> Jobs back in America is great in the abstract, until you have to pay for it. If everything in your life costs 50% more, then your effective income has fallen by a third. Are people actually going to be ok with that? We'll see.
This is a short-sighted, narrow view of what's possible for a superpower.
HN isn't going to like this answer, but this is how the world actually functions and always will.
First, everything isn't going to cost 50% more. Most things can reasonably remain unchanged in terms of globalization, imports/exports.
How about the US strategically breaks most of the world's supply chains re chips after we build up our own production domestically? It provides a new, enormous point of leverage to wantonly undermine other powers that don't have that positioning. What if Taiwan's factories get turned to rubble by an assault from China, while the US factories keep running and then export, at greater cost, to the rest of the world (as with US natural gas recently)?
It's the oil / natural gas / energy scenario now that the US doesn't need the Middle East's energy. There will likely come a time in the near future where it's beneficial to destroy the House of Saud in the style of Syria, to damage China and others (look the other way while a very violent civil war breaks out to topple the kingdom, wiping out the majority of their oil production). The US can afford a global energy shock in a way that most of the rest of the world can't, which has recently been demonstrated in the gap between the prices in the US and the prices in Europe due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
If the US can meet its own chip demand, new options open up strategically on the table for a superpower to damage its enemies. The US can better afford a conflict in and around Asia, the less it depends on Asia for eg chips.
Energy, chips, USD, weapons. Moats for a superpower.
It appears that this is exactly what has been set into motion. It also means that Europeans will at some point have to decide whether to regard the US as an adversary or not. I'm afraid the realisation will come too late, just as with Russia.
This is a short-sighted, narrow view of what's possible for a superpower.
HN isn't going to like this answer, but this is how the world actually functions and always will.
First, everything isn't going to cost 50% more. Most things can reasonably remain unchanged in terms of globalization, imports/exports.
How about the US strategically breaks most of the world's supply chains re chips after we build up our own production domestically? It provides a new, enormous point of leverage to wantonly undermine other powers that don't have that positioning. What if Taiwan's factories get turned to rubble by an assault from China, while the US factories keep running and then export, at greater cost, to the rest of the world (as with US natural gas recently)?
It's the oil / natural gas / energy scenario now that the US doesn't need the Middle East's energy. There will likely come a time in the near future where it's beneficial to destroy the House of Saud in the style of Syria, to damage China and others (look the other way while a very violent civil war breaks out to topple the kingdom, wiping out the majority of their oil production). The US can afford a global energy shock in a way that most of the rest of the world can't, which has recently been demonstrated in the gap between the prices in the US and the prices in Europe due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
If the US can meet its own chip demand, new options open up strategically on the table for a superpower to damage its enemies. The US can better afford a conflict in and around Asia, the less it depends on Asia for eg chips.
Energy, chips, USD, weapons. Moats for a superpower.