Dear gods. Without rare earth metals the US could regress technologically. We’d likely revert to cathode ray tubes and other post WW2 tech. That is until fusion is sustainable and then we get fight over energy for some reason. Next thing you know it’s October 23, 2077…
Rare earth metals aren’t even rare though. They are just not found in concentrated form like gold. And metallurgists in the past had a hard time isolating the metals that’s why they called them rare.
It’s just that China can mine them cheaply since the Chinese government doesn’t care about labor rights and the environment. Europe and Australia has rare earth metal deposits.
The US has deposits too. Some of the ones our military equipment needs most are found in Zinc mines and we let our refinery capability for them lapse in the 1990’s. So all we actually need to do is get a refinery built.
Some wastelander is gonna find my bottle cap collection and get as excited as a pirate finding a buried chest full of gold dabloons. If they don’t immediately go to New Vegas and visit Fisto then I collected them all for nothing
Dear gods. Without rare earth metals the US could regress technologically. We’d likely revert to cathode ray tubes and other post WW2 tech. That is until fusion is sustainable and then we get fight over energy for some reason. Next thing you know it’s October 23, 2077…
Rare earth metals aren’t even rare though. They are just not found in concentrated form like gold. And metallurgists in the past had a hard time isolating the metals that’s why they called them rare.
It’s just that China can mine them cheaply since the Chinese government doesn’t care about labor rights and the environment. Europe and Australia has rare earth metal deposits.
Europe and Australia do, but honestly, as a European, I’d rather trade with China than the US right now. Even though both are shit.
Why are we always having to choose the lesser of 2 evils! Where’s the fkn good option!!!
Europe?
Have you met an Australian recently?
The US has deposits too. Some of the ones our military equipment needs most are found in Zinc mines and we let our refinery capability for them lapse in the 1990’s. So all we actually need to do is get a refinery built.
Yep just build a refinery over the Easter long weekend
It won’t take a super long time either once they plonk the “national security needs” tag on it to make it immune to impact assessments and such.
And that’s why all labour rights should be dropped!
Some wastelander is gonna find my bottle cap collection and get as excited as a pirate finding a buried chest full of gold dabloons. If they don’t immediately go to New Vegas and visit Fisto then I collected them all for nothing
Luckily I’ll be a dead gonk by then… Wait, wrong universe. But no chance I’ll end up as a ghoul.
In the cyberpunk universe the tech exists that we could all still be alive, I mean look at Rogue, she didn’t age a day in 57 years.
But I’m pretty certain I’ll be pushing daises by the time the bombs drop
Ooh I hope tubes come back. I need cheaper and better quality tubes for my guitar amp collection damn it!
It will be the Black Friday before another Great Depression.
…right?
…right???
If only we had an ally who needed our oversized military who also had a huge reverse of rare earth elements.
If only they were still an ally after the current shenanigans of the senile president.