The United States should not kid itself. It will not recover its manufacturing position from China in any foreseeable future. According to World Bank data, in 2024 the US’s GDP of US$29.2 trillion was 60 ...
    • vovchik_ilich [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      8·
      1 month ago

      Materially, no, they couldn’t do that even in socialism. By Labour Theory of Value, China having 5 times the population essentially makes it impossible for the US to catch up in manufacturing.

      • zeca@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        1 month ago

        The us has less people now… population can change in the us and in china.

        Plus the us can get lucky in technology advancements and have an edge there. Im not saying its going to happen, just saying its not really impossible.

  • blobjim [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    9·
    1 month ago

    This is from ASPI so I guess their plan to “defeat China” is just “buy a lot of military hardware then nuke China and we’ll have more manufacturing than them”

    • LeninWeave [none/use name, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      14·
      1 month ago

      Least bloodthirsty Amerikkkan think tank.

      It’s a real problem, though. Eventually Amerikkkan fascists will realize that it’s over for them and they cannot catch up. At that point, they’ll pivot directly to their usual preferred solution (massive violence).

      • Wheaties [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        1 month ago

        I’d hope the more bloodthirsty are also the lest likely to realize there’s no catching up, that they’re gonna be the last to give up on exceptionalism.

        I swear I remember hearing a bunch of top pentagon officials concluded there was no catching up to China back when Obama was in office. Ultimately, it didn’t matter all that much to them, since most were careerists and the paychecks were still going through.

        • LeninWeave [none/use name, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
          7·
          1 month ago

          I’d hope the more bloodthirsty are also the lest likely to realize there’s no catching up, that they’re gonna be the last to give up on exceptionalism.

          Unfortunately, I think these people love their persecution complex so they’ll find a way to combine “China is ahead” with “America is better”. “America is so great the devious Chinese had to steal our technology”, enemy is both weak and strong, etc.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OPEnglish
      3·
      1 month ago

      Even if it did that, then it would be competing against a similar style economy that’s much bigger.

      • Hyper_red [she/her, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        1 month ago

        Before the trump admin the US had the advantage of not having an aging population (due to immigration) and massive brain drain from other countries such as India, China, Europe, etc

        Both are gone now because trump is a Chinese asset or something idk

        But I legit feel like if America had a five year plan in like 2014 or something it could be competing on everything

        Hell the Biden admin kinda realized this and did the chips thing, but the us political elites and ruling class are so focused on quarterly profits and short term gains and only enriching the ruling class that they scrapped the one government attempt to compete at something (even if it sucked)

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OPEnglish
          2·
          1 month ago

          The demographic problems people allude to in China are largely based on misinterpretation of the data

          Meanwhile, the situation in the US is actually worse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj_go157Rf0

          The US population is already older than China. The US has almost 18% of its population over 65, while China is only around 14%. The US elderly population literally grew at its fastest rate in a century. China doesn’t even make the list of the world’s oldest countries, that’s all Japan and Europe.

          Then you look at the workforce. China still has a higher percentage of working-age people (69%) than the US (65%). You might think 4% isn’t a big deal, but when China has 1.1 billion more people, that 4% gap is a massive absolute advantage in raw workforce numbers. Plus, China is pumping out an insane number of STEM grads, creating a talent dividend while the US struggles. The youth populations are basically the same percentage now, so that’s a wash.

          Meanwhile, the immigration is not the magic fix everyone thinks it is. The issue is that many new immigrants are better educated than the native-born population. This, combined with everyone being packed into specific cities, is fueling a ton of frustration and social division, especially among less-educated white Americans. Hence the rise of MAGA and prevalent racism in the red states. Now, add that demographic pressure to an already deeply divided and politically unstable system, and you get events like Jan 6th that illustrate how unstable things are becoming.

          Meanwhile, if China chose to open its doors, millions would flock there. In fact we already see exodus of scientists leaving the US for China happening today, and China is opening up more with things like visa-free travel and K visas which are the equivalent of green cards.

          Trump certainly accelerated the process, but the underlying mechanics always favored China here.