Could this work ?

Reading that the big 3 auto makers in the US are in serious financial trouble, and given that every country in the world needs to export to survive, I was wondering how it would work if countries specialised by producing what they individually were best at. For example, if the US just stopped building vehicles and converted back to an agricultural export economy and say Germany and Japan produced vehicles for the rest of the world. This setup would be dependant on each countries climate etc, to decide what their contribution was to world needs. I know that this is simplistic, but does anyone see what I am getting at. On a side note, I stay in Scotland and one thing we are not short of is water, and I used to laughingly say that we should just trade with OPEC a straight swap of a tanker of water for a tanker of oil, as they have an abundance of oil and water shortages.

I think that's an excellent idea, its just common sense, back to basics is what we need, I just feel that most of the so called oil rich country's hate us way too much to be that diplomatic. nice vision though, be nice to know it could work. s+f

No one would ever go for this, it makes too much sense.

This may not work because not all countries have something to export that's of value. Especially smaller islands. Also, this makes us very dependent on other countries. If India is the leading exporter of X and they decide.. "you know, I don't really want to share X anymore. Good luck world we're 100% self-sufficient!"

It's a good idea, but I feel isolationism is a better idea. Why not solve our problems and become self-reliant. Then maybe we can begin trading our surplus with other countries.