Reshoring in the Americas

While there is much talk of essentially “reshoring” industry back into the USA it is worth considering another aspect of reshoring: nonessential goods. It is true that the United States can produce all the essential goods and extract all the essential resources (bar rubber) within its own borders.

The same, however, cannot be said nonessential goods. Goods such as vanilla, cocoa, coffee, cinnamon, sugarcane, and so forth are not impossible to grow in the USA. In practice though the labor and environmental requirements are challenging enough to make it a bad idea. While the goods are not necessary to live they are still highly desirable.

If we want these goods but don’t want to source them from faraway regions such as Southeast Asia we need a closer alternative. We also need more ways to effectively bind the rest of the Americas to us. As you might have guessed there is indeed a way to achieve both ends.

Enter mercantile economics, or in other words “client states produce stuff to go into the patron state and vice versa”. Much of Central and South America is ideally suited for growing these nonessential goods. Given that we are ourselves have great difficulty growing those luxuries we do not lose out economically in this arrangement.

It is a win-win solution for both us and our client states south of the border. It may even boost our own exports to them in the form of agricultural equipment. By doing this we both strengthen our supply lines (by shortening them) and increase our influence within the Americas.

This practice can enhance our ability to revert to our natural tendency, isolationism. If the world outside of the Americas does not even provide us with our most desirable luxuries (let alone necessities) what is the point of overseas adventurism?

Eventually we might achieve the ability to effectively close off the Americas to the old world entirely. This would effectively ensure our hegemony over the hemisphere into perpetuity. Whatever happens to the old world will simply not matter to us one iota.