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ssri's avatar

Replying here in lieu of on the 1/3/25 thread so as to stay on topic.

Yes, too bad my memory of my own prior comments is so poor. :-(

But also good that rereading this post reminded me of the beneficial knock off effects from the success of a major exporter on the other smaller and localized firms in a given market.

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ssri's avatar

This seems to have addressed the few reservations I had about this export factor or element - is it necessary for progress, or merely sufficient? So you need a "break out" component that in turn grows other components, building on each other.

But I do wonder if the critical part is so much a given physical resource as human capital innovation and the entrepreneurship you mention. I am thinking somewhat of Japan, S Korea, and Singapore - or do I not understand their respective growth situations that well?

I perceive that Keynesians look to money capital to create the demand for an economy to grow or to recover from a downturn, making it the "fuel" of the economy. But I consider that money is really only the lubrication of the economy (you need enough to meet the demands for money as an economy grows) but the real fuel is that innovation and entrepreneurship element.

With that in mind I have wondered if an immigration program that gives workers a 6 year visa to come to the US to learn a trade or skill or obtain an education, but then requires them to return home to add those skills to their domestic economy, would be at least part of a beneficial "boot strapping" assist. They might end up competing with us more directly later on, but that is still all to the good in the bigger picture. In the context of this essay's progress factor, the element exported is brain power, which is then reimported at a higher value level. Not the total answer for a country to enter the progress chain, but maybe an assist to it?

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