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by lenerdenator 489 days ago
> When US can't compete, they have to blackmail/steal/sanction to rescue their failed corporations. The same stealing accusation they level at China.

That's all of the countries.

EDIT:

Downvote me all you want, I can pull plenty of examples. Nothing pisses off a voting constituency more than a major regional employer shuttering, so governments do something about it. That, or the government wants to build/maintain a hegemony, so they float companies to outlast competition.

3 comments

No, this is straight up how China built what it has. And stealing technology from established players in Europe and the UK was how the US came to ascendancy in the late 1800's. Before that we were just a backwater.

Go back far enough and everyone will have done this with their nascent industries.

> Go back far enough and everyone will have done this with their nascent industries.

And that’s arguably a core job of any elected government. It’s not to promote external commerce or industry. That’s just a positive side effect of equitable bilateral deals. The primary economic and security responsibility is to your own people.

> And that’s arguably a core job of any elected government. It’s not to promote external commerce or industry.

Is the "free trade" mask completely off now? Good.

The US wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to be considered a democratic, competition-friendly, rules conforming country but will act as an autocratic anti-competitive bully against other nations when it sees fit. Of course, I never fell for the propaganda, but it is time for people wake up and realize this is a facade.
I'll keep that in mind next time I read about the Chicken Tax that the guide lamp of democratic, free-trade, rules-abiding practices known as Europe put on Americans to protect their own poultry industry.

There are other examples for both Europe and other regions, but that's what instantly pops into my mind.

"That's all of the countries", for the countries that have enough leverage to do this.

However in none of those countries but USA will you see in almost any published text or discussion thread a lot of people weeping that the competitors from China are too strong only because their government either subsidizes them or forces foreign companies to transfer IP, or they do not enforce the environmental regulations.

The contrast between these continuous complaints of the US citizens and what the US government really does, by subsidizing all significant private investments with tax breaks and by blackmailing foreign companies to give various advantages to US companies is funny.