This is what I've been struggling to articulate more succinctly since my college days, when I started really getting into macro-level systems analysis and long-term planning. Much of the Western world ceded pieces of its sovereignty to external entities without regard to the long-term consequences of said actions. Stuff like outsourcing domestic labor abroad, to countries like China (refining, manufacturing) or India (knowledge work) means those countries now have an outsized influence on domestic affairs that aren't easily clawed back. Ceding sovereignty of infrastructure (be it data centers, roads, hospitals, schools, etc) to private enterprise means those entities have dictatorial say over how those pieces of infrastructure are operated, maintained, and replaced.
In essence, the limited sovereignty the West retained was broadly centered around consumption and wealth, opposing ends of a larger economic system that are now grossly out of balance. It's at the point where there is no singular "silver bullet" to fix it, either. Taxing the wealthy will help, but absent meaningful reshoring of industry and jobs domestically, it won't actually right the economic ship. It's also not merely an American problem, but one largely affecting the neoliberal West that spent decades outsourcing, offshoring, contracting-out, and generally doing everything possible to min-max cost vs returns, quarter after quarter. I think the only country not substantially affected might be Germany, but there's still talk of automakers shuttering factories there in favor of using Chinese labor and shipping the vehicles back to save on costs.
We have created a global economy but without global regulation, which in turn has resulted in artificially depressed consumption prices (relative to actual local costs) and artificially increased wealth extraction through rampant exploitation. Absent a singular global currency and standard of living (which, let's be real is centuries away at the earliest), the only practical solution is a domestic rebuild of labor markets, supply chains, and industries, with a goal of refocusing national exports on what a country uniquely excels at rather than simply offshoring to whichever country has the optimal labor pool and exchange rate relative to your specific industry.
It's a hot mess to be sure, but not unsolvable. Reshoring industry gives us an opportunity to re-evaluate supply chains and resource management with a focus on closed-loops and renewables. Reshoring work will boost wages and living standards, which in turn will boost birth rates and economic growth. Diversifying the economy back into regions and localities will promote specialization and innovation, rather than the fad-copying of today. There's a lot of good to be had in facing the problem head-on rather than giving into fascist ideology and demagogues promoting "one easy trick" to fixing things, but all of it involves hard, honest work, which some folks will naturally be hostile toward.
This is what I've been struggling to articulate more succinctly since my college days, when I started really getting into macro-level systems analysis and long-term planning. Much of the Western world ceded pieces of its sovereignty to external entities without regard to the long-term consequences of said actions. Stuff like outsourcing domestic labor abroad, to countries like China (refining, manufacturing) or India (knowledge work) means those countries now have an outsized influence on domestic affairs that aren't easily clawed back. Ceding sovereignty of infrastructure (be it data centers, roads, hospitals, schools, etc) to private enterprise means those entities have dictatorial say over how those pieces of infrastructure are operated, maintained, and replaced.
In essence, the limited sovereignty the West retained was broadly centered around consumption and wealth, opposing ends of a larger economic system that are now grossly out of balance. It's at the point where there is no singular "silver bullet" to fix it, either. Taxing the wealthy will help, but absent meaningful reshoring of industry and jobs domestically, it won't actually right the economic ship. It's also not merely an American problem, but one largely affecting the neoliberal West that spent decades outsourcing, offshoring, contracting-out, and generally doing everything possible to min-max cost vs returns, quarter after quarter. I think the only country not substantially affected might be Germany, but there's still talk of automakers shuttering factories there in favor of using Chinese labor and shipping the vehicles back to save on costs.
We have created a global economy but without global regulation, which in turn has resulted in artificially depressed consumption prices (relative to actual local costs) and artificially increased wealth extraction through rampant exploitation. Absent a singular global currency and standard of living (which, let's be real is centuries away at the earliest), the only practical solution is a domestic rebuild of labor markets, supply chains, and industries, with a goal of refocusing national exports on what a country uniquely excels at rather than simply offshoring to whichever country has the optimal labor pool and exchange rate relative to your specific industry.
It's a hot mess to be sure, but not unsolvable. Reshoring industry gives us an opportunity to re-evaluate supply chains and resource management with a focus on closed-loops and renewables. Reshoring work will boost wages and living standards, which in turn will boost birth rates and economic growth. Diversifying the economy back into regions and localities will promote specialization and innovation, rather than the fad-copying of today. There's a lot of good to be had in facing the problem head-on rather than giving into fascist ideology and demagogues promoting "one easy trick" to fixing things, but all of it involves hard, honest work, which some folks will naturally be hostile toward.
Either way, we'll all find out together, I guess.