We'll have to toss a few more bucks to the warlords in Africa.

all of ur technology is most likely made in china. majority of ur clothes is made in china, with exceptions of some such as pakistan, turkey or india.
probably every single plastic product in your home is made in china.

pain meds, face masks, over the counter prescription drugs, makeup, hygiene products, car parts.

where would you get it from? both europe and america are completely depended on china
if they closed their export, you wouldn't get anything from anywhere else cos you couldn't afford it.

Its a delicate balance between the USA and China - where China would also completely collapse economically without one of their biggest trading partners. The US population would initially suffer, but I think it could manage - people would have enough goods stockpiled both in their homes and in our warehouse stores to at least live once the slave labor was cut off.

I agree though, it would be a rude awakening for people who've gotten used to getting their 600 dollar iphones, instead of paying 3k for it.

good, less cheap ass iPhones convincing people to upgrade ever 12 months.

in any case china's status as a "superpower" depends on those exports. without us they're nothing. who do they sell to?

difference is, china's economy would suffer, but they'd still be 100% self sustainable. you could close their borders for 500 years, and you would find them well afterwards.
close USA's borders for 2 months and you'll have a post apocalyptic survival scene. western societies are too spoiled and don't even realize the amount of products we're getting from asia.
I was not only shocked when I read into it, but actually terrified.

Yeah this I absolutely can't defend on our part - we've gotten ourselves backed into a corner in that we don't produce enough for ourselves anymore. North America has gotten too used to just buying, selling and manipulating their way into getting whatever they want - less emphasis on hard work and creation, more emphasis on exploitation. So far it has worked to our advantage, but the fatal weakness is evident - we need a more balanced economy that rewards the creation of American made goods.

Honestly, I think putting an embargo on China would be a great way to force massive private investment on ways to recover those minerals without the environmental damage. That's the kind of thing that isn't gonna get done while we can get them cheap and dirty.

Ehh.

People have this perception that technology is a magic wand. If you put enough money into something eventually some tech will be developed and voila!

That’s not always the case. I’m not really sure if mining can ever be clean. Like there’s a lot of toxic chemical processes that have to take place for some of these metals to be separated from everything else and be ready for industrial usage.

The big thing is going to be recycling and recovering already mined resources, which is already being developed but isn't given priority since they can be purchased.

Im a fan of the old saying that necessity is the mother of innovation. They wont figure it out unless they need to.

China is not producing all the food they need.