Easy to know U.S. lost expertise, but tough question how do you get it back? Tariffs? A larger military-industrial complex? Even larger government?
if anything, that "I can just go" leads to more of a cult or prison than a dictatorship.
You don't need a centrally planned economy. Subsidies are enough incentive to at least keep a bit of production around.
> Easy to know U.S. lost expertise, but tough question how do you get it back?
Invest money into subsidies / R&D like in the icebreaker case, or raise tariffs against Chinese and Indian price dumping.
Currently US federal government spending is around 36% of GDP, which means 36% of the US economy is in fact centrally planned, albeit with some devolution in some cases.
64% of the federal budget goes to social security, medicare/medicaid, disability etc. That is, it goes to individuals. It's not meaningful to call that economic planning. It's not in the slightest like paying for defense contractors or research or infrastructure.
11% goes to interest payments, ie people who bought bonds etc. For individuals that's certainly not central planning, since they are the ones who decided to buy. A large amount goes towards paying of quant. easing etc, but it seems a little goofy to count that like we spend it every year still.