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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."

The vast majority of that $250B will end up as executive bonuses.
China has long had a state-directed economy under the Communist Party. Even now, Beijing is pursuing an intensive industrial policy, Made in China 2025. This is Beijing’s plan to achieve global dominance in: electric vehicles, advanced rail and shipbuilding, and artificial intelligence. As a consquence, the Chinese government has heaped subsidies on businesses for the development of these industries.

Turning to the United States, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pushed through the Endless Frontier Act with bi-partisan support (68 to 32), that will dump $100 billion into research in many of the same industries in China’s Made in China 2025 plan, despite little evidence that China's "state capitalism" works any differently than Soviet central planning. Note that Chinese semiconductor companies have failed to become global leaders despite billions of dollars in bonuses.
Donald Trump and the people that voted for him didnt need a day late and a dollar short b.s. article to call that one...

Chinese innovation is merely a patent violation away.
Just slap a bunch of tariffs on the Chinks and make money from them instead of spending it.
Only if Trump can be President for say the next 10 years and i bet you all we will be back in track. Democrats are handing the world to China on a platter of Gold.
We had to read flaming liberal Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in English 101 in 1969.

He hung out with lesbian commie Elanor Roosevelt and Keynesian John Kenneth Galbraith.
In 20 words or less...

"Trust your government blindly to solve all of your problems... even if they created all your problems."
Originally Posted by Western_Juniper
"A global chip shortage caused by the pandemic..."


I thought the chip shortage was caused by murder hornet pirates seizing Captain Phillips ship.

...or maybe it was a DELIBERATE attack against the Achilles heel of the American economy.
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