Patents protect the innovators; American tech is the best on the planet; the bust humans have to offer, in aggregate (whether measured by patents or money generated by them). There is obviously progress to be made, I just believe that American technologists no longer need patent protections. We are not a small upstart country anymore; we have scaled.

In fact, not only have we scaled as a country and an economy, we are now in the enshittification + rent seeking phase of capitalism, which is precisely why patent protections should be discarded.