Side effect of globalism. Places like Brazil have a competitive advantage, therefore production migrates to lowest cost centers. Over time the higher cost centers i.e. US can't compete, so capital flows to where it can get the biggest ROI.
I don't think there's anything nefarious about it but it's a good illustration why unbridled capitalism and competitive advantage framework that drove globalism for the last 40 years has deep flaws. You can't sacrifice your domestic industries and depend on others. We're finding this out with rare earth metals, chips and other things. Last thing we want is our food supply to be dependent on a far away nation.
e. but a counterpoint to my point is we do need to care for the general populace/consumer, especially when they are being squeezed by pervasive inflation. When ground beef is 7 dollars a pound, sorry farmer bros it's time to bring in the Argentinian beef
AKA the ball and chain for the middle class. It's not exactly unbridled capitalism, that implies a level playing field of capitalism rules. We have some companies that leveraged capitalism conditions of prior USA to establish themselves and also influence the overarching government into a Corporate Socialist model. And the corporate socialist model controls aspects of the raw materials and the regulatory body. This means your average middle class man woman who say 80 years ago used to do things like fix their home fix their tractor fix their car yada yada can't.
Well it's not really impossible you just have to placate corporate socialists now. For example say you're pretty handy, you off to install your own metal roof to manufacture standards. The reasonable expectation most people have is they pull permit do the work it inspected seems fair. All between Minnesota and Wisconsin permits and inspections on a average size house can have a difference in cost of $35,000.
Back to the DIY roof example following manufacturer and state codes. Surprise your insurance just denied you because you're not a licensed contractor. You could have a 4-year a better credited degree but if you don't have the basic maybe 12 hours of effort put into a contractor and a sole proprietor and a liability insurance just to do your own roof, some corporate socialist insurance company going to say no no no
Ending the rant, heard a story of Amish turning on their lumber Mills again because it's cheaper than going big box. And I think people are sick of glued together wood chips when we used to build houses with old growth planks
This post was edited by RedFromWinter on Jun 8 2026 06:44am