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Our entire industry is already forecasting shortages because literally every industry depends on raw components from china. The market is down 7 percent in 2 da

Our entire industry is already forecasting shortages because literally every industry depends on raw components from china. The market is down 7 percent in 2 days. Not to mention the other indicators for the long overdue recession that we've been seeing for months now. > it’s an argument for offshoring your factories across as many different countries as possible so you have less concentrated exposure to a specific country That isn't entirely incorrect, but it still pays to have reserve domestic capacity, not just for events like this virus but to limit the power that other nations have over the U.S. in any case it's good that we're likely to reduce reliance on China after all of this is over.

esoterica 7y ago
But moving factories to the US just decreases your exposure to China-related epidemics, natural disasters and other crises at the expense of increasing your exposure to US-related epidemics, natural disasters and other crises. You’re just trading one risk factor for another. Reducing economic relations with another country means you have less power and influence over them, not more. Having hundreds of billions of dollars worth of trade conducted between two countries and having millions of their jobs tied to international trade is a good incentive for them not to antagonize you too much.
- allovernow 7y ago
  It's not black and white. Any local outbreak is less likely to disrupt your domestic operations to the same degree that foreign dependence would. Primarily because the U.S. is a first world country where any disaster is more likely to be better dealt with and when the event is local, you have you have more reliable information for handling a disaster when you are communicating with local channels. Particularly when you are in a country with free speech and limited government suppression. In any case, to ideally minimize risk you want both foreign and domestic production, even if that means some degree of subsidy for local operations. There are other downsides to excessive free trade of labor and goods as well - we need a happy medium.

esoterica 7y ago

But moving factories to the US just decreases your exposure to China-related epidemics, natural disasters and other crises at the expense of increasing your exposure to US-related epidemics, natural disasters and other crises. You’re just trading one risk factor for another. Reducing economic relations with another country means you have less power and influence over them, not more. Having hundreds of billions of dollars worth of trade conducted between two countries and having millions of their jobs tied to international trade is a good incentive for them not to antagonize you too much.

allovernow 7y ago
It's not black and white. Any local outbreak is less likely to disrupt your domestic operations to the same degree that foreign dependence would. Primarily because the U.S. is a first world country where any disaster is more likely to be better dealt with and when the event is local, you have you have more reliable information for handling a disaster when you are communicating with local channels. Particularly when you are in a country with free speech and limited government suppression. In any case, to ideally minimize risk you want both foreign and domestic production, even if that means some degree of subsidy for local operations. There are other downsides to excessive free trade of labor and goods as well - we need a happy medium.