Comment on What's it going to take to truly stop the US?
TehBamski@lemmy.world 4 days agoI’m genuinely curious what would happen if the US lost nearly all of their foreign investors and all/nearly all of their major trading partners. (I understand that this is highly unlikely, but so was the thought that another world war would happen and happen in less than 50 years. I’m also tired of holding my breath on these things…)
Limerance@piefed.social 3 days ago
The US as a country has vast natural resources, a lot of space, and a large educated population. There are two very long coasts, enabling trade by sea across the globe.
Investors fleeing and trade collapsing would lead to a major crisis and necessitate restructuring the economy. It’s important to remember that money leaving the country, doesn’t mean the physical assets like buildings, machines, trained workforce, and infrastructure leave as well. Production of goods for export would lead to too much supply of some things, with a lack of imported goods.
Lots of international trade could be replaced by domestic production. The US might actually be able to pull off an economy closed off to much of the world better than any other country. The reindustrialization and transformation of the economy would take a couple of years to a decade, with lots of hardship.
Still the US produces so much food and has an overproduction of pretty much all agricultural goods, that widespread hunger is unlikely. The agricultural sector already depends on subsidies snd regulation. So the bureaucracy and infrastructure is already in place to keep it going and steer it.
Culturally Americans are used to dynamic markets, adapting to change, and entrepreneurial spirit. That’s a further asset for being able to transform and economy.
Finally because of the easy access to the oceans and a powerful navy to protect their trade, the US can be very flexible regarding who they trade with. New tradingpartners will show up quickly.
Of course this discussion is a bit moot without talking about the world political stage this happens in.
tl;dr there would a shortage of goods, economic turmoil, no famine, stable energy production, likely a swift recovery
edible_funk@lemmy.world 3 days ago
This reads like chatgpt.