[slily]

Are you serious? That culture is why America still has high innovation while other Western and "culturally Western" countries that do not are largely stagnant. I'm amazed at how often I see people (largely Americans I'm guessing) criticize the very things that make their country a world superpower.

[lelandbatey]

I think there's too few 21 year olds being handed big investment dollars to form the majority of what causes "America to still have high innovation". The average age for founders starting successful businesses is somewhere between 35 - 45 years old: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/podcast/knowledge-at-wha...

[threetonesun]

I'm still waiting for the USA to "innovate" on a way for everyone to get health care, although sometimes I suspect the lack of a solution there and general lack of regulation at large is part of why American has such "high innovation".

[Clubber]

We're pretty close. Obamacare covers a lot of people and employers are required to provide it if they have over 50 employees. Any hospital is required to treat anyone who comes in, regardless of ability to pay. It's sloppy and it's expensive if you don't qualify for ACA subsidies, but if you want healthcare/health insurance in the US, you can most likely get it if you try.

[fwip]

Conflating health insurance with health care is a common American mistake.

Having the ability to pay every month for health insurance doesn't do much to protect you from losing everything to health-related bills. Unless, of course, you are rich enough to afford the 'Cadillac' health plans.

[shiroiushi]

America is basically a cut-throat place where unchecked capitalism runs amok and you can make a fortune if you're smart and/or lucky in business. Getting everyone healthcare isn't going to improve things for people who like things the way they are. It would be a boon for many small businesses, yes (imagine if independent restaurants didn't have to worry about employee health insurance because they had government insurance), but tech giant companies don't care about that because they can afford to basically be their own insurance company, which helps them prevent competition from small upstarts.

So yes, I agree the general lack of regulation is part of why America has "high innovation", but it comes at a great cost to society, and yields a highly stratified society with a lot of losers, and this causes society to be rather dangerous, with a lot of crime, homelessness, drug abuse, etc.