It’s a misunderstanding that American companies only outsource manufacturing to China or Vietnam because of cheap labour. That may have been the original reason for outsourcing but now the truth is more complex: supply chains are over there, not here. The screw maker is down the street from the laptop case manufacturer, across the road from the LCD panel maker, right next to the circuit board maker and the battery maker. So now even if a company wants to move manufacturing back the US it’s extremely difficult because they have to move 20 factories at the same time, not just 1, and those factories are all owned by different companies who keep their processes secret for competitive reasons.
You might say that under anarchism there would be no more competition, only cooperation. But that’s wishful thinking! Humans are competitive by nature and I’ve seen even families break down over competitive disagreements about inheritance and the sharing of family resources. If even people who grew up as siblings can become enemies over these disputes, I fail to see how anarchism can solve them. Most arguments I’ve seen for anarchism just assume everyone is already on board with it. Markets don’t assume that, they assume competition and let the prices work themselves out.
It’s a misunderstanding that American companies only outsource manufacturing to China or Vietnam because of cheap labour. That may have been the original reason for outsourcing but now the truth is more complex: supply chains are over there, not here. The screw maker is down the street from the laptop case manufacturer, across the road from the LCD panel maker, right next to the circuit board maker and the battery maker. So now even if a company wants to move manufacturing back the US it’s extremely difficult because they have to move 20 factories at the same time, not just 1, and those factories are all owned by different companies who keep their processes secret for competitive reasons.
You might say that under anarchism there would be no more competition, only cooperation. But that’s wishful thinking! Humans are competitive by nature and I’ve seen even families break down over competitive disagreements about inheritance and the sharing of family resources. If even people who grew up as siblings can become enemies over these disputes, I fail to see how anarchism can solve them. Most arguments I’ve seen for anarchism just assume everyone is already on board with it. Markets don’t assume that, they assume competition and let the prices work themselves out.