[ChessExpert]

“the state must act”

Yes, we’ve heard that ad nauseum.

[pierrem15]

The state always acts: it's how it acts that's important. We didn't embrace major redistribution & regulation until 1965 & afterwards and it wasn't until Nixon abandoned the Bretton Woods gold exchange requirement that unlimited trade deficits took off.

With a decade, US heavy industry in steel, shipbuilding, etc., collapsed. Automobiles almost collapsed, etc.

The "only our industry survived WWII" is a lazy excuse for bad policy. The exposure of the US market to East Asian and European mercantilism and financialization of the economy have been unmitigated disasters for the US.