Technology

Yep. This is exactly what they teach in Econ classes along with the idea that by being economically entangled no country will want to behave badly because it will ultimately hurt them (so it will help keep peace and avoid wars).

Unfortunately they gloss over some key parts of reality. First is that this is all “long term” change. Until that point, however, there are going to be lots producers that will have huge losses in the interim as their businesses are offshored. Some people might win, but that’s not much of a consolation to everyone who’s now jobless.

Second is it’s important from a national security perspective to be self sufficient - or at least have to capability to be self sufficient without major disruptions. Unlike the examples in Econ classes, we’re not just talking about apples and bananas. We’re talking about things like semiconductors, rare earth metals, etc. If we have to get into a conflict with another country, we’ll be screwed if we’re dependent on that other country for key inputs.

Which brings us to #3 - economic entanglement hasn’t prevented countries from behaving badly. It’s actually done the opposite by enabling bad actors to behave badly. Look at China & Russia. China has been committing genocide against the Uighurs and we should have cut them off until they stopped, but we can’t because we’re dependent on them for so many products. It’s a similar situation with Taiwan - we tiptoe around the issue of them taking over the island because we need them financially. And the EU was hesitant to go up against Russia because of their dependence on their natural gas exports.

While ideally a rising tide lifts all boats, we’re seeing that it’s not exactly playing out that way - partly because the “assumptions” Econ professors talk about miss key points of human nature. The primary one is that people will act in a way to maximize wealth. But that’s not true. Power and social status can be much bigger motivators than cash - especially when you already have enough cash to live an extravagant lifestyle (like Pooh and Putin).