[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.

[ChessExpert]

“The state always acts”

Sometimes more, sometimes less. Coolidge acted less and we had the roaring 20s. Reagan acted less and stagflation was cured. Trump, in his first term, acted less and the economy did very well.

Calls for state action, when heeded, usually turn out badly. The gold standard reduced the scope of government action. We got off the gold standard so that government could act. Socialists are unified in their call for government action.