[klipt]

Then the US companies will be outcompeted by more competitive companies located outside the US. Now the US lost the jobs and the workers' income tax and the corporate tax.

America cannot eternally capture a disproportionate share of global wealth, even with such rent seeking moves. It's unsustainable.

We had a golden age after WW2 when we were the only undamaged industrial economy but that age has ended.

[no_wizard]

It would be far smarter to have invested in the workforce continually. A microcosm of this is how we mismanaged college education and is a symptom of a larger problem: As far as US policy goes, got complacent and extractive over innovative and additive. The narrative shifted from 'abundance for all' to 'the pie is only so big' (that is, unless you're a favored incumbent, like defense contractors). It doesn't stop here. Job training programs, continual education, robust workforce displacement services, proper social welfare programs. We lack all of this (and more).

Another would be to remove burdens off companies that are better handled by the collective of society, via the government. Take universal healthcare. An often unnoticed benefit is how it would shift liabilities off the books of a huge number of companies, from the auto manufacturers to smaller businesses. A tax is a much easier and simplified expense to deal with over legacy healthcare costs that can weigh down a business. It also has a secondary knock off effect: employers can't use it as a pair of handcuffs. In all likelihood, an unintended side effect of universal healthcare would be an increase in entrepreneurship from the middle class. People who would otherwise be handcuffed to their job because of health insurance.

Somehow, the lesson everyone took away from the G.I. Bill was not that the government providing robust funding of social services (IE college, home ownership) works. That part is seemingly ignored by the vast majority of the conversation around the 'good times past' that many Americans romanticize.

Too many of my fellow citizens are prioritizing their own short term gains over the long term health of the community and society in which they were empowered by to get ahead in the first place. This will inevitably crater quite spectacularly bad.

[fragmede]

> employers can't use it as a pair of handcuffs.

I think you misunderstand the point of the system.

[no_wizard]

I don’t, I’m calling it out as toxic and a drain on society

[irishcoffee]

> The narrative shifted from 'abundance for all' to 'the pie is only so big' (that is, unless you're a favored incumbent, like defense contractors).

It would surprise you to know that Booz Allen laid off 3k people last month then, huh?

Or Boeing laid off 3200 people in September 2025.

You should look these things up before you pop off like that. Three minutes of research is all it takes.

[no_wizard]

Sure, and how about executive compensation? The gains aren’t spread throughout the company. You see highly revenue positive businesses like Google and Amazon laying off thousands of employees while record profits are abound.

You missed the point entirely, and if you were to take a few minutes to look this up you’d know that

[vidarh]

Or they just move their "headquarters" and the US part of the business will be a subsidiary.

This is an old, and well tested strategy.

E.g. Commodore International formally had its head office in The Bahamas, but the entire leadership team worked out of the US.

You can try putting more constraints on what will get a company considerd a US company to catch those kinds of structures, but as you indirectly point out, there are really only downsides to playing that game.

[znpy]

You don’t have to dig commodore from the grave, there are current-day examples of companies doing the same.

Just to name one (even if it’s not American): Canonical.

It (canonical) is registered in the isle of Man, a fairly known tax haven.

[repstosb]

Also pretty much every company with a "headquarters" of some kind in Ireland, notoriously including Apple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement

[vidarh]

I didn't have to, but the reason for doing so was to point out that it is an old strategy.

[znpy]

> I didn't have to, but the reason for doing so was to point out that it is an old strategy.

Good point, i had not thought of that!

[drecked]

Conveniently India and the EU just signed a major trade deal.

[hluska]

Canada’s industrial economy was also undamaged. And so, by definition, the US was not the only one.

[reactordev]

No, I think companies that want to stay competitive will leave the US.

[batshit_beaver]

That's what the third shoe is for - aircraft carriers.

[Jeslijar]

Pretty much. America is destined for a decline. The billionaires can make money regardless of border by always moving things around and utilizing their expansive resources for any possible loopholes and escape hatches while manipulating public policy.

[cucumber3732842]

This is reductive and wrong. The billionares make money hand over fist either way. They own the companies. They don't care if the new campus or factory is in China or India. They skim their cut off it's productivity either way.

It's your fellow countrymen who are peddling the policies that, at the margin, push those investments overseas.

[boogrpants]

It's fiat wealth so... write the ledger however.

The majority don't care so long as they have enough food and shelter and healthcare.

The whole scoreboard based on bank accounts is all made up wankeroo.

Let's just have AI avatars fight for gloating rights; Goku beat Superman on PPV so Japan gets to host the inter dimensional cable world cup! And otherwise keep the biologically essential logistics flowing cause that collapse is when the meat suits will toss aside socialized truths of history and go crazy primate.

[ghurtado]

> It's fiat wealth so... write the ledger however

I'd like to see a serious study about the word "fiat" and whether it has been used to make a single valid economic argument in the last 30 years (auto maker excluded)

Just kidding, I know it has not.

[throwway120385]

The whole point of it seems to be to dismiss the entire economic system in favor of something that almost nobody has bought in to like bullion or cryptocurrency or somesuch for the benefit of the speaker. Currency, even paper currency, is one of the most pervasive societal "grand illusions" that we share. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing as it greases the entire system of exchange for literally everyone everywhere.

[marcosdumay]

Well, history has those uniquely medieval (or early modern) situations where kingdoms adopt fiat currencies just before they fail. I dunno how much academics discuss those.

[snapcaster]

Well, history has those uniquely medieval (or early modern) situations where kingdoms adopt fiat currencies and don't fail. I dunno how much academics discuss those

[snapcaster]

Yeah, so funny how they say "fiat" but never say "shiny metals"

[bluecheese452]

The judges of validity will be the architects of the current system.