a) Big > Small : smaller companies are subject to market forces and are expected to sink or swim as deemed by their own competitive merit, but Apple gets a hand when times are tough!
This is essentially a State-assisted protection of private wealth owned by the few; Tim Cook and all the mutual funds and hedge funds that invested in AAPL can now sleep well at night knowing that the American government has a Protectionism Put Option on AAPL.
b) Free trade, patents, et al are "the American way" as long as they benefit America, but the moment a foreign competitor uses the same tools and wins, oh no no no, we can't have that.
I believe that protectionism and jingoism ("Buy American") is how the American car industry, amongst others, survived for many decades despite being uncompetitive? At least, this is the gist of what I got from reading articles here and there. Ironically, such protectionism is not (always) in Americans' interest; I believe the car industry has successfully stymied the development of metro trains and other public transport options that would have made cars supremely unnecessary? Just take the MTR in Hong Kong or the MRT in Singapore to realize what you are missing.
a) Big > Small : smaller companies are subject to market forces and are expected to sink or swim as deemed by their own competitive merit, but Apple gets a hand when times are tough!
This is essentially a State-assisted protection of private wealth owned by the few; Tim Cook and all the mutual funds and hedge funds that invested in AAPL can now sleep well at night knowing that the American government has a Protectionism Put Option on AAPL.
b) Free trade, patents, et al are "the American way" as long as they benefit America, but the moment a foreign competitor uses the same tools and wins, oh no no no, we can't have that.
I believe that protectionism and jingoism ("Buy American") is how the American car industry, amongst others, survived for many decades despite being uncompetitive? At least, this is the gist of what I got from reading articles here and there. Ironically, such protectionism is not (always) in Americans' interest; I believe the car industry has successfully stymied the development of metro trains and other public transport options that would have made cars supremely unnecessary? Just take the MTR in Hong Kong or the MRT in Singapore to realize what you are missing.