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people in rich countries depend an awful lot on people in poor countries making stuff for them and keeping them rich

• brutusborn 4y ago
  It’s not a true dependency because they could do it themselves - it’s just a bit more expensive. Remember we are comparing catastrophes here; while Bangladesh might starve and lose most of its land, at the same time the US will probably just need to spend a bit more on food and make their own clothes. Both are affected, but orders of magnitude difference in the affects. Rich will still be rich, just a bit less.
  • kiliantics 4y ago
    Resources are not homogeneously distributed either though. Coltan for your smartphone has to be mined by children in the Congo before being shipped to fabs in China, etc. Most supply chains are just so global and complex. Reorganising to have local production in well off nations will be very extreme, not just "a bit more expensive"
    • brutusborn 4y ago
      You're right that there are exceptions, but I don't think this would make life for Rich people much worse. Worst case Rich countries will Annex resource rich countries, or just use predatory loans to gain control like China. As always happens, poor powerless people are the losers. If you beleive the article, the only reason the majority world supplier of Coltan (Australia) stopped producing is because of cheap African labour. https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-conflict-mineral-coltan-mining-in-dr-congo-and-australia/ https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-conflict-mineral-colta...