201984 3 days ago

Farming equipment needs microchips, as does practically any modern device, vehicle, machine, etc. If you don't have domestic microchip production then pretty much everything else you make will have foreign dependencies that could be embargoed.

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iw2rmb 3 days ago | parent [-]

Microchips for farming are made in several counties including US. There are highly specific processors, like those required for ML, but that’s not what farming can live without.

Having narratives as broad as yours, without any evidence and reasoning, is the fastest way to achieve Russia-level disaster with government monopoly in the name of “security”.

The only sense it makes if you want corruption at state level and to go on war with at least half of the world.

Good luck with that.

Hello from Moscow.

	▲	mlyle 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I think there's surely a little bit of a middle ground? Subsidizing and protecting local production has a cost: there are gains from trade and operating less efficiently makes everyone's standard of living goes down. But you don't need to go 100% into protectionism. You can ensure that you have enough domestic industry to - better weather changes and disruptions - have a starting knowledge and capital base to use to ramp up production if you have to. Just having a few percent of domestic demand for advanced ICs covered by local production is enough to make the worst international shocks much softer. Critical needs can still get filled. So a certain amount of subsidy can make sense.