Marc Andreessen

And so there's the direct supply chain implications into the military. There's also just the geopolitical thing we talked about before, which is just do countries start to use their ownership of different areas of this more as leverage in geopolitical fights?

And so there's the direct supply chain implications into the military. There's also just the geopolitical thing we talked about before, which is just do countries start to use their ownership of different areas of this more as leverage in geopolitical fights?

Then there's what we saw under COVID, which is OK, when the world goes into crisis and there's a big fight over even things that you would consider to be relatively prosaic. This is a great example. You remember in the early days of COVID, there was this idea where if you did enough testing, you could do what was called test and trace.

Then there's what we saw under COVID, which is OK, when the world goes into crisis and there's a big fight over even things that you would consider to be relatively prosaic. This is a great example. You remember in the early days of COVID, there was this idea where if you did enough testing, you could do what was called test and trace.

So you could isolate COVID clusters before they spread, which is a standard thing that people try to do for infectious disease. And it turned out they couldn't get the COVID tests out fast enough to do it. And it turned out the plastic tip that goes into the COVID testing thing, it's made by some factory in China and it's a piece of plastic. But if you can't get it, you can't make the test.

So you could isolate COVID clusters before they spread, which is a standard thing that people try to do for infectious disease. And it turned out they couldn't get the COVID tests out fast enough to do it. And it turned out the plastic tip that goes into the COVID testing thing, it's made by some factory in China and it's a piece of plastic. But if you can't get it, you can't make the test.

And so it doesn't even have to be the world's most sophisticated components that end up holding you up. It can be actually relatively simple things if you're not capable of building them internally. And then that could determine which country can respond to a pandemic.

And so it doesn't even have to be the world's most sophisticated components that end up holding you up. It can be actually relatively simple things if you're not capable of building them internally. And then that could determine which country can respond to a pandemic.

And then you just have the political and economic pressure of it, which is we just all assume, the American political system assumed for 30 years you could just offshore manufacturing out of the U.S. and that the communities that saw all their plants close throughout the Midwest and the South were just going to sit and take it.

And then you just have the political and economic pressure of it, which is we just all assume, the American political system assumed for 30 years you could just offshore manufacturing out of the U.S. and that the communities that saw all their plants close throughout the Midwest and the South were just going to sit and take it.

and that it was just going to be fine and they were going to figure out something else to do. In a lot of the U.S., they never figured out a new thing to do. And it turned out they can still vote. Part of what's happened in our political system is they've decided that they're just not having it anymore and they're going to vote for something different.

and that it was just going to be fine and they were going to figure out something else to do. In a lot of the U.S., they never figured out a new thing to do. And it turned out they can still vote. Part of what's happened in our political system is they've decided that they're just not having it anymore and they're going to vote for something different.

People argued that at the time, but the economic efficiency argument won and had its benefits. It paid off in some ways, but a lot of people in the country were radicalized. I come from a part of the country in which a lot of people were radicalized by the fact that the government and businesses apparently thought it was fine to just hollow out the economy and send everything offshore.

People argued that at the time, but the economic efficiency argument won and had its benefits. It paid off in some ways, but a lot of people in the country were radicalized. I come from a part of the country in which a lot of people were radicalized by the fact that the government and businesses apparently thought it was fine to just hollow out the economy and send everything offshore.

And so even if you are getting the payoff from the economic efficiency, your political system may not be able to withstand that. You may end up really regretting that. And so I don't think there are any easy answers here. Anybody in my view who says there's an easy answer here is wrong. This is complicated.

And so even if you are getting the payoff from the economic efficiency, your political system may not be able to withstand that. You may end up really regretting that. And so I don't think there are any easy answers here. Anybody in my view who says there's an easy answer here is wrong. This is complicated.

Probably what's going to happen is that the world will remain extremely interdependent and there will be a lot of pressure and a lot of back and forth. This whole dynamic is playing out with tariffs and trade negotiations. It will be a constant thing and has been forever. And there will be twists and turns along the way.

Probably what's going to happen is that the world will remain extremely interdependent and there will be a lot of pressure and a lot of back and forth. This whole dynamic is playing out with tariffs and trade negotiations. It will be a constant thing and has been forever. And there will be twists and turns along the way.

But fundamentally, the world will just stay interconnected in lots of ways, and we'll muddle through it. The fear is that at some point, there's a war or an even more severe pandemic or something like that, in which this all gets stressed to the point where it really breaks hard. I hope that doesn't happen. But

But fundamentally, the world will just stay interconnected in lots of ways, and we'll muddle through it. The fear is that at some point, there's a war or an even more severe pandemic or something like that, in which this all gets stressed to the point where it really breaks hard. I hope that doesn't happen. But