Domestic Strategic Manufacturing

It's about sovereign interest, and if you rely on foreign assistance to run state, you are a vassal at best. Last time I checked, Russia is still holding onto annexed land in Ukraine, and there is a proxy war in Yemen, the Korean peninsula is prepared for a full blown conflict at any moment, hostilities between India and Pakistan, and on, and on, and on, and on. There are absolutely ambitious geopolitical interests at play willing to use brutal force as a means to obtain their goals at cost

I'm normally a free market type of guy, but national defense is an exception. Our capacity to produce semiconductors without depending on foreign entities is as vital to national security as our capacity for food production. No nation can be strong if they rely on other nations to maintain that strength.

There is national security interest in being able to manufacture our own weapons, computers, and infrastructure components. Otherwise if a war happens we may be in trouble.

Some people think countries should keep a certain amount of certain industries around, regardless of whether they can be run profitably, just in case a big war breaks out and you need those things and can't source them from abroad.A government might keep things like shipyards in business, even if they can't compete in the global market, just in case we ever need a rush order of new warships. And keep steel mills in business to supply the shipyards, and so on.Because modern

Insofar as the country being conquered and Americans being slaughtered wholesale would be against our economic interests lolThere are clear national security reasons for the government to prop up shipbuilding and semiconductors.

Because you can't make war without chips. During war, global supply chains are cut off. And if you can't make war, then you can't have a global order on your terms. Instead, you have a global order on the terms of the Chinese. They become powerful and rich. You (and your allies) become weak and poor.You make chips in the US for the same reason you make nukes in the US.It applies to other countries only insofar as they want to be independent. Most Western countries can shelte

It’s a step towards a fully self-sufficient defense industry. Something the US had better learn (especially in infrastructure) if we are at war with China and suddenly nobody in the US can buy any electronics.

National security is my guess.The inability to build ships at scale doesn't bode well during today's return to cold war / inter-war geopolitics.

Two more national security reasons:1. There is the problem of depending on potential enemies (all others have potential to be enemies) for goods that are critical to the military and/or general economy. Suppliers can threaten to cut supplies. Note that this can happen even if actual shooting war is unlikely; the threat to cut supplies is a brutal negotiating tactic that can block us diplomatically. For example, if we depended on Russia, they could demand that we support the Syrian govern

I do believe these masks are also made in the US, but this situation highlights exactly why a country having its own major manufacturing base is not just an economic need but rather also a national security need. The US needs to invest in itself immediately to rebuild its lost manufacturing base.In economic terms, under certain definitions and assumptions that are typical under modern economics, a trade war such as the current US-China trade war result in welfare losses. I believe, however, t