Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. wrote in Vital Center that only a powerful central state had saved the US from communism in the 1930's. The implication was made that this would continue to be the case. In 1980, he described how "affirmative government" was necessary and inevitable to address such issues as energy shortages and inflation and that this kind of collectivist government action was imperative.
In May, the US Senate voted 91 to 4 for the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 that would spend $250B in what is seen as countering Chinese investment in technology. In an interview today, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell said he welcomes U.S. support for the tech sector as a way to counteract such subsidies in China. "I think it's great that the U.S. is now starting to focus on some of these forward strategic industries," he says.
Max Zahn and Andy Serwer reported for Yahoo Finance:
"A global chip shortage caused by the pandemic has drawn attention to U.S. reliance on Chinese manufacturing for critical parts that make up goods from laptops to smartphones to cars. Despite longstanding U.S. concern over Chinese industrial subsidies, China announced last year $1.4 trillion in tech investment through 2025 that aims to support key areas like artificial intelligence and wireless infrastructure in an escalating competition with U.S. firms. Industrial policy, government-directed support of preferred industries, has gained a foothold in the U.S. in fraught historical periods like the aftermath of the Great Depression or the Cold War."
In a March report by Anshu Siripurapu from the Council on Foreign Relations:
"As the United States confronts a series of challenges—the COVID-19 pandemic, growing income inequality, climate change, and the rise of China foremost among them—there is renewed debate about the role of industrial policy, or government support for particular industries that are deemed strategically important.
To its supporters, a new U.S. industrial policy is essential to respond to China’s state-led development, secure a supply of critical materials and products, and develop technologies that could preserve the planet. They point to the use of industrial policy not only in China, but also in countries such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea, as well as its historical use in the United States. To critics, such a policy inevitably distorts the free market and rewards companies not for the quality of their products and services but for their skill at lobbying lawmakers."
Michael Dell said, "For decades, there's been zero industrial policy — it was kind of a dirty phrase. Nobody wanted to talk about industrial policy. But when you have an incredible nation, like China, deterministically investing in these strategic industries, and the U.S. doing absolutely nothing and sort of getting hollowed out in areas like semiconductors — that's a real danger. We're kind of seeing that. It's great that the U.S. is now focused on this."
Last edited by Western_Juniper; 10/07/21.
