The mistake of the US globalists

 Joel Kotkin and Michael Lind:

The Covid-19 pandemic brought tragedy and disruption to America. But it has also provided another stark warning concern­ing the country’s disastrous overreliance on overseas production. It has demon­strated that without a strong, self-reliant industrial base, this country’s ability to forge a healthy, prosperous future—and even its ability to defend itself against foreign enemies—will be severely compromised.

The fact that the world’s largest, and theoretically most advanced, economy could not provide basic medical equipment like masks or the basic components of pharmaceuticals came as a shock, particularly as the country was forced to lean on its leading geopolitical rival, China, to address a health emergency that originated there.1 These developments have stirred some businesses and politicians in both parties to seek ways to encourage domestic production.2

Unfortunately, the response could prove too little and too late. Offshoring is not fundamentally a supply-side problem, as some sug­gest, caused by a lack of skilled workers or technical expertise in the United States, but stems from the insatiable demand of U.S. firms for cheap, non-union, and (if possible) politically unfree labor. Firms engage in offshoring to avoid paying American citizen-workers and sometimes, even at home, exploit short-term foreign workforces lacking in politi­cal, civil, and labor rights.

Rather than simply rehearsing the common boilerplate of “fixes” now being discussed, however necessary, reviving America’s industrial base will require the stronger medicine of a comprehensive national industrial policy. These tools include support for skills training and tax incentives, but would extend to policies like government procurement, local content requirements, tariffs, and quotas to compel firms to local­ize production in the United States, using American workers, and—if necessary—using the power of the government to mandate strategic production.
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There is much more.

I think this also underlines Trump's message of stopping the killing of American jobs and reliance on hostile environments like China.  The American globalist hated him for making that case, but events have proven him prescient. 

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