07-12-2022, 12:14 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-12-2022, 06:55 PM by Eric the Green.)
(07-11-2022, 11:47 PM)JasonBlack Wrote:(07-11-2022, 01:45 PM)David Horn Wrote: OK, how about Nokia and Ericsson in the telecom space, Ikea in furniture, H&M in clothing, Skanska in constructon, ABB in energy, Scania in commercial vehicles, Volvo in personal ones, Electrolux in appliances, Atlas Copco in mining and drilling equipment, and I haven't even mentioned the big military contractors that build jets, submarines and just about all of the Nordic nations arms. Note: most are Swedish, because the Finnish companies are big but less well known. In any case, here's a list of Finnish companies, and one of Swedish companies.
Just for reference, neither of these countries is large in the populatiion sense. Sweden has just over 10 Million, and Finland has just over 5.5 Million. Together, they have fewer citizens than New York state ... by a lot!
This is an impressive amount of data. I will concede, I may have under-estimated them a bit, but America's entrepreneurial tradition is still on a whole other level. Millions of the most ambitious immigrants have traveled to our shores for hundreds of years just to get in on the action.
Unfortunately, thanks to over-celebration of entreprenuers in the USA, as opposed to Sweden and nordic countries who have just as many if not more successful entrepreneurs, but fewer deceitful slogans about them, our entreprenuers mostly cannot make it very far in the USA today. Because this celebration has caused neoliberal, trickle down, libertarian economics and free-market ideology to triumph, especially in the last 41 years. This has resulted in enabling and supporting the most ruthless and richest oligarchs instead of real small business people starting out. The small business people in the USA have themselves mostly been deceived that the trickle-down economics propagandists will lower taxes and regulations on them, and that will help them prosper. It's a tempting ploy. But the effect of this neoliberal, free-market policy is exactly the opposite. It has created a USA in which opportunity and social mobility has been blocked, and in which new entreprenuers likely cannot make a go of it.
Again, Nick Hanauer nails it on this point. If the people have no money, who will buy the stuff? Rich people do not create the jobs; the economy, in which poor and middle class people have more money to spend, creates the jobs, which the bosses then have to employ more people to meet their demand. Giving breaks to rich people does not trickle down. It just makes the rich people richer. This is the point that the Swedes understand, and too many Americans who vote Republican DO NOT.
The government is the collective organ in which people act together to promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty. Libertarian promises are false. We need minimum wage laws, responsible taxes on rich people, and regulations to protect the way workers, consumers and the environment are treated, and to restrict how big capitalists invest their money to prevent crashes.