No. of Recommendations: 3
We were already doing that in the 1960's. The reason we were importing oil also was because that was the economically efficient outcome. The reason we kept importing oil is because it was the economically efficient outcome. If you wanted to change that in the 1960's, you couldn't have done so by just telling people, drillWe weren't energy independent, that's the point. The fact that we weren't exposed the US economy to a large exogenous shock.
They don't - but that doesn't solve the problem. You can have stockpiles, but you're not reshoring any of the industries. Which means you can reserve stockpiles for the government to use, but they're probably not going to be able to stockpile enough to cover the needs of the broader economy for products that are used regularly across the economy.Sure. So you see the problem of having nothing handy that you can spin up...
"I" wouldn't get to decide that. It's not my choice. It's not your choice. It's the choice of the many thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of firms that use steel and steel products where to buy their steel from.That's right. Would you agree that it's probably a bad idea to have *zero* domestic production of steel?
The government does things all the time to ensure that - just in case - we have things we need.
In order to prevent that from happening, you need to empower the government to do something to keep the steel industry in the US, which would almost certainly involve providing massive subsidies to the domestic steel industry so that they can sell at a price competitive with the 5 cents per ton. You mean like tax breaks and subsidies out the wazoo? We've never done those, right? :)
Except the Republicans are very much against the government doing the strategic planning when it comes to directing the private economy. There's a very large distinction between directing the entire economy and encouraging certain industries to relocate here. You're about to see another such effort spool up in the area of
shipbuilding. Here's a primer:
https://cdrsalamander.substack.com/p/the-maritime-...There are currently 154 active shipyards in the US, spread across 29 states. That’s an impressive figure, except when you realize only ten are engaged in building large-scale vessels, and only four do any shipbuilding for the U.S. Navy. The possibility that this number may shrink further has put Congress and the current administration on notice. They realize they need to address America’s shipbuilding gap with China before it’s too late. Because if civilian shipbuilding disappears from our shores, the US Navy will be on a trajectory for irreversible decline, as well.
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Chinese shipyards have 200 times the capacity of US yards. Some are building as many as 13 ships at once, with naval and commercial vessels coming down the slips at the same time.
Meanwhile, the FY 2025 budget forecast has the US Navy building just six ships in 2025, while decommissioning 19 vessels—a net loss of 9 ships. In 2023, China added 30 ships to its navy. The United States added exactly two.Is this acceptable to you?
