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Countries and institutions should always produce things where they are excellent at producing, in forms of specialization and compete in terms of comparative ad
by plutomeetsyou 23d ago
Countries and institutions should always produce things where they are excellent at producing, in forms of specialization and compete in terms of comparative advantages.
- dymk 23d agoThat depends on if everybody gets along and is willing to trade
- kridsdale1 23d agoThis is true until you add a layer of geopolitics to your analysis.
- adwn 23d agoThis attitude, if followed without qualifications, is dangerously naive and shortsighted, as the last few years of geopolitical events have shown.
- PowerElectronix 23d agoYes, and no. Yes because you are vulnerable to supply chain disruption by illwilled countries. But illwilled countries that disrupt supply chains greatly incentivise others to diversify supply away from them. China could have the monopoly of rare earth production and refinery for all of eternity. But because of their reaction towards all the us allies when the us increased tariffs, I don't expect them to be relevant enough to disrupt markets with rare earths sanctions in 10-20 years.
- kstenerud 23d ago> But illwilled countries that disrupt supply chains greatly incentivise others to diversify supply away from them. ... Except when they can't in any meaningful span of time.
- melasadra 23d agoWe surely cant be this naive after the recent history of: - China weaponizing the world's dependence on rare earth - The US weaponizing the world's dependence on SWIFT - Russia weaponizing Europe's dependence on natural gas - Iran weaponizing the the world's dependence of oil supply through strait of Hormuz
- smallstepforman 23d agoRussian are more than happy to sell you NatGas, why do you think they’re weaponising? Watch too much propaganda?
- LunaSea 23d agoThey specifically cut access to said gas pipelines at the beginning of the Ukrainian war.
- yoz-y 23d agoSupply chain advantages make the country that produces most of the stuff progressively better at doing everything.
- saturn8601 23d agoOnly if you have the people to do it. China has some of the worst birth rate in the world. In ~20 years that manufacturing capacity either goes to robots or goes away. Then what?
- Yiin 23d agohow is that different from the rest of the world?
- saturn8601 23d agoRest of the world does not rely on manufacturing as a large chunk of its economy. Yes it will be painful for all, entire classes of products might just go away if they dont make sense in the new inflationary environment but countries will still likely suffer less than China overall.
- don_esteban 23d agoOne of the (many) areas in which China is doing great is industrial robotics. Not the fancy dancing dogs, but robots that replace workers in factories.
- saturn8601 23d agoThat why I said it either goes to robots or it goes away. Can the current robots replace something like this? I don't think right now but maybe they figure it out. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFYxSX6xP2U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFYxSX6xP2U
- don_esteban 23d ago
- goodluckchuck 23d agoFamilies should always eat at the restaurants that produce the most excellent cuisine. /s
- geysersam 23d agoThose thing are not static! Changing them can be a political decision. It was a political decision in China to become excellent at manufacturing.
- xphos 23d agoWhile I agree in passing. I think saying you'll export all your work to places with worse labor laws is short-term thinking. Chinese companies are successful yes but they also don't necessarily compete fairly. We still can export large portfolios of goods to China. So to just say they are best because they have a government protected market, plus subsidies so we should abandon local is a bad optimization in the long term