This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
How China Ate America's Lunch
In response to one of my recent posts, The Sceptical Market Observer: A New Set of Crisis Villains, Clif Carothers sent me a very insightful and elaborate comment on the relative evolution of the economies of China and the United States over the last 35 years. He claims, very convincingly, that China has deliberately and successfully exploited Europe and America’s wealth to leverage its own development. Less a conspiracy than a brilliantly executed plan, the bottom line is that China’s strategy worked. The brilliant exposé below should be an eye opener for most.
Originally entitled “Kyoto Protocols Would Have Accelerated China’s Plan to Reverse-Exploit EurAmerica”, I changed the title of the piece because Clif’s thesis covers much more ground. It is a fascinating story and I am very proud to present it here.
If you are patient and read the whole piece, you will get to the Kyoto Protocol part of the story. America’s response to Kyoto somehow suggests that not everyone is sleeping at the switch. But as Clif discusses towards the end of this post, the level of awareness about what needs to be done in this country needs to be raised if we are to succeed in getting back into the game.
Here it goes:
My set of Villains...
China had a better strategy and executed it brilliantly
Multinational Corporations (MNCs) saw an opportunity to ride the wave of America's destruction for profit and the business of business is profit so...
Bankers are in the business of transferring capital flow to the highest returns and those are to be found in China so..
Politicians are in the business of getting elected and that comes mostly from having more campaign funds from MNCs and bankers than one's opponent sooooooooo....
In 1978, the year China emerged onto the world stage with its four modernizations, China, a country with four times the population of the United States, had a paltry gross domestic product of $216 billion, less than eight percent of the United States. China exposed her strategy of four modernizations to the world as if to say, “Please invest in China and we will ensure that our workforce is educated, and that our business infrastructure is stable for your investment.” Yet, this openly expressed strategy, that may have seemed to the rest of the world as a difficult but noble goal for China to achieve, was only the tip of China’s Grand Plan, and only the part she wanted the world to see.
EurAmerica’s history with China was one of gunboat diplomacy, exploitation, and forced trading. When China opened her borders again in 1979, EurAmerica’s merchants were enthusiastic to exploit an opportunity again. Yet, China had not forgotten EurAmerica’s role in the Opium War, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Boxer Rebellion. China would never open her border again to be exploited. When she finally opened her border in 1979, it was from a position of power, deep strategy, and long lived planning that suggested EurAmerica was finally ripe for reverse exploitation. China’s grand plan was to emerge as the 21st century world power.
What boldness of purpose China must have felt as she aligned her nation’s efforts to that decade’s long task. Looking back today on her impossible achievements, one must give pause to the monumental economic goal she set for herself in 1978, indeed greater than America’s technical goal of landing on the moon early in 1961. Yet, with such a miniscule $216 billion GDP and few material assets how could China possibly build her empire to surpass that of the United States?
Through a hybrid statist-capitalist political structure, China would create a conduit through which American businesses would willingly draw down the wealth of Europe and America and transfer it to China in order to share in the prosperity of that wealth transfer. Through the centralized imposition of forced savings on its people, China would provide low cost labor to sell goods at low enough prices to cause EurAmerica to look the other way as their neighbors’ jobs went to China. Through low interest loans, China would entice EurAmerican politicians to spend beyond their means to temporarily ease the pain of EurAmerica as China’s sucked away their life force. These were the basis of her strategy.
Similarly to how a business cycle contains early adopters and late stage laggards, China planned a capital extraction cycle for EurAmerica, in which China would extract capital in multiple phases, each phase having an optimal extraction strategy. First extraction would be through the early adopter “gold rush” investors rushing into China to stake a claim. China would also plan for early majority, late majority and laggard’s capital extraction.
In 1978, China assessed America’s assets:
• America’s most valuable assets were intellectual capital that resulted from 200 years of publicly funded primary and publicly subsidized secondary education
• America’s physical assets included business assets, commercial, and residential real estate worth $7 trillion in addition to public assets of land, buildings, and infrastructure
• America produced 26% of the world’s GDP at $2.8 trillion and consumed a quarter of the world’s goods
• America’s debt was as low as it had been since WWII as a percentage of GDP and its 110 million workers were capable of doubling their loans to provide China more capital
• America’s Baby boomers were entering a peak spending phase followed by peak saving
• America’s constitutional republic allowed a relative few capitalists to control the direction of her economy
By 1978, multinational corporations had steadily grown in number and size for two decades. China’s success depended on corralling MNCs through direct foreign investment to create massive inflows of capital quickly monetized as hard assets and infrastructure.
China would entice merchants to invest by offering access to the future potential purchasing power of its people. However, given China’s low household incomes, market penetration would be low to start. Therefore, to entice the early adopters, China would create special economic zones that provided the perfect investment opportunity of cheap educated labor, loose regulation, low taxation, strengthened business law, and enhanced infrastructure and transportation, in which businesses could produce goods at very low arbitrage costs to sell back to their home countries for high margins.
With low cost of goods from special economic zones, early adopter businesses were highly profitable and banks poured investment into China as a result. But, China could not complete her Grand Plan to multiply her GDP 50 times by enticing early adopter investors alone. She had to implement a plan timed to extract maximum dollars from EurAmerica at each phase of her exponential growth.
During the next stage, the early majority stage, China manipulated baby boomers’ peak spending phase:
• China’s low prices secured America’s baby boomers as loyal customers
• Prior to America noticing a substantial loss of jobs, China secured free trade agreements, and mined American businesses for their intellectual capital.
• She reinvested profits back into America’s debt to keep America’s interest rates artificially low in order to spur on higher levels of consumer spending and government borrowing.
• China supported lobbying of America’s mass investment vehicles to fund MNCs. 401Ks and IRAs, created in ‘80and ’81, funneled money through the stock market into MNCs for investment into China.
Then, America was drawn into the late majority stage as America’s baby boomers entered their peak saving years. 401Ks and IRAs artificially fed the stock market frenzy. Baby boomers sensed they knew how to invest in a bubble market that kept rising. With access to low interest rate loans kept low by China’s reinvestment, speculators borrowed money to bet on the rising stock market. America ultimately increased its debt to pump up stock values to build more Chinese factories.
Inevitably, the stock market bubble burst, leaving America’s baby boomers with lower retirement savings. The stock market that seemed destined to go up forever finally reversed rapidly decreasing valuations. However, the debt that had funded its escalation remained.
During the late majority phase:
• More businesses began to invest in China just to remain competitive with businesses that had moved offshore earlier.
• Tens of thousands of businesses transferred factories to China to obtain low cost labor
• Millions of Americans lost jobs
• With a generation of education completed, China now was able to take more advanced jobs as well as factory jobs. America’s bastion of protected, more technically competent jobs was not a bastion after all.
• American retail outlets for Chinese goods grew exponentially
• China continued to loan its excess profits back to the American government to keep interest rates low.
After having lived through the weakness of the stock market, real estate appeared to be the baby boomers’ best retirement savings alternative. In the early stages of the Great Ponsi, housing prices went steadily up. With low interest rates, Americans could now borrow on the value of their homes to continue funding China’s growth. China’s final stages of extraction saw the housing bubble increase beyond what had ever been experienced before.
Even though American jobs were increasingly being driven offshore, the frenzy of increased housing prices allowed additional borrowing from Americans, feeding the China gold rush further. This behavior was not unexpected, following a pattern of historical boom-bust cycles and was part of China’s planning. As a result of the stock bubble and the housing bubble, America’s total debt had risen to over $55 trillion. With such exuberance in the housing market, secondary debt markets participated in credit default swaps to the tune of an additional $42 trillion. China now had extracted close to the maximum of America’s value, leaving America with the corresponding debt.
So China extracted maximum value, first in trade secrets and early adoptive money, then by IRAs and 401Ks, then by stock market and home equity loans, then by 2nd mortgages and housing speculation. China monetized the massive cash flows as quickly as possible, building infrastructure and excess manufacturing capacity, while leaving America holding debt in exchange.
Without any other rising asset values to borrow from, America has tapped out its debt. Having maxed its debt, America can only print money to finance its trade deficits. Without further real debt derived money extraction to give China for infrastructure investment and without a real ability to pay for low cost Chinese goods, America is fast losing her worth to China as an infrastructure vehicle. Recognizing that maximized extraction and rapid monetization of America’s wealth is nearing its end, China is now finalizing the implementation of her strategy, that of pulling out of American debt before other countries that maintain reserve currencies create a run on the dollar.
In thirty short years, China was able to accelerate her GDP from $216 billion to $11 trillion. She amassed reserve capital of $3 trillion. She reversed America’s fortunes from the greatest creditor nation to the greatest debtor nation. She gutted America’s factories while creating the world’s largest manufacturing base in her own country. A measure of output that highly correlates to GDP is energy consumption. In June of this year, 2011, China surpassed the United States as the largest consumer of energy on the planet. While the U.S consumes 19 percent of the world’s energy, China consumes 20.3 percent.
In 1992, the world came together to discuss the impact of climate change resulting from energy consumption. The talks resulted in Kyoto protocols being initially adopted in 1997 that attempted to create a framework for reducing greenhouse emissions. The protocols called for 33 industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gases to 1990 levels and then to maintain emissions at those levels. Although it called for emerging countries like China to voluntarily lower levels, it did not require them to be mandated.
Of course, all of the countries who had no requirements to reduce their emissions signed the agreement. The United States, under scrutiny from environmentalists and others did not sign. China did sign. This was an additional strategy perhaps not envisioned in 1978 that nonetheless would have assisted in accelerating America’s slide had we signed.
GDP highly correlates to energy usage. In 1990, America’s real GDP was about $8 trillion as compared to $14 trillion in 2011. Kyoto would have caused America to either:
• Invest billions in the attempt to lower our energy usage per dollar of GDP
• Pay billions to other countries to have them produce less so that we could grow our GDP from $8 to $14 trillion
• Or, maintain our GDP at 8 trillion
In the meantime, China’s GDP in 1990 was $1.3 trillion and has since grown to over $10 trillion. China’s energy use has correspondingly grown as well until the point that this month, she overtook America as the greatest polluter. Kyoto was a grand idea that was doomed from the start because of the flaw that allowed the now greatest polluter to play by different rules. It attempted to cap the economic growth of America while allowing other countries to grow unfettered.
China had a Grand Plan that has been executed with the finesse expected of a centrally planned economy. Kyoto added nicely to that plan. America has been thwarted by China’s plan but now has the ability to reverse course. Given China’s size and growth rate, she will pass us soon if she has not already and her stride will be too great for us to catch her. However, by avoiding traps like Kyoto, and understanding that economic gamesmanship can accomplish a much greater destruction of a nation’s wealth than warfare ever could, perhaps America can once again right its course.
ME: When a reader then asked Clif , “Are you concluding that the US does or doesn't have a prayer in hell of recovering any momentum or GDP growth to nice numbers ever again?” here was his answer:
The remaining debt capacity of any size that is capable of being used to support renewal remains with America's MNC's and they have not yet been incentivized to return home. The capacity for new jobs is contained in our private small businesses but access to credit has been denied to them by our current banking structure. It needs to be bypassed. Our contracted economy remains too risky to hire new employees. Their wages must be subsidized to reduce risks. America continues to allow our trade secrets to leave offshore for a fraction of their worth. We must revisit our private property laws as they pertain to offshore sales and investments. China and other countries continue to bring goods into our country at a net negative benefit to our citizens. An overhaul of our trade policies is needed.
One hundred percent of our federal tax revenues are spent on the three Ms of military, Medicare and Medicaid. It's an abomination of national compulsion that must be reversed. Our deficits will soon trigger a massive run on the dollar; we are that close. We obviously must incur massive cuts in public spending. Public spending cuts of the size needed to reverse course on our debt crisis would trigger a depression without an offsetting spend on the private side, thus the incentivizing of MNCs and dollar shifting from unemployment benefits to employment vouchers that are required for the offset.
These changes are all quite doable and could help avert what will otherwise be America's darkest days ahead. The challenge will be to fill our representative democracy with those that both understand the problems we face and that have the courage to act boldly on them.
ME: And a further comment on the nature of the “Republic”:
As a furtherance of the discussion, a potential villain is that an upgrade to our Republic form of government is required. It suited us well and certainly better than earlier versions of Republic governments before ours had suited their people. However, Madison was right to be concerned. Yet all the protections placed within our federal system may not have been enough.
When asked by a political commentator whether or not he would relax his stance on Medicare and Social Security being off the table as far as debt ceiling negotiations were concerned, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont stated today (that was around July 8th) that the vast majority of Americans have stated they want the wealthy to pay more instead of them having to sacrifice to solve the nation’s debt issues. It seems logical that if most are suffering while a privileged few are prospering, that the prosperous may be in some obscure way responsible for others’ misery and that they should be the ones that pull us all out of the economic fire.
When it comes to solving our nation’s fiscal crisis, we are now in the “not in my backyard” stage of negotiations. No-one wants to feel the pain that we will all ultimately endure. The old saying that misery loves company is true for American politics. If any of us are called to sacrifice, we demand to see equal sacrifice by others as well. However, in this early stage of “not in my backyard”, we still are desperately hopeful that the evil doers will be caught and that justice will prevail without any of us having to sacrifice what we all had hoped would be our future prosperity.
Unfortunately, the size and scope of America’s travail is too great for any one American faction to accept full responsibility for its cause or to create a solution through their own efforts. We all must understand our small participation in America’s deterioration in order to rise to the calling for the responsible citizenship that will be required if we are to reverse our nation’s course.
If we cannot dispose of personal responsibility in our quest to blame others for our national predicament, neither can we blame fate itself. For those that say nothing can be done to right our ship of state because it was merely happenstance that placed China in the good fortunes of becoming the next great empire and not some nationalistic conspiracy that created China’s opportunity for preeminence, I would ask, did China’s leadership not conspire to achieve world fiscal dominance? Did America not conspire to