Is America Inc getting less dynamic, less global and more monopolistic?
Yes.<p>Ten years ago, Jeff Hammerbacher, an early Facebook employee, wrote: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.”<p>Look at the big names now. Google, which did most of its best work in the early days. Facebook, which is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Amazon, which has figured out how to exploit workers. Microsoft, which is still trying to sell Windows N+1. And the gig economy crowd, which has figured out how to pay below minimum wage and not pay benefits.<p>What don&#x27;t we have?<p>- Really good battery companies. Tesla just packages Panasonic. GM just packages LG. They&#x27;re not making batteries from raw materials.<p>- Progress in aircraft. Boeing is still flogging variants of the 737, which first flew in 1967.<p>- Semiconductors. Does anyone in the US still make commodity RAM?<p>- Electronics in general. There are few US sources left for small components.<p>- Telecom. The US no longer has anybody who makes telephone central office equipment. The US can no longer make smartphones.<p>- Power. The US does not make many large power transformers.<p>- Appliances. Few US manufacturers remain.<p>- Manufacturing engineering. Who gets a degree in manufacturing engineering today? Who knows how to lay out a production line?