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The US actually depends on trade much less than most nations. Any economic embargo would be bad, but in general much worse for almost any other nation. https:

The US actually depends on trade much less than most nations. Any economic embargo would be bad, but in general much worse for almost any other nation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_trade-to-GDP_ratio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_trade-to-... Also, surprisingly, more people in the US work in manufacturing today than in 1939. And obviously the $ value of that manufacturing is much higher due to increased productivity. https://thelevelfield.com/dashboard/us-manufacturing-employment-1939-2019/ https://thelevelfield.com/dashboard/us-manufacturing-employm... Any conflict would be terrible and should be avoided, but its not like the US became very vulnerable recently.

javajosh 6y ago
It seems like our inability to get basic civilian infrastructure work done in a reasonable time-frame and cost bodes ill for any wartime effort.
baybal2 6y ago
USA's manufacturing statistics is weird. There are a lot of "manufacturing" companies with billions in revenue without a single factory in USA. First, it is funny accounting, second, it is LOWER productivity of most companies, not higher, which is counter-weighted in statistics by few supergiant companies like Boeing, third, it is slow shift to lower value goods, and processes in smaller companies, and sky higher ones in big ones.