Can someone tell me what is wrong with pulling all our troops around the world state-side, protecting our borders, pulling out of the UN and becoming a self-sustaining, self-sufficient country.

We have all the resources to do so.
We have enough dometic petroleum to last us another 80 years or so (in the estimates I read) and have the technology to remove our dependecy on fossil fuels witin 25 - 30 years at most.

We have the fertile land for farming.

There is nothing we NEED from other countries.

If you don't think we should be self-sufficient, tell me why you don't think we should.
I don;t care about whether it isn't feasible because people would not want to go for it, I am talking about the practical feasibility of it, and teh benefits and drawbacks.

That is what China tried to do for the last 80 years. Their people were living in abject poverty compared to the rest of the world until they changed over to a international market based economy.

Unless you want to eat grasshoppers cooked over dried horse dung like they do in North Korea, I'll suggest we keep our international economy.

Some people...:rolleyes:

Originally posted by Weisse Bora
Unless you want to eat grasshoppers cooked over dried horse dung like they do in North Korea, I'll suggest we keep our international economy.

If we have all the internal resources to be self-sufficient (which I think we do) why would we end up in poverty?

You would have to keep the population stable though. Not to mention falling behind in technology in the world, unless your talking about only controlling physical goods and not info. People would have to work harder, or the rich would have to become less so, if you want the prices of goods to stay affordable. It isn't so simple a matter as putting up a wall and living in a fertile utopian valley(metaphor).

If we were self-sufficient, basic sneakers would cost $US 100. They’re only $15 now because Malaysian children make them for subsistence pay. The price of most products would likewise skyrocket. Our standard of living would plummet.

But then we would have to declare the USA an enemy attack free zone.:rolleyes:

Trade is wonderful for the economy, and I guess that international trade is great too. Don't ask me how or why, but that's what people say.

Think about how cheap we make things over in other countries. Many powerful corporations build their products cheaper elsewhere and thus are able to sell them for cheaper prices here. If we became self-sufficient, we'd have to have a lot of people doing the cheap manual labor over here, and most Americans aren't ready for that.

Not importing anything and just exporting things does sound like it would be good, since we would be using American products and not sending our money overseas where we never see it. Hmmm.. I don't know much about economy, and now I'm getting in over my head.

Originally posted by SuperFudd
But then we would have to declare the USA an enemy attack free zone.:rolleyes:

We would protect our borders with our state-side armed forces.

Originally posted by Balder1If we became self-sufficient, we'd have to have a lot of people doing the cheap manual labor over here

Or the CEO's would have to take a 400 mil a year pay cut or be run out of business by private industry.

There are some clothes made here.
There are some cars made here.
We have farms.
We have industry.
We have everything we NEED.

And maybe, just maybe, a turn away from big corporate capitalistic ideal and back towards private and local industry and commerce would be a positive change.
Ya think?

Self-sufficiency :
This is the best scenario, for the people of any country - forcing them to be self sufficient- but is not for the international corporations and banks, which are controlling the political establishments. In this way, the international trade will consist mostly of either surplusses or critical needs. Seems simplistic, but it is also the natural way. One problem is that in this model, the people became also self sufficient and less dependent on the establishment, consequently being less prone to be controlled. Assuming that this concept is some how implemented in any country, that country will be declared war upon, either from inside or from outside.

Originally posted by one_raven
And maybe, just maybe, a turn away from big corporate capitalistic ideal and back towards private and local industry and commerce would be a positive change.
Ya think?

No. Private and local industry typically strives to be big and corporate. Would you suppress that desire by force? And the reason they so strive is to gain economy of scale, which not only pays the CEO millions but also raises the standard of living of the masses.

By becoming self-sufficient we’d be removing our international competition. The US automakers would be all for it, because their cars are still crap compared to the Japanese cars. They’d love it if you were forced to buy them; they could sell more and raise prices to boot.

Isolationism promotes stagnation and eventually weaken's the country's defenses enough for a hostile neighbor to have his way with you. Also: America can not grow a number of things in sufficent quantaty due to the climate.


Sorry Ive been gone so long.

How would you expect to convince international corporations to side with either America or the rest of the world? If we were to become entirely self sufficient, these corporations would have to rely on only-American goods (yeah right).

How do you suppose we would gain the working populace to create the goods primarily made in other countries? Do you think the current generation, or the coming one, would be interested in doing repetitive, manual, 'slave' labor when they've been living their entire lives allowing other countries to do it for them?

How do you suppose the world would reestablish the balance of power? The only reason we are not under attack is because we are part of an international community which would be almost impossible to conquer. With the US gone, there is a possibility that the smaller countries could ally to restore the balance of power and, with a chance of winning, would perhaps attack.

How do you think countries that the U.S owes debt to would respond if we backed out of the world scene? I can't imagine they'd be very pleased at that, since the loss of trade and market would weaken the economy and thus further weaken the chance that America could pay back its debts (assuming, of course, that after becoming self-sufficient it would even bother).