Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

If China cut off exports tomorrow, could the US rebuild it's industries....

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread		 This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion (1/22-2007 thru 12/14/2010) Donate to DU
 
Junkdrawer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:13 PM
Original message
If China cut off exports tomorrow, could the US rebuild it's industries....
Not saying China would...

But if they did, could we do it? Do we have the know-how and infrastructure and capital to rebuild?

And if we could, how long would that take?

Just a hypothetical in consideration of an Iranian attack widening into a World War.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
msongs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:14 PM
Response to Original message
1. yes and my trash can would be less full too :-0 nt
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
liberal N proud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:15 PM
Response to Original message
2. No, We destroyed much of what was outsourced to China
Most of the steel mills were destroyed, many of the factories have been bulldozed and sold to build houses and lifestyle centers (formerly shopping centers)
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Junkdrawer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:17 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. How long did Germany, Japan and France take to rebuild...
I think we'd be talking 10 - 20 years.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
progpen Donating Member (148 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:27 PM
Response to Reply #4
12. That was with help from the US...
Who would be there to help us?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Junkdrawer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:29 PM
Response to Reply #12
15. What, no Saudi Marshall Plan?
:sarcasm:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
progpen Donating Member (148 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:33 PM
Response to Reply #15
18. LOL
That was my chortle for the evening...thank you.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
JuniperLea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:22 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. I agree... destroyed, sold
And those who had the know-how are unemployed, without health insurance,etc.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
liberal N proud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:34 PM
Response to Reply #7
19. Also education no longer teaches skills trade
Schools once had industrial education programs teaching mechanically minded and those who didn't want to go to college skills they could use in labor.

Many community colleges and small colleges once had industrial programs for those who would go into industrial jobs, plant maintenance, Drafters and manufacturing related jobs.

Most of those programs are all gone as well.

We don't have the skill sets to recreate many processes again.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
JuniperLea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:42 PM
Response to Reply #19
21. I'm thinking 20 years, minimum
To get our act together again. The educational aspect alone would be a daunting task! And I'm betting we wouldn't get much assistance from other countries who do have the skills.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
bonito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:46 PM
Response to Reply #7
25. But we're still here
:shrug:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
JuniperLea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:53 PM
Response to Reply #25
27. Not for long...
if something doesn't give.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
bonito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 08:14 PM
Response to Reply #27
31. I was referring to skills on hand
I for one have welding, burning, shipbuilding skills, drafting skills, and still have a full set of machinist tools on hand, there are many of us that are very capable and would be happy to go back to work.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
dysfunctional press Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:47 PM
Response to Reply #2
26. the chinese bought a lot of the factories as well-
crated everything up, and shipped them to china.

if we want to rebuild our manufacturing base- we'll have to start over from the ground up.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
entanglement Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:54 PM
Response to Reply #2
29. China is by far the largest producer and consumer of steel
They produce one-third of the world's steel and also consume just under 31% of it. They became a net exporter of steel only recently. The real blame for the destruction of the US steel industry lies with the capitalists and vulture financiers who systematically gutted jobs, consolidated operations and ruined working conditions to pursue higher profits.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
PFunk Donating Member (687 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:17 PM
Response to Original message
3. Yes, But it would take years if not decades to do so. And it will be painful.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Junkdrawer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:18 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. That's what I'm thinking...
At this point we need China more than they need us.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
NYC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:23 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. I think it would be less painful
than continuing to import everything.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Junkdrawer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:27 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. I am constantly amazed that we're doing as well as we are...
Edited on Wed Oct-03-07 07:27 PM by Junkdrawer
considering we exported the bulk of our factories.

Sometimes I think we're like a cartoon character that treads air before they fall off the cliff. And I think it's the inertial strength of the dollar that holds us up defying gravity.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
NYC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:46 PM
Response to Reply #11
24. We can't defy gravity forever.
What if there IS a war with China? Then what? Will they just sit back and starve us to death? Have we handed them the means of our destruction? It appears that way to me.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
piedmont Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:21 PM
Response to Original message
6. Of course we could. We would have to. But it would take a while.
The know-how is certainly here, as are abundant natural resources. It's the factory equipment that's most wanting. A lot of that was reconitioned and sent to China or elsewhere.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
progpen Donating Member (148 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:25 PM
Response to Original message
9. It would take at least a generation...
to build an economy based on industry again. We as a country forgot how to be an industrial nation 20 plus years ago, and many of our citizens would be loathe to go back.

