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No, this isn’t always the problem.

People are not fungible resources. You can’t simply turn a programmer from Google into a Lithium miner by paying more.

The expertise China has built up is only around 20 years old, so it’s not like we couldn’t develop it in 20 years. Doing so in a free market way that isn’t undercut by Chinese suppliers, however, would be tricky (so some non free market mechanism is needed).

> so it’s not like we couldn’t develop it in 20 years.

20 yrs is a very long time.

It’s not really that long, but I guess it depends on how old you are (perception of passing time speeds up rapidly after 40).

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