Originally Posted by
Excargodog
Methinks you reverse cause and effect. Example:
https://www.thepharmacist.co.uk/comm...rin-last-week/
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So what does the UK running out of aspirin have to do with anything you ask? It’s a direct refutation of your quote:
The UK once ruled the waves. The sun never set on the British Empire. They were an industrial giant. They PRODUCED THINGS.
Aspirin isn’t protected by patent. It’s been around since 1899. It’s easy to make. It’s cheap to make. But it is marginally cheaper to make in other countries and ship to England. That was the idea of globalization. It was supposed to increase efficiency by producing things where they could most cheaply be produced. And when it works, it does that. When it works.
But it also creates very involved supply chains and every link in that chain - all those ‘just in time’ supplies and supply chains - become new single point failure modes. Speaking of pharmaceuticals,
in 2019 the US imported 72% of its prescription pharmaceuticals from overseas - mostly from China and India:
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/cong...onomy-10302019
Today it’s upwards of 80 to 90%.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cha...ts-from-china/
So what happens when a war breaks out between India and China? Hardly unlikely. They’ve fought often before. Or between Pakistan and India only this time it goes nuclear? Because we aren’t just importing cheap drugs, we are exporting the job skills and closing the factories it takes to produce these things. And while both can be resurrected, that is a long lead time process, building both the factory and the job skills to do it.
Eight years ago the US had one plant close and got into a serious shortage of normal saline, used in large quantities in all sorts of surgeries and medications.
https://www.ons.org/11-2017/yes-ther...an-do-about-it
It only really got resolved about 7 months ago.
https://www.aabb.org/news-resources/...aline-shortage
Normal saline ain’t patented. Raw ingredients are water and table salt.the formula is nine grams of salt to a liter of water. Not rocket science certainly, but the sterilization and purification take specialized equipment and a workforce that is PROFICIENT and we had to build both - pretty much from scratch. Piecemeal. During an epidemic.
Redundancy is sometimes necessary. Being internally self sufficient or at least having a backup is sometimes more important than peak efficiency. And you aren’t as tempted to play world’s policeman.
"It was supposed to increase efficiency by producing things where they could most cheaply be produced. And when it works, it does that. When it works." <-- I don't think that's the true reason we have outsourced most production from the U.S. I think there's a much more reasonable and simple explaination - plain old greed.
The "Chicago School of Economics" of Milton Friedman and his take on the role and responsibility of the "corporation" is at the heart of this trend in modern times, but it's been part and parcel of the U.S. since it's inception. Matched with the ascent of Saint Ronnie in 1980 and you have that first domino tip over. It's taken 20, 30, even 40 years for the hens to come home to roost but home they are now.
The outsourcing of stuff FROM the U.S. wasn't some grand Phd economic plan, although cloaked like one, - it was just plain greed and a government that gave corporations big tax and off shore income advantages to do just that. Suprise, they did.
History may record Reagan AND Trump as the most effective enemies to the "west" that ever lived.
Even a casual observer should see how Trump et al are systematically dismanteling just about every system and department that kept this country actually running - and their doing it by appealing the absolute bottom of human motivation - greed, racisism, msogyny, and fear. MAGA fear destitution more than death and at the center of their hearts are slaves to authority. They will fold like a house of cards when ICE comes knocking. We're seeing in real time how these supposedly tough 2nd amendment gun bearing rugged individualists with the don't tread on me flags and bumper stickers - you'll take my gun from my cold dead hands - have all become cucs who say don't bring a legal gun to any kind of protest, just comply when they say get out of the car or open the door (how far is it from just get in the cattle car?). None of this is new, but the galactic ignorance of history by Americans is blinding us to what's actually occuring in the streets. Frog, meet boiling pot of water.
The U.S. has been permently changed (for the worse) by these actions and the global economy will push us to the side and move on with countries that can be relied on to be stable trading partners - like China, the EU, Canada, Mexico, BRICs, etc. We will NEVER have the same relationship with our allies that we had just 2 years ago. Not militarily, not economically, not intel sharing - none of it will come back to what it was. Some will cheer that - others will see further and know that we aren't an island that can exist outside the global community.
While that's all bad for us by itself (and it is), just wait till they (EU countries, China) sell the treasuries they're holding and the dollar ceases to be the global reserve currency. There'll be a war, of course, with mass death and destruction right here on the ground inside the U.S., and we're going to lose that war and our economy will be destroyed - along with God knows how many cities and deaths... Having 10,000 rounds of ammo, a dozen AR's, and thousands of MRE's in your house will matter little. Physical distance from the U.S. is the only thing that might save you.