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Comment by ghostcluster | Hacker News Reader

Like I said, the US is unique in its mass deindustrialization. Somehow Germany, Japan, and South Korea have avoided it. Last I checked, they are capitalist countries as well.

Directly throwing money at a company isn't the only way for the state to support an industry. I'm not a policy wonk, but there are other ways to do it, and I think the US would be making a mistake if they let this chip fabrication capacity disappear.

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Not really unique, Great Britain is another example, although the underlying reasons might be somewhat different.

Intel's problem isn't with money. Intel is a hugely profitable company last time I checked. And It definitely has a lot more money than its challengers, receiving government fund or not. It's quite funny we are so used to this kind of capitalist view that thinks money solves all our issue.

> It's quite funny we are so used to this kind of capitalist view that thinks money solves all our issue.

This is silly. No one thinks that. You're just not telling the difference between "necessary" and "sufficient".

That's the very problem. It is not lack of money that is making Intel to lose ground, it is simply too easy for them to send checks to their investors and give millionaire bonuses to their executives. They're following the footsteps of IBM, GE, and Oracle.

> Somehow Germany, Japan, and South Korea have avoided it. Last I checked, they are capitalist countries as well.

Japan and South Korea are not really; their economies are largely organised by conglomerates with strong political ties (and often significant nationalistic tendencies). There is capitalism in Germany but it's kept on a much tighter leash than the US in terms of labour laws.

This is accurate. SK has Chaebol and Japan has Keiretsu which has revolving doors to technocrat bureaucracies and governments where jobs, power and money are free flowing between these entities.

This is historical fact, not a theory.

South Korea is very reliant on China for manufacturing, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's even more than the US considering the close proximity of China and the lack of natural resources in Korea. It's generally acknowledged by Koreans that the most abundant resource in Korea is human brain power, especially with the high college graduation rate (50%+, versus 30%+ in the US). The stigma of manual labor jobs such as manufacturing and agriculture are very strong, leading to a rapidly aging workforce in those sectors, and this trend, like in many other post-industrial nations, continues to increase.

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