Bob -- No it won't. We have no lifeline from China as did NK with Russia. We trade with China and 'outsource' our manufacturing to China and other countries for economic reasons. They just make all our stuff for us with their cheap labor.
China has no incentive to stop selling to us. But if they did we would buy from someone else. If the whole world stopped selling to us (unlikely) then we would simply start manufacturing here again. We would not starve and start eating our children. That's ludicrous.
In the sense of your rebuttal, yes. But in a more tragic sense we not only will, but we already are, and have been for some time.
The level of debt we are piling up will devour our children and grandchildren. And contrary to what many idiots spouting the conventional wisdom have to say about it, we do NOT owe that money to China. China stopped buying our debt almost two years ago, and they never held more than a small fraction of our debt to begin with. Most of the money we owe, we owe to other Americans.
“Bob — No it won’t. We have no lifeline from China as did NK with Russia. We trade with China and ‘outsource’ our manufacturing to China and other countries for economic reasons. They just make all our stuff for us with their cheap labor.”
...and when they start demanding HARD CURRENCY for their goods and tell us to take a hike if we can’t provide that, EXACTLY WHICH factories here will we use to produce that stuff? Hint, they don’t exist in the US, anymore. As to whether that can happen...just study Iceland when their banks collapsed - ships would not even dock there unless paid in Euros because their currency, overnight, was WORTHLESS. Don’t tell me that it can’t happen here, given our debt and obligations. I’m just sorry you will have to learn that the hard way.
“China has no incentive to stop selling to us.”
Sorry, they have a HUGE INCENTIVE to stop selling to us - we’re giving them FAKE money and they are giving us REAL products in return, and they know it. They’ve complained about it (loud) and, when they get to where they need to be, they’ll stop complaining and take action.
“But if they did we would buy from someone else.”
Maybe some stuff, but not much. You need to find out just how embedded they are now in our economy. And it’s not just them that stops selling to us when our currency implodes, it’s everyone.
“If the whole world stopped selling to us (unlikely) then we would simply start manufacturing here again. We would not starve and start eating our children. That’s ludicrous.”
It takes YEARS, maybe DECADES to get an industrial base restarted. So, PLEASE tell me where we are hiding all the food we need while we ramp up. I know we keep a few months of oil (assuming Obama hasn’t emptied it), and we probably have a few months of food. But have you EVER tried to build and start up a factory? I have.
People start to starve in weeks.