We have entered a time, when all we know about manufacturing, when all we know about countries and super-powers is going to fail us.
Peter Zeihan describes the making of an iPhone as a thousand intricate and fragile supply chains. And that the problems in China, and Apple trying to move things back to The US will mean "no new iPhones for 10 years".
We have also entered the time when there will be so much capital looking for an investment. (hockey-stick M1 time) So much capital, that it will be meaningless when it comes to actually building any real infrastructure.
The world is going to change, literally. The Ring of Fire, is on fire. The ice-age is upon us, and will change the path of storms, while making the north, more and more inhospitable.
The political world is going to change. The lines on the map are going to move all over. Until, the lines just disappear.
And what this really means is that supply lines are going to drastically change, and many will just be cut. This means, that where manufacturing can happen, is going to drastically change.
The fragility of our world wide manufacturing system is going to show itself.
Which "capitalism"?
The problem with any discussion about capitalism is that we really do not know capitalism. In America, we have a crony capitalism. In China, they have a fake capitalism, or a veneer of capitalism, as long as you do not upset the CCP.
In most of the world we have central banks, which control money, the cost of money, and who gets it first. Which means, half of every transaction is controlled by the banksters. Meaning only a half-free market (at best)
We have so many regulations that in Canada, a company making a hybrid big rig, can't because the "diesel generator isn't certified for being on the road" A country that claims it is all for cutting pollution. Further, Canada has given millions of dollars to companies who haven't built anything. And this company has two working rigs, and is starting manufacturing, and they have gotten nothing. No funding from official sources. But, they are being crowd funded.
This is what regulations actually look like. They stop innovation, and competition to the Bigs that wrote the laws.
Basically, capitalism only exists in niche markets, that are small enough to fly under the radar. And that really isn't capitalism.
The end of capitalism
China is dying. The world's manufacturer/supplier of cheap goods is collapsing. They have overbuilt. They have too much manufacturing capacity, and the world is going into a the Greater Depression.
The problem with "economies of scale" is that you have a minimum production number. You can make things for cheaper, as long as you stay above that number. Below that number, and you are losing money, quickly. The bigger the economies of scale, the bigger the minimum number.
China is also failing because their demographics is collapsing, and their society is so bad, the people so frustrated, that people are driving cars through gaggles of young students. (children on their way to school).
Add on top of this that Three Gorges Damn is going to collapse and wash out a huge section of China. (The rains will not let up)
The rest of the world has given up its manufacturing base. So, basically, when something happens (Xi attacks Taiwan, hunger riots really break out, dam bursts…) the world is going to be left without manufacturing.
And if the seas become hostile, through warfare, or The US stops providing safety to transport corridors, or storms, then shipping becomes a real problem.
Basically, our fragile system is about to break.
The beginning of real capitalism
We have many things coming, that will change everything.
- Real money / the end of the Fed - Probably in the form of bitcoin, but it could be something else. Death to CBDCs.
- Robotics in your garage - Things like 3D printing, but bigger, badder, more.
- Collapse of the Bigs. Big Pharma, Big Ag, Big box stores all collapsing. Lack of goods means opportunity for small manufacturers.
- Changing of supply lines. Wars, and rumors of wars, will change who trades with whom. No more LiIon battery powered cars soon.
- Local manufacturing will become a thing, and an important thing
- Quality parts wanted. People will not part with bitcoin for inferior goods.
Basically, we will start to see real capitalism, as many tiny manufacturers build things. Needed things, locally.
Many manufacturers and many consumers makes for a real free market.
There is a big change coming, and after it passes over us, the large, multinational corporations will be gone, and millions of tiny, local, manufacturers will exist.
This will probably be big scary. Especially to all the people who rely on Wallymart for their cheap goods.
Cheap goods, sending money away from the community, is what caused our decline in lifestyles/local economy. Bringing the manufacturing back local, will bring the flow of money back into the community. Yes, we didn't heed the warning of buying cheap goods from elsewhere. And, we really couldn't heed it, because there was no real alternatives. The Bigs made sure there was no competition.
The mother WEFers envision a world way they control all the money and all the goods. They will lose on both fronts.