Just a few minutes ago I heard a woman named Sarah Van Gelder making a pitch for autarky in the name of eliminating war and helping the environment.
There is no evidence whatever that autarky would result in less war or in a better environment and there are some extremely good examples that suggest that it wouldn’t. During the period when both were officially autarkies, the world’s two largest autarkies, China and India, went to war with one another. Autarky promotes less efficient use of resources which seems to me would cause greater use of various resources rather than less and, consequently, would require more resources and therefore be less sustainable.
Although we can’t reasonably claim that autarky would result in less war or a better environment we can be pretty confident that it would result in more poverty and misery because that’s what it’s brought everywhere it’s been tried.
Peddling claptrap like this as profound thought aimed at promoting a positive future is like hailing Tiny Tim as a great musician.
