• misk@sopuli.xyz
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    4 days ago

    Dunno, the most prosperous time for the US was when it was manufacturing things. Probably has something to do with 90% tax rate on the wealthiest though too. Either way, neoliberalism taught people that they can only count on themselves so if some people voted against status quo it could have been that things weren’t that good for them.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Yup. It absolutely does have to do with the taxation of the wealthy. We were also leading manufacturing in the late 19th century, when the Robber Barons owned everything while the working class suffered.

      • misk@sopuli.xyz
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        3 days ago

        That’s one part of the equation. The other is that for a currency to be viable for global trade you have to kill your domestic production, British Empire did something similar around 1840 (although it was agriculture then). There may yet be some unexpected benefits to US downscaling from a global power to a regional one. Whomever steps up to take this role will face similar dilemmas and compromises that those empires had to.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          To an extent. The US pulls additional leverage with USAID and unwanted military intervention, and China is doing quite well in BRICS with an export heavy model.

          • misk@sopuli.xyz
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            3 days ago

            Not everything empire does is evil of course but the main takeaway to what Trump is doing is liberals crying about losing that empire and I have the smallest violin to play because US was not behaving responsibly in that role. In my country that US influence can be seen via US media selecting their chosen neoliberal party and going hard with supporting them, with ruinous results as expected. Too bad it’s done mostly via WB Discovery (USAID too but to a lesser extent) so that’s going to continue for the foreseeable future.