Permanently Deleted
The problem with “turning the machines back on” is that when parts of the ecosystem disappear the knock on effects are enormous. Everyone that economically relied on being able to get something at x price within the country goes down with it, and everyone they supplied, and everyone they supplied. Segments of the chain disappear that were built over decades and decades. Without certain sections of the chain locally and with international competition it becomes impossible to rebuild economically without massive subsidy at an enormous scale over huge supply chains not just parts of the chain or nationalisation programs.
I think the reality is that they will simply never come back.
It’s never going to be like it was, because the flow of trade has fundamentally shifted.
But a lot of that is a function of choice. German banks could recapitalize the factory and rebuild the supply chain. That’s exactly what they did 70 years ago when Germany was bombed out the last time, and 90 years ago when it was bombed out the time before that.
The German state could nationalize the failed plants and do a little economic nationalism to re-cement them domestically.
That they likely won’t is a consequence of ideology far more than economic possibility.