Besides, even if China decided it didn't like the US anymore, they would not be able to stop exports to the US because it would chop their own economy off at the knees.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Junkdrawer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Oct-04-07 07:09 AM
Response to Reply #9
32. I think China could create consumers faster than we could create factories n/t
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
focusfan Donating Member (884 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:26 PM
Response to Original message
10. We could do it and I wish we would afterall we are not stupid just lazy.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Trillo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:29 PM
Response to Reply #10
14. All humans tend toward laziness, nature doesn't require work, only other humans do.
Edited on Wed Oct-03-07 07:32 PM by SimpleTrend
But only in the Air Force do you get a contract paying 13K per month that requires no work!

I call for equivalent contracts for ALL American workers!

edit: The past 30 years have been marked by the great mass of American workers being underpaid and overworked. Maybe it's time to be underworked and overpaid!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DemocratSinceBirth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:28 PM
Response to Original message
13. It Would Hurt China More Than Us Fo Sure
eom
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Junkdrawer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:31 PM
Response to Reply #13
17. They would have to start paying their workers enough to buy their own goods...
We would have to rebuild an industrial economy.

I think we need them more than they need us.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
MadMaddie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:30 PM
Response to Original message
16. Each State should have it's own plan...if they don't then they
need to look at their farming and manufacturing industries....The states could do it with 2 or 3 other states...at this point there is no way at a national level it could be done with the Imcompetence at the helm....

States need to start watching out for themselves...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
scarletwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:44 PM
Response to Reply #16
22. "States need to start watching out for themselves..." Bingo!
I think the only viable way forward is decentralization. Which is actually a thesis statement for something I've been thinking about for many years, and intend, someday, to lay out in detail. But not tonight, I'm too tired.

sw
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
madrchsod Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:37 PM
Response to Original message
20. about 2- 5 yrs
Edited on Wed Oct-03-07 07:37 PM by madrchsod
we would have to gear up like we did in ww2..we have everything to do this now if we decided to stop killing people.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Junkdrawer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:44 PM
Response to Reply #20
23. I shop at the site of the nation's once thriving steel mills...
Edited on Wed Oct-03-07 07:47 PM by Junkdrawer
It would take a bit of time and a whole lot of money to rebuild steel to the former levels of industrial consumption. The industrial capacity of the US was down for what, 5 to 8 years before it was ramped up for war production. The steel industry in the US has been moribund now for better than 25 years.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
madrchsod Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 07:53 PM
Response to Reply #23
28. i worked at one of those thriving steel mills and a steel forging plant
ya i was being really optimistic on the time line. we will have to rebuild our country by the middle of this century with what we have and if it takes years to rebuild we`d better start now.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Junkdrawer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-03-07 08:01 PM
Response to Reply #28
30. It really is staggering when you think about what would have to be rebuilt...
and, as has been pointed out upthread, just training the skilled workers we need would be a hell of a job.

Not to mention that, gasp, we would have a lot of learning to spin up to the world's state-of-the-art. I worked for Blaw-Knox in 1976 and sat in on a meeting where a salesman showed a bootleg film of Japanese rolling mills. The engineers in the room just sputtered "They can't run that fast....that's impossible."
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ThomWV Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Oct-04-07 07:11 AM
Response to Reply #30
33. What is staggering is how many good jobs would be filled doing the rebuilding
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Bluerthanblue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Oct-04-07 07:22 AM
Response to Reply #33
34. word~
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Junkdrawer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Oct-04-07 04:37 PM
Response to Reply #33
36. Let me be clear:
I maintain strongly, to this day, that exporting the bulk of your industries will eventually have a negative impact on your economy.

Alas, most of the damage is done and there will be hell to pay repairing it.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
mainegreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Oct-04-07 07:24 AM
Response to Original message
35. Yes. Easier than you would think.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun May 05th 2024, 01:45 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion (1/22-2007 thru 12/14/2010) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators

Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC