased as well through the magic of cost-plus contracts.

[philwelch]

That sounds like a classic example of regulatory capture, with incumbent nuclear power plant operators managing to serve their own interests and raise a regulatory moat against anyone coming after them to build more nuclear power plants.

[HervalFreire]

There are always exceptions. Overall though corporations control the direction of the economy not employees.

[philwelch]

It's rather disingenuous to say "there are always exceptions". First off, if you're just going to talk generally, there are countries with less onerous business regulations than the United States. France isn't one of them, but Norway and Denmark are. More importantly, we are talking about regulating a specific technology, namely AI. The US has already demonstrated the ability to regulate a specific technology--namely nuclear energy--to a point where it is almost completely marginalized. So the notion that the US isn't capable of regulating an entire technology into near-oblivion is demonstrably false.

[HervalFreire]

[flagged]

[philwelch]

Okay, fine, I'll go through your "notes" (which still sound a lot like ChatGPT garbage):

> Enron: In the early 2000s, the energy company Enron engaged in a series of fraudulent accounting practices to make it appear as if the company was more profitable than it actually was.

And in 2002, the US passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which dramatically increased the regulatory burdens of running a publicly traded company.

> Volkswagen: In 2015, it was revealed that Volkswagen had installed software in its diesel cars that cheated emissions tests, leading to higher levels of pollution than were reported.

This doesn't make the point you think it makes. Even though Volkswagen is a German company that were selling these cars all around the world, and even though 8.5 million of the 11 million Volkswagens that were eventually recalled were in the European Union, it was the US EPA, not European regulators, who caught Volkswagen.

> Tobacco Industry

Almost all European countries have higher smoking rates than the United States. France has twice as many smokers as the US.

> The 2008 financial crisis was largely caused by the reckless behavior of major Wall Street banks and financial institutions. Many critics argue that the government failed to adequately regulate these institutions, allowing them to engage in risky practices that ultimately led to the collapse of the housing market and the wider economy.

"Many critics argue"--there are those weasel words again. Similarly with Enron, this led to the Dodd-Frank Act, which increased financial regulations again.

An interesting counterpoint to this is the Libor scandal, which came to light a few years afterwards. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libor_scandal) Similarly to Volkswagen, the Libor scandal was happening in Europe (specifically the UK) under European regulatory jurisdiction, and yet it was American regulators who caught the perpetrators.

> Boeing 737 Max

This is a case of US regulators being behind other countries, but it is an exception. Also note that none of the actual 737 Max crashes happened in the US, but rather in countries with weaker regulatory regimes when it comes to airline operations.

> Big Pharma

Not US specific. Lots of these firms, like Bayer and GSK, are European, and drugs usually get approved by European regulators more quickly than they get approved by the FDA.

> Meatpacking Industry: The meatpacking industry has been criticized for unsafe working conditions, low wages, and lax regulatory oversight.

Meaningless weasel words.

> Tech Industry: Tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon have faced criticism for a variety of reasons, including antitrust violations, privacy violations, and the spread of misinformation. Critics argue that the government has not done enough to regulate these companies, which have become some of the most powerful corporations in the world.

Weasel words. If you want to count this as US specific because most of these companies are American, then you don't get to blame the US for the actions of Volkswagen and British Petroleum.

> Fast Food Industry: The fast food industry has been criticized for...

More weasel words. Also not US specific.

> Industrial Agriculture

Not US specific.

> Gun Industry

Unrelated political controversy.

> Pharmaceutical Industry

You already listed Big Pharma.

> Big Oil

Not specific to the US. Canada and Norway also produce oil, and relative to their GDP, they are more dependent on oil production than the US is. In yet another example of US regulations being more stringent than other countries, it was the US, not Canada, that shut down the Keystone XL oil pipeline between Canada and the United States.

> Private Prisons

Also not US specific. Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have more of their prisoners in private prisons than the US does.

> Airlines, Plastic Industry, Financial Services Industry

Still not US specific and still full of "critics argue" weasel words instead of actual facts.

> Gig Economy: The gig economy, which includes companies like Uber and Lyft

I'mma stop you right there because Uber and Lyft were created to circumvent onerous taxi regulations that led to poor customer service, poor availability, and high prices.

[philwelch]

[flagged]

[HervalFreire]

[flagged]