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This does not take into account materials use in other countries that is in direct relation to the US economy. US is not primarily a resource-extraction economy
by dkural 7y ago
This does not take into account materials use in other countries that is in direct relation to the US economy. US is not primarily a resource-extraction economy, and many of its firms do most of their manufacturing overseas. Rarely will a high-tech company buy natural resources directly / from a US source. It won't show up in any of the studies' metrics of 'stuff used'. This objection came up recently in a panel discussion about this study as well.
- vannevar 7y agoYes, it's either disingenuous or incredibly naive to ignore the outsourcing of materials-intensive activities to other countries, the most obvious example being manufacturing. Would our rate of material use look so low if we included the materials used for every retail good sold, regardless of where it was manufactured? I doubt it.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]