self-sufficiency

     Families worry about making ends meet, and paying the bills--but so do countries. Countries also worry about "making a living", and about self-sufficiency.  Here in America, we may find this difficult to understand, since we are a prosperous nation, with the potential for self-sufficiency. That means we can grow or produce everything we actually need. We grow more food than we need, have plenty of fresh water, and have a large supply of coal, oil, and natural gas. We import a lot of manufactured goods now, but we used to make them ourselves, and could make the things we need again, if it became necessary. If we didn't import anything, we would only miss some spices, tea, and coffee.
    Some countries are not so fortunate. The Arab nations are a good example. They have a lot of oil, which they can sell to get food and other things they need, but they are not self-sufficient. They cannot grow enough food for all of their citizens, since so much of their land is desert. Without foreign trade--other nations buying oil from them--they can't survive. They can't eat oil--or money.