We were a whole lot poorer when everything was only regional. We need a balance. We will be a whole lot poorer and belligerent as a species if we are totally insular.
We are actually pretty close to being able to defeat the resource scarcity of our planetary prison. Gravitational differentiation is a bitch for sequestering almost all of Earth’s heavy resources after the Theia collision and the last time the entire surface of Earth was molten. The continents are like the flux or froth that rises to the surface. Nearly all of the heavy elements on the surface of the planet are from astroid collisions that have happened since the continents formed. The thing is, there are these things called m-type asteroids that are remnants of planetesimal cores broken apart in the early formation of the Sol system. Some of these large m-type asteroids are in near Earth orbits. These are differentiated, aka concentrated with rare elements. Fully accessing just one of these has a potential to completely upend what wealth means and all of our financial institutions. It could easily dwarf all human resource wealth that has ever been accessed on the surface of Earth. Accessing this kind of resource wealth will drive us into space in the future at large scales. We already have the materials science to build O’Neill cylinders that have Earth like centrifugal gravity and are 9.1 km in diameter by ~30 kilometers long. The scientific papers establishing this were published by Dr. O’Neill in the 1970s. The only thing holding us back is the will and the resources. We only get to that future if we put aside tribalism and work together.
We don’t need this dichotomous oversimplification of all or nothing. We need balance and we need to stop the culture of unregulated unethical capitalism. Capitalism must be regulated like the drug addicted STI ridden whore that it is and handled like a worthless ragdoll because this is what it really is. Corporations are disposable worthless things. They are not people. They should be the homeless beggars. They are the fodder on the front lines of conflict because corporations and companies are not people and killing them is a great and valiant thing. New companies can fill the voids. This is the whole point in capitalism. The problem is that we have let companies rule over people and that is feudalism. It is not a democracy at all. Whores cannot lead or rule us or we fall apart. They have no ethics, no values. They would just as soon kill you, but that is okay only because they are not people and they must die with extreme prejudice. Businesses have no rights except to be useful for a time. Being established as a business must become a liability not an asset because it is within real open market capitalism. No one gets all the gambles right every time unless they are cheating and in both cases they must die.
huppakee@lemm.ee 1 day ago
I don’t disagree but a lot of chains rely on franchisers, who can still be a neighbour. Also the employees can still be your neighbour. Also the supplier can be your neighbor. Buying local is definitely a good choice, likely the better choice, but not all ‘companies headquartered in a different city’ are equally evil. Also because economy of scale is a thing. That’s why you’re not talking about ‘companies headquartered in another street’ for example.
shalafi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
All true! But the profits still get siphoned off elsewhere. My Lowe’s employs us locals, but the hardware store downtown doesn’t exist to provide shareholder value.
Again, you’re right. Non all non-local sellers are evil capitalists, hell bent on making us poor.