Think of how most Americans live now compared to how they did a few generations ago. My Great Grand parents were farmers and grew all of their own food. They grew all kinds of things in Calif and raised chickens and cows to eat. They made their own shoes out of leather, their own clothes out of raw material, and even built their own small house. Today, most of us are not self-sufficient and could not be if we had to. Most of us have a skill however, that allows us to make enough money to pay others to grow our food, build our homes, etc.
How many of us, if something catastrophic were to occur, could go out and build a cabin in the woods, hunt for our own food, and defend ourselves?
Our nation losing its ability to make its own things, is becoming less self-sufficient in much of the same way. The world we are living in now, is one where we can use our high tech skills to make money in order to buy everything made in our countries, but that could change with one cataclysmic event. At the very least, we better make sure we continue to build our own weapons and grow our own food. A nation can’t just start providing for itself again over night once it’s lost its know-how and resources for those things.