Like America and much of the western world, towns and cities only developed because of a particular geographical advantage or industrial necessity, such as Liverpool for the trans-atlantic sea trade, Blackpool for family holidays for the working classes, Newcastle on Tyne for the ship building and other heavy industries, Hull for the North Sea fishing, towns in Lancashire for the manufacture of cotton goods and so on.
With the decline of manufacturing in the west, these towns are hollowed out, property becomes cheap and less affluent people move in looking to get on the property ladder, whilst the more affluent move out. A slow and gradual decline, along with all the concomitant social problems swiftly follows.
If, the pandemic and the current situation in Ukraine has taught us anything, it should be that self reliance in essential manufactured goods and the supply of utilities rather than relying on global supply chains is the way forward.
|