World trade does not exist for ordinary people, and the increased profit from it is not for ordinary people. World trade is a game for oligarchs, who think in terms of power and profit for themselves. Several thousand people became or remained multibillionaires with it, the rest get crumbs. That more crumbs land in the Netherlands than in Yemen or Somalia is more or less pure luck; I really wouldn’t want to build the future on that. All the more so when one looks at the disadvantages elsewhere that contribute to our prosperity and well-being: we are (for a while) sitting on roses partly Why fight elsewhere.
This whole thing called global trade is not about the wise satisfaction of needs as a real economy would, but about maximizing profit for those few thousand ultra-narcissists. We shouldn’t cheer too much on this; real world trade as it could be, with an eye to ordinary people, has just begun.
World trade never works well with production in one place. All products should always be made on multiple continents for stability and distribution of power and influence. In a perfect world it wouldn’t be necessary, but given the nature of our rulers and power structures it is. So the wheel has to be reinvented; that’s it and that’s it.
And I would like to see an increase in trade and cooperation forging warm bonds between countries; then that would be fine too. But we’ve been dealing intimately with China for decades, and they’re not getting any less of a problem; rather more. Setting a good example for Russia, even for decades, has not led to the desired results. Dictators remain dictators, and more trade makes their behavior worse rather than better. And for the whataboutists who always have to turn the tables: the US hasn’t even improved in its behavior because of world trade. It’s a gang of dirty power games all around, to and from, between espionage and proxy wars.
So for now, in practice, it seems fair to me that more power blocks each do their own advanced chip production. This is also the direction it is heading in now. At the same time, the West would like to insulate China from modern technology, but it will hardly succeed; China develops its own stuff sooner or later anyway or continues to adopt the technology unofficially. So China will also continue to make its own production, but still not only China (Taiwan).
Even with grain in Ukraine, we have already seen the danger of concentrated production and grain is far from only available in Ukraine. Taiwan’s situation is much more concentrated, which is done intentionally for profit and cost savings. This is biting the world right now. But again this redistribution is not really happening for us, but for the big owners. Hopefully with good chip availability in the future, it would be nice for common people.
[Reactie gewijzigd door geert1 op 13 december 2022 13:59]
