Made in USA
Ryan Zhao
Prof. Dochterman
WRIT 150
August 26, 2020
When the White House announced its plan to bring American enterprises back to the U.S mainland in 2016, I thought it was a great plan acting on behalf of America’s interest. In my opinion, when there is a conflict between national interest and global responsibility, the former should be prioritized since it has a greater influence on our lives.
While globalization and free trade does not automatically impose a threat to local security and it brings more positives than negatives in most cases, I think in the current America, globalization has gone too far and has become a threat. Some may argue that global trade helps to connect the world and it benefits the U.S by increasing their global presence. They are right about the positives, but the negative of global trade is the diminishing of local production capability. If America becomes over reliant on foreign imports, it will become more dependent foreign government and more vulnerable in conflicts. The threat is especially lethal currently, when we are in conflict against the country that controls a large percentage of America’s supply.
In this case, the conflict is whether to continue outsourcing products to foreign countries to champion global trade or to localize production for national security. Increasing global presence and cutting production cost is great, but isn’t local security much more important? The outflow of manufacturing has brought devastating to the working class, leaving millions jobless. Even worse, outsourcing production is making America more vulnerable. Just look at the ongoing pandemic, when countries decreased international travel to contain inflection, many imports were unable to arrive on time. What if there is a conflict between China and the U.S? How are we going to support ourselves with our production line in enemy’s territory?
Expanding production may make more sense economically, but localizing for the sake of national interest should be enforced when there is a conflict between the two. The process will be costly, but it will bring us more security in the long term.
