Is the USA being exploited? Eight of the ten richest companies are from America

FOCUS online Is the USA being exploited? Eight of the ten richest companies are from America Rainer Zitelmann • 3 hours • 4 minutes reading time Nonsensical economic theories have often caused immense damage. Just think of Marxism and other forms of anti-capitalism, which have plunged many countries into poverty. But rarely have zero-sum economic thinking and scapegoating caused as much harm in just a few days as they have since Trump's Liberation Day. For zero-sum and scapegoating are the basis for Trump's tariff policy. Zero-sum thinking refers to the false assumption that in economics, one side's advantage must always be another's disadvantage. Anti-capitalists are deeply convinced of this, and Trump is convinced of it too. He cannot imagine that both sides win in free trade; for him, one side's gain is another's loss. "It's the others' fault" Linked to zero-sum thinking is scapegoating. Other countries are blamed for problems in their own country. This is also a popular interpretation, for example among the rulers of Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, or Iran: According to the rulers, Western sanctions are responsible for their countries' problems. Many African countries, in turn, blame historical colonialism for their current poverty. Trump has repeatedly changed his political beliefs throughout his life. In the early 1990s, for example, he advocated for reversing Ronald Reagan's tax cuts and raising the top income tax rate to 50 to 60 percent. And as a candidate of the so-called "Reform Party," he advocated numerous positions otherwise advocated by the political left, such as a one-time tax on the rich and universal health insurance paid for by employers. Chinese Responsible for the USA's Problems One of the few constants in Trump's beliefs, however, is that other countries are responsible for the USA's problems. As early as the 1980s, he denounced the US trade deficit with Japan. He accused Japan of unfair trade practices and flooding the country with cars. Later, he took over the positions of his trade advisor, economist Peter Navarro, who, in his book "Death by China," blamed the Chinese for the US's problems. However, after the disaster caused by the tariffs he recommended, Navarro had to step back a few days ago. Scapegoating Leads Countries into Poverty Whether a country looks for the cause of its economic problems in itself or in others can be crucial to its economic success. An example of two Asian countries I have studied intensively: Vietnam and Nepal. In the 1980s, Vietnam was the poorest country in the world, poorer than all African countries. If the Vietnamese had followed the scapegoat mentality, they could have blamed the Americans, or even the French, Japanese, or Chinese, for waging war on their country. But they didn't. They understood that their centrally planned economy was to blame. Therefore, in the late 1980s, they introduced private property and opened up the country. Today, few economies in the world are as open as Vietnam's. The result: The number of poor people fell from 80 percent to three percent today. Nepal: A negative example Counterexample: Nepal: With an average annual income of €290, Nepal is the second poorest country in Asia after Afghanistan and one of the ten poorest countries in the world. Trump should love the country, because hardly anywhere else has so many and such high tariffs; for cars, they sometimes exceed 300 percent. A BMW X5 costs the equivalent of around €400,000 in Nepal due to the high import duties and taxes. There are long lists of things that cannot be imported to protect Nepal's economy. The country's leaders believe in Maoism and adhere to zero-sum economics and scapegoat thinking. Other countries are supposedly to blame for the problems. Eight of the ten richest companies are from the USA American economist Mark Skousen has dismissed Trump's claim that his country is being exploited by others as absurd: In response to criticism that the USA has "suffered from abuses" of unfair trade over the years, he points out that eight of the ten richest companies in the world are American companies. Trump simply likes to play Monopoly.