This place is comically negative. Everything starts somewhere.

They're just practice belters.

It's easier to blame someone else than to point out if we had invested in automation and advanced manufacturing and upskilled, we could still be a production location. That would mean reinvestment though, and not just sucking money out of production.

The few remaining productive works in the west are those with technological uphands or protective tarrifs etc.

You and I both, friend, you and I both. That board of directors meeting is definitely going out with a bang.

Technically we don't know how their economy worked, so it's a stretch to say they had no type of market system.

Good chance young people will do it for enjoyment. Never built a tree fort with your buddies growing up?

But likely people will do it for social stance. The Culture series by Banks covers this topic thoroughly.

Now that is real cyberpunk dystopian shit.

Imagine camping and seeing "IPHONE XV 24/5/5" scroll across the sky in the middle of a dead silent lake.