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The alternative is building and sourcing things locally. This might not be feasible in the case of key primary materials (can’t build cars if there’s no steel)
by otikik 4y ago
The alternative is building and sourcing things locally. This might not be feasible in the case of key primary materials (can’t build cars if there’s no steel) but a lot of manufacturing was moved overseas simply because salaries there were lower (which is changing) and the environmental laws were weaker (which is also changing). It’s not inconceivable any more that local is preferable to outsourced, and it might even be cheaper in some cases.
- 988747 4y agoWe already tried that strategy... in Middle Ages. World has moved on to globalized trade for a reason.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agothis is a very silly comparison, why not compare to the vikings then, or cavemen, how did they get their iPhones?
- YesWeWill 4y agoThat's the point, they didn't. You won't get your iPhone without globalized trade.
- kaybe 4y agoThere was very far-reaching trade since the beginning of time. It just had to be carried by people and animals, and accordingly you only find small precious things traded far around the continents. I just read 'The dawn of everything' and it seems that knowledge about the past has been evolving quite a bit in the past few decades. Societies still cling to the old myths of progress and premeditated development from hunter-gatherers in small bands over cities to kingdoms to states, but this a) not based on facts and never was at all (the ones putting out these ideas basically invented them over coffee) and b) not what happened. The way the common narrative is accepted now can really hold us back.
- hpkuarg 4y agoSee North Korea for a contemporary example of a country that produces everything internally.
- ludjer 4y agoTaking north Korea as an example is not a good idea. Also they still import allot through backallies. I don't see anything good from north Koreas way of doing things unless we want to go back 200 years
- jupp0r 4y agoIt’s an example of a country with constant shortages of basic goods including food.
- boredumb 4y agoThe amount of global trade in the middle ages was enormous, literally from Europe to china with the middle east in between. If anything the laissez faire spirit of global trade was more alive in the middle ages.
- oblio 4y agoGlobal trade has exploded since we adopted the shipping container and it's been just the latest thing in a long list of conventions. I highly doubt that even per capita medieval folks were trading more than today.