> […] I see no reason why we shouldn't exploit their generosity to meet our climate goals as quickly as possible. Because your own industrial base atrophies is

> […] I see no reason why we shouldn't exploit their generosity to meet our climate goals as quickly as possible. Because your own industrial base atrophies is one reason: > Democratic countries’ economies are mainly set up as free market economies with redistribution, because this is what maximizes living standards in peacetime. In a free market economy, if a foreign country wants to sell you cheap cars, you let them do it, and you allocate your own productive resources to something more profitable instead. If China is willing to sell you brand-new electric vehicles for $10,000, why should you turn them down? Just make B2B SaaS and advertising platforms and chat apps, sell them for a high profit margin, and drive a Chinese car. > Except then a war comes, and suddenly you find that B2B SaaS and advertising platforms and chat apps aren’t very useful for defending your freedoms. Oops! The right time to worry about manufacturing would have been years before the war, except you weren’t able to anticipate and prepare for the future. Manufacturing doesn’t just support war — in a very real way, it’s a war in and of itself. * https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/manufacturing-is-a-war-now https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/manufacturing-is-a-war-now That's (partly) what did-in Japan and Germany in during WW2: they couldn't produce enough to actually run a war. Even the just the UK was out-producing Germany in many measures (e.g., aircraft). The Big 3 completely retooled for war in very short order. If things go hot again you want factory capacity available for retooling to be possible. A society just has to be willing to pay for that capacity instead of deciding that they want the cheapest widget made somewhere else. Given the use of drones in Russia-Ukraine, what is the drone-making capacity of the US versus some other countries?