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The transfer of wealth from tax payers to tech giants has never been better. Enormous state subsidies. For doing something the free market would do if it made economic sense.

How many bailouts is Intel on now?

The idea of forcing a merger between Intel and TMSC at what could be called be barrel of the gun, would at least make it (indirectly) Taiwan that would have to take over paying for Intel.

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You can’t build a modern fab (which this one doesn’t seem to be? But even old fabs are extremely expansive) without subsidies. They’re extremely expensive to build, and depreciate so quickly, no private party is willing to put the funds.

>For doing something the free market would do if it made economic sense.

It didn't make sense.

Bailout?

Merging Intel and TSMC?

Sorry I am not following.

Desperate measures to save Intel: US reportedly forcing TSMC to buy 49% stake in Intel to secure tariff relief for Taiwan

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44801486

I would never have expected the US as the “capital of capitalism” to start managing their economy like a soviet country in 1975.

The American people have been lied to for so long about what Socialism actually is to even be able to recognize it when it's happening right before their eyes.

No this is what happens in authoritarian states all the time. Dear leader has a conversation with a “friend” and suddenly that friend’s enemies have some new limitation from the government. Socialism takes the form of generally higher taxes on profits from personal or corporate income which pay for things for the whole society.

So seizing the means of production is now something that Authoritarian Capitalists do, and socialism is just when taxes. Gotcha.

It's not socialism, it's corrupt state collaboration with capitalist corporations to suppress labor. That's fascism.

   Where state, employers, and workers collaborate through formal national
   mechanisms to collectively manage the economy, prioritizing the needs of the 
   nation and protecting corporate interests while suppressing labor.

I didn’t say socialism. There was that but late Soviet Union was mostly corruption and oligarchy… very similar to the current theme in the US gov.

It’s sad to see the top 2 are going down similar economic routes TBH.

> corrupt state collaboration with capitalist corporations to suppress labor.

How does the Intel thing suppress labor?

Probably that it gives one company (TSMC) a bigger monopoly on chip fabrication? Not the original commenter though

Technically then they aren’t wrong to equate this to the USSR - it’s important to remember that both china and Russia are “transitioning” to communism, although both are kind of stuck in the in between phase where the people who should be ushering in that change found instead that they can wield authoritarian power to enrich themselves and subjugate others.

Other side of things is you’re absolutely correct that this feels like a fascism, which is what this administration continues to feel like…over and over and over and over again

The US hasn't been anything remotely akin to the capital of Capitalism in more than half a century. The US has a hyper regulated, highly taxed economy, to go with a gigantic government. The capital of Capitalism would be the opposite in most every respect. Go back to the late 19th century in the US as one example, if you want to see low regulation and low taxation.

> The US has a hyper regulated, highly taxed economy, to go with a gigantic government

This is pure hyperbole. I don’t know who told you that any of that is true but they’re taking advantage of your trust.

Holy shit, somehow I missed Trump trying to sell half of Intel to a Chinese company that doesn't want it. TSMC is a great company, but this sounds disharmonious with Trump's jingoist and xenophobic rhetoric.

The deal hasn't actually closed, though, has it? The linked page says, "However, TSMC is unlikely to agree to this proposal."

> somehow I missed Trump trying to sell half of Intel to a C̶h̶i̶n̶e̶s̶e̶ Taiwanese company that doesn't want it.

fixed your typo

For how long though? The end of an independent Taiwan can't be just dismissed as a possible outcome at this point, no?

You must mean "Taiwan, territory of China"

Is the US willing (and able?) to go to war for Taiwan?

It used to be, though the previous Trump administration xenophobia set it on a policy of reducing the support for Taiwan.

Now their xenophobic tendencies against China are stronger.

I certainly hope not; we have known for 80 years that a war between two nuclear powers would be a tragedy unprecedented in human history.

Free market doesn’t plan for irrational wars.

They absolutely do.

You have likely not experienced it as governments and monetary systems have absorbed these risks (ie. they have moved them elsewhere, hidden away, until some major explosion happens).

> barrel of the gun

Ah, that locus whence political power comes?

MBAs forgot that when the carrot stops working the next step is the stick

And that the people responsible for their demise might leave with a parachute the stock holders won't (hi Boeing)

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