Comment by tonyedgecombe
12 days ago
Start by realising this is going to take decades to reverse.
Given the timescale any solution will require cooperation across political parties. You can’t start something that will get undone in four years.
Then accept it won’t make much difference to the inhabitants of bumfuck USA. Automation is what took their jobs.
Start at the top of the food chain and gradually work down. If America can make cars but not car tyres then implement gradually increasing tariffs on imported tyres. 1% this year, 2% next and so on. Pretty soon you have a car tyre industry again.
Know when to stop, just like it doesn’t make sense for a banker to clean their own house it doesn’t make sense for a rich country to be making tee shirts.
Of course this won’t happen because of the American political system.
> Then accept it won’t make much difference to the inhabitants of bumfuck USA. Automation is what took their jobs.
If automation took those jobs then why aren't all those automated factories in USA?
They are. Manufacturing output in the US has never been higher.
If it doesn’t make sense to make t-shirts, why does it make sense to make tires?
They’re an environmental nightmare and very, very thin margins.
Tyres were just an example I plucked out of my arse, I wasn't suggesting they were important.
>They’re an environmental nightmare and very, very thin margins.
Which is an argument for consuming less tyres. It doesn't really have much to do with where you make them other than perhaps it is better to make them in a country with stronger environmental regulations.