National Archives at College Park, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Rebuilding the US industrial base is not only crucial for national security in preparation for potential conflict with China but will also help stave off socialism by creating good-paying jobs for the working class.
Increasing domestic production is a better choice than socialist solutions such as forcing a higher minimum wage for burger flippers, expanding welfare programs, or implementing universal basic income (UBI).
“Production is deterrence,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told the Reagan Center. She went on to say that delays in rebuilding the US industrial base “rob us of critical momentum, forcing us to stand still, while Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran move to modernize their militaries, coerce their neighbors, and work to outpace us.”
Decades of US outsourcing have driven China’s economic rise. The advanced technology and production capabilities they have developed, as well as the money earned from exports, have provided Beijing with the means to build the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a near-peer of the U.S. military.
According to the Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, China is the number one threat to US national security and to the current American-led rules-based order. US outsourcing to China has strengthened America’s number one enemy.
Shutdowns during the Covid pandemic made it clear that the US is highly dependent on China, and that Beijing could turn off the flow of goods at will. It does not take a degree in national security to understand that if the US were at war with China, they would be less likely to sell us weapons and ammunition.
At the same time that outsourcing is making China richer, working-class Americans are getting poorer. Most of the jobs Biden claims to have created were simply allowing people to return to work after Covid.
Apart from those, the new jobs are mostly part-time. Research shows that about half of the people working part-time jobs right now are only doing so because they cannot find full-time work.
The socialist answer to this is to force companies to pay a higher minimum wage, which will only cause prices to go up, making it even harder for people to survive after four years of Bidenflation.
The US still leads China in developing new technology and advanced weaponry; however, by outsourcing the manufacturing, we are providing China with that technology.
In most cases, China is not directly manufacturing US weapons, but it is part of the supply chain for raw materials or components. The main reason for outsourcing is not that the US is incapable of production, but that it is cheaper.
However, the government paying higher prices for defense technology in the United States is preferable to the government paying money to China.
Rebuilding the US industrial base will give the US an edge in case of war. Additionally, it will reduce the income China is earning and slow the development of the PLA. It will also decrease the opportunities China has for industrial espionage, which, again, will hinder the development of China’s military capabilities.
On the domestic front, increased industrial output will create full-time jobs, which pay much better than minimum wage. Many of these jobs will not require a bachelor’s degree, providing hope and upward mobility to people who cannot afford to pay for tuition.
This will reduce the amount of student loan forgiveness the Biden administration will feel obligated to pay out to its base. It will also provide a counterargument to socialists who want the minimum wage raised to $20 for unskilled labor. Additionally, it will stave off calls for universal basic income (UBI) to help the poor survive Bidenomics.
By outsourcing defense-critical production, US corporations are signaling their lack of patriotism. Bringing production back home will increase US self-reliance while decreasing the need for welfare.
Ronald Reagan, a great American patriot who loved the nation and its self-reliance, said, “We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.” At the national level, self-reliance means the US not being dependent on other countries. At the personal level, self-reliance means working people not being dependent on the government. Both are a win for the American taxpayer.
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