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The only reason why the current situation is viable is because shipping by sea in containers is so cheap. Should this change due to conflict, or disease, the wh
by dukeofdoom 5y ago
The only reason why the current situation is viable is because shipping by sea in containers is so cheap. Should this change due to conflict, or disease, the whole thing falls apart. Shortages within weeks. China will do fine, since they retained all the means of production at home. The big guy will do fine in his second home in the Virgin Islands. He has a backup plan. Do you?
- christophilus 5y agoChina probably won’t do fine in that scenario. They need the US at least as much as the US needs them. Interesting lecture by Peter Zeihan on that topic: https://youtu.be/yttug-a3sWI https://youtu.be/yttug-a3sWI
- jackcosgrove 5y agoChina doesn't produce enough food; the US doesn't produce enough goods. China would also experience unrest because of unemployment from the loss of export industries, which could or could not be worse than the unrest elsewhere because of shortages of goods.
- XorNot 5y agoThe Chinese government is also vividly aware of this: China's social credit systems, internet firewall etc. are all means of control designed to get ahead of the civil unrest they know is coming when China's growth rate slows to one more expected of a developed economy (but due to corruption they're still going to have massive inequality). They're trying to pre-oppress their population, because once the perception of upward mobility falls apart, they'll be in a lot of trouble.