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America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

(www.molsonhart.com)
842 points putzdown | 5 comments | 15 Apr 25 13:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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mppm ◴[15 Apr 25 14:12 UTC] No.43692983[source]▶
Jonathan Blow's "Preventing the collapse of civilization" [1] makes a similar point. It is easy to assume that, if we can build EUV machines and space telescopes, then processing stainless steel and manufacturing PCBs is baby stuff, and is just waiting for the proper incentives to spring up again. Unfortunately that is not the case -- reality has a surprising amount of detail [2] and even medium-level technology takes know-how and skilled workers to execute properly. Both can be recovered and scaled back up if the will is there. And time -- ten or twenty years of persistent and intelligent effort should be plenty to MAGA :)

1. https://www.youtube.com/embed/pW-SOdj4Kkk

2. http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-...

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imbusy111 ◴[15 Apr 25 14:14 UTC] No.43693026[source]▶
But the important question is - is it worth it? Should we be doing something more valuable instead?
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1. nilkn ◴[15 Apr 25 15:41 UTC] No.43694423[source]▶
Depends -- do you want the US to become a vassal state of China? That's the trajectory we were on. China is going to catch up rapidly on technology, AI, and services, and before a few months ago the US was going to continue falling behind in every other conceivable area.
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2. BriggyDwiggs42 ◴[16 Apr 25 21:35 UTC] No.43710650[source]▶
That’s a hilarious thing to say considering our behavior towards trade lately. We’ve burned bridges with our closest trading partners and made everyone else uncomfortable to trade with us because they don’t know what the eventual tariff rate will be, or if it will change tomorrow. We’re retreating from the world stage, and guess who’s sitting there ready to take the reins. It’s genuinely the opposite of what you seem to want.
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3. e40 ◴[17 Apr 25 11:53 UTC] No.43715460[source]▶
Want? Parent was predicting not saying what they wanted.
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4. ◴[17 Apr 25 12:05 UTC] No.43715584[source]▶
5. BriggyDwiggs42 ◴[17 Apr 25 17:47 UTC] No.43720072{3}[source]▶
>do you want the US to become a vassal state of china?

Parent was making it clear what they do not want, for the US to become a vassal state of China.