Manufacturing is not coming back to the west. Capitalism will always seek for cheaper labor and more lax environmental regulations. We have outsourced manufacturing and pollution to developing countries while charging as much as possible to their customers.
This is why when people discuss this subject, and use terms like “we need to”, a big part of me knows it’s just that they “want to”. A huge chunk of what we feel is necessity is, at best, “comfort subsidies” for our cushy lifestyles (and lest I be accused of tone deafness, I mean cushy in comparison to those in the developing countries you mentioned. “Less polluted and oppressed for the comfort of others” cushy). While it’s true that too much change too soon means lots of people starve, I don’t really think we actually know what we need.
Manufacturing is not coming back to the west. Capitalism will always seek for cheaper labor and more lax environmental regulations. We have outsourced manufacturing and pollution to developing countries while charging as much as possible to their customers.
This is why when people discuss this subject, and use terms like “we need to”, a big part of me knows it’s just that they “want to”. A huge chunk of what we feel is necessity is, at best, “comfort subsidies” for our cushy lifestyles (and lest I be accused of tone deafness, I mean cushy in comparison to those in the developing countries you mentioned. “Less polluted and oppressed for the comfort of others” cushy). While it’s true that too much change too soon means lots of people starve, I don’t really think we actually know what we need.