Subject: Re: Trade deal with China reached
China and the rest of the world (ROW) are now mutually dependent. Just like us, China relies on imports for key sectors of their economies - sectors that they are not self-sufficient in. This includes agriculture, energy (they run huge imports of all fossil fuels), and most very advanced technology.

That's right. They're buying oil and gas from...drum roll...other not-so-nice entities like Iran and Russia.

Which is good! It makes them far less likely to engage in activities that would blow up the world economy! The consequence of that is that China has also handed over its weaknesses to their enemies.

Uhhhh...does the CCP have anything in its history that would suggest to you that they wouldn't hesitate in starving large numbers of their citizens?

They're not dependent on partners who share our values. Let's put it that way.

That was one of the key strategic reason why China was admitted to the WTO and integrated into the global economy - to reduce the chances that we would be likely to be pointing guns at them in the near future.

And how did that work out? We've literally been feeding the dragon with money for 30 years or so now.

You would need to authorize the federal government to play a much larger role in dictating the economy than it does today.

Or...you provide incentives to source things domestically, which is...what the tariffs are about.

And the mineral deal with the Ukraine, btw.

A big part of the reason why we have loads of folks sitting around trying to make 3-D printed rocket parts is because we don't have loads of folks sitting around trying to make t-shirts and tennis shoes in a country where textile laborers earn more than $20 per hour.

It's a bit more complicated than that. Somebody who works in a textile mill isn't going to go down the street and suddenly invent a new manufacturing process.

You'd need a federal government that was robustly enough controlling the domestic economy to divert massive amounts of capital investment from where it is most profitable into what is less profitable but provides a public benefit.

Interesting...because this is what the CHIPs Act and the "Inflation Reduction Act" were all about. So were those bad things?