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> We are slowly but surely witnessing the collapse of Western Tech scene

Is economy a zero sum game now? Isn't economic development supposed to be a good thing? Can the West only exist in a world of poverty and underdevelopment?

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The current western lifestyle of dirt cheap foreign goods exists only in a world of relative poverty and underdevelopment.

That doesn't make sense. Consumer goods have become cheaper and more accessible because the third world has become more productive and richer. If they become richer still it will be because they become more productive still, which will mean their exports will be more competitive (cheaper).

With high degrees of automation that need not be the case. Consumer electronics is highly automated right now, where-as clothing production is currently not.

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