Comment by beeflet

What if everything in the economy could be efficiently produced through one-off manufacturing methods? This is something I have been thinking about a lot lately as i've been working on 3d printing/CNC/aluminum casting.

It avoids the need for any sort of parts shipping, and can be easily retooled to make war machines in a time of emergency (which is one of the motivations to bring back american manufacturing).

The main problem with this is that you still need surface-mount components if you are going to make PCBs, and you still need magnets to make motors, etc.