It appears to me that the complete deindustrialization of the imperial core is a historical arc that, since 1973, has been more or less unstoppable. The question is, if a socialist world revolution were to happen in the near future, and they basically established JDPON, how would it be possible to reindustrialize the former imperialist nations without relying on exploiting the former periphery countries? The actual productive capacity has been decimated.
Yes, tremendously easy with internationally coordinated central planning.
The US and Canada have a wealth of mineral and energy reserves, as does Australia, in addition to significant agricultural capacity.
Consumer goods would diminish (at least the short term, unrepairable gizmos that dominate consumerism) and there would need to be significant retraining away from bullshit jobs, but the progress of the USSR in 20 years - without 170 years of capital accumulation - is instructive.
The GDR was a thing. They manged, even when they were blocked from a lot of global trade.
I don’t think industrialization requires exploitation, that’s just a cheat code that imperialists use to develop at a rate that allows them to maintain the illusion of stability in the core. The West will just have to go back to being a poor backwater and build up their shit honestly this time.
That’s definitely true, but exploitation free industrialization is close to unprecedented. There’s a good reason the USSR had to adopt the NEP.
The USSR also had to play catch up with empire to maintain an effective resistance. Organic development is slower, but that’s how you develop culture and arts. Which is what the west really needs to spend its time on. We’ll just import high quality Chinese goods for a couple of centuries while America becomes an afro indigenous commune and the Irish teach the rest of Europe the concept of having a good time.
Possibly, depends on how it’s done. I think a better question is; can the west re-industrialise without destroying the planet?
no
Maybe, but I think if the goal was to avoid a major economic collapse in the west then peripheral nations would end up having to support former imperial powers as they re-industrialized. Ironically, I think China has been hoping for this to happen naturally as it’s the only path the world really has towards a long term stability. Unfortunately, I don’t think western countries have the capacity to plan for the long term and enact the kind of industrial policy necessary to make it happen. Even if those in power can see and understand the problem at hand, they are incapable of doing anything about it. As such, I think it’s more likely they’ll have no choice but to resort to various forms of imperial domination which just makes an economic crisis more likely if they fail.
In this type of scenario I think the industrialization would be possible by using a lot of robots and AI and much less human labor to manage and oversee it all. This would cut labor cost enough to make up for the increased material cost
That seems like it just exacerbates the issue, though. What industry remains in the core is extremely capital intensive and is only sustainable because of exploitation of the Global South; making it more capital intensive is incompatible with deconstructing imperialism.
Yeah I don’t think it’s really going to happen, and honestly it probably would be prison slave labor instead of robots that cut labor costs.
