This guy’s an economist, right? I get that it doesn’t mean he’s only allowed to have opinions about economics, but I feel like it would have added a lot more substance.

So the US is underprepared for a hypothetical war with China, and arguably is underprepared for the conflicts it’s currently in. Why is that? We spend vastly more than anyone else on defense, but just one of China’s shipyards is vastly more productive than our entire shipbuilding capacity. Why is that? It seems like we can’t spend our way out of the problems he brings up. Is there something about our political economy that isn’t working?

edit: spelling