C IL | That’s a fair comment. Imperialist expansion to gain access to essential materials was a precursor to both world wars. (In the face of refusal to trade from adversarial countries/empires). The free trade regime espoused by the US post WW2 was planned to eliminate that need.
Clearly there are some breakdowns in that approach as different countries and regimes figure out how to exploit the existing syatem, and some rebalancing seems necessary. And Capitalism is good. We have traditionally espoused limited capitalism, which is free market with reasonable limits and regulations. But we need some restraint to ensure balanced markets vs national interests without excessive regulations.
If I was China following Mao’s Great Leap Forward I would be terrified of being reliant on the US for commodity foodstuffs.
However, the big chip bill to make semiconductors here in the US ended up a mockery by the time the lobbyists got done with it.
So how do we ratchet down global tensions while ensuring we have what we need? Missile tech is good enough how they the Houthis can significantly slow down global trade, and it’s darn expensive to play whack-a-mole there. We could take our ball and go home and that is popular but that was also what happened during the interregnum period between the two world wars. I don’t have the answers, but it is a problem. |