Yup, there's merit to what you wrote.
It's a problem with capitalism and the economics of scarce resources.
In early Economics classes one studies things like fish, then you extrapolate it to all things, because all things are scarce at some point.
A thing I do at times is I ask a group to list the things we need in order of importance. Water, food and clothing everyone gets. Putting shelter in proper perspective is fun in the group dynamic, while people consider where others in the world live. But, universally, no group ever remembers air. And I challenge them with trying to position love among the list.
A problem with our country is ours will only ever be a capitalistic approach to how to sell something to China. And they're too smart to buy it. And all the "Frenchmen" on the planet aren't going to change that. No matter what their handshake is like.
I'm always with compassion for Hawkings, but I wonder if that's what's really at root to him writing we need to leave the planet?