Breaking News: COVID Proves Foreign Dependency Is A Bad Idea

Finally, after decades of increasing globalization, a few select people are starting to doubt the narrative that foreign dependency is a good idea.

This doubt comes amidst a complete disruption and destruction of our domestic supply lines which rely extensively on foreign nations.

Mainstream economists have sold us this narrative that free trade and country specialization promotes extraordinary economic growth with no downsides.

But their words are far from the truth.

In reality, there are downsides. And depending on the country we’re dealing with, the downsides can far exceed the benefits.

It is true that free trade and globalism result in cheaper products for the domestic consumer. But at what costs do we get these cheaper products?

COVID and Foreign Dependency

In the US, we’ve pretty much completely shifted our manufacturing capabilities to countries like China. This includes life-saving, emergency prescription drug manufacturing.

During the war of words with China, their state media casually mentioned that they could block critical components and supplies for US drug companies and send America into a, quote, “hell of a novel coronavirus epidemic“.

China is among the top national providers of active pharma materials such as antibiotics, especially in the US.

Is it really a surprise they would pull this card? It’s the country that sells precursor drugs along with other dangerous drugs like Fentanyl to the world market. One of the only states that sells drugs directly to cartels, too.

Is saving a few extra dollars on your toilet paper worth this risk?

Most of the surgical masks worldwide are also made in China. But ironically enough hundreds of thousands of them have to be shipped back for being defective. [1][2]

Is saving a few extra dollars on your tooth brush worth this risk?

Beijing has even put restrictions on US companies stationed in China from shipping their masks out of China [1]. Our factories, our investments, our products, but their rules.

This isn’t even considering the monopolization China and other foreign nations have on our other industries like defense, electronic systems, specialty chemicals, and the majority of manufactured goods. [1]

Or the driving up of real estate prices by buying our houses [1][2]. Or their dominance of espionage and technology [1]. Including their excursion into 5G.

We willingly handed over all of this in the name of globalism and increased globalization. Because it was supposedly good for us.

All of our supply lines were decimated from the COVID pandemic. If this issue were even bigger or more problematic than it currently is, we could have been in for an absolute sh*tshow.

And all for what? To save a few extra dollars on plastic bags?

When the mainstream economists model the free trade and globalism benefits, they do not put a communist country having power over us into their assumptions.

They don’t consider the external, non-economic impacts that may occur. Like people dying because they can’t get antibiotics or the fact that our companies could become nationalized by foreign nations at any second.

They sold us the idea of two perfectly utopian, strictly capitalistic, nations trading with one another. They did not add the fact that one nation has the possibility of withholding lifesaving goods. Making the other completely dependent on a nation and people we have absolutely no control over. That very often do not like us or our way of life.

They did not add in the lose of sovereignty. Or the complicated geopolitical issues that exist between nations.

The only thing the economists modeled were the two perfectly utopian nations that had positive assumptions to meet their preconceived globalist-leaning beliefs.

If one day China said we’re taking all your manufacturing and adios: what could we do besides war?

Even then: how are we expected to fight this war without medicine, food, or the electronic tools necessary to fight a war?

We can’t. And if anything good comes out of COVID, it would be that more people are awoken to this fact.

Other Issues With Foreign Dependency

Another very important thing we need to talk about is how foreign nations like China are manufacturing our goods.

We willingly give China rights to our manufacturing because they can make it cheaper. Do you know why they can make it cheaper? Because they just won’t pay people a fair wage and will skirt rules to bring it in under our cost.

They do not have a magic wand that reduces costs or removes the principles of basic economics.

They have lower labor costs due to lower salaries and wages. Lower purchasing costs for bulk orders. They have a single monopolist union under communist party control. They have practically no compliance costs or environmental costs. They also use trade cheats and currency manipulation [1].

In short, the Chinese and other manufacturing hubs use warlike trade strategies to dominate trade and overtake our domestic industries.

None of which, are good for the US.

Do you think any free trade economist took these into account in their trade models? Of course not.

But the largest issue of globalism isn’t a financial or practical one. It’s a moral one.

We are propping up a government that persecutes religious minorities (Falun Gong) by enslaving them, chopping them up for organ pieces, and then resells these organs at a profit to their other citizens.

A country that operates in slave trade and other horrific human rights abuses [1].

We give them our manufacturing to save a few dollars. What does that make us? We directly contribute and profit off of these behaviors. Is that not a form of acceptance?

Say we move out of China. Even then does it matter? Any country that has a competitive manufacturing advantage still pays incredibly low wages to its people, with minimal protection for their workers, and horrible environmental damages.

When we hand out our manufacturing and industry to a globalized world, we give up our moral high ground. We stoop to the same ethical standard that our manufacturing countries have. If they had our standards, then they would have our exact same cost.

And if they have no standards, where does that put us?

Breaking News: COVID Proves Foreign Dependency Is A Bad Idea

When addressing the issue of globalization it is not as easy as the economic models suggest.

Economics is not all that matters. We must consider the whole picture when making trade policies, especially ones that can put our domestic industries in the hands of evil nations. Even more so for critical industries like food, medicine, and electronics.

If the economist’s models efficiently added in the true risks involved with foreign dependency, the temporary/minor economic benefit would be a joke in comparison to the cost.

If anything, I hope that COVID opens our eyes to this fact.

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