An interesting chart from one of my favorite sites … Visual Capitalist. Showing imports by state in America. This is certainly not something to be proud of. In fact, it is a good indicator of weakness under the general theory that the more a county or state has to import products to sustain it the weaker this county or state is. The real interesting data is within the Exports of each state and not the Imports.
Exports to Imports create an important data juncture for tracking productivity in the nation. Those that produce more than they consume. Those on one end of a spectrum running from consumption to production. The full spectrum of what people do more of. Some are consumers more than producers. In fact, some are outright vampires sucking life out of everyone they come in contact with.
In some ways – in many ways, actually – it comes down to the ideas in the prophetic novels of Ayn Rand I read with interest but in the end found it hard to believe all of this could happen here. A time where producers of the world are lined up – in many ways – against the consumers of the world. The change goes from the Proletariate to Bourgeoisie.
In the end, the winners of the below are actually the losers in being self sufficient. One might even say that the Highest import states represent what Karl Marx would term the highest Bourgeoisie states or consumers depending on producers for their consumption habit.
Yet perhaps the terms of Import and Export mean much more than we can imagine today. Perhaps the entire fate of the world is determined to a large extent by the percentage of people who take from life rather than give to life.Of course those incarcerated are in this dataset. But the greatest takers from life, the greatest vampires of the world, never end up incarcerated, behind bars. It is only the general takers in life that make up county and state statistics. The overall term of Import is an important percentage to look at. Per the county or state’s population, how does this import figure work out on a chart or index.
We fight so much today between Democrats and Republicans, Progressives and Conservatives.
Yet isn’t the real battle in so many ways between – as Ayn Rand reminded – producers and consumers? Isn’t this a more accurate way to see the dynamics of the world today. A way leading perhaps to insights rather than more distractions.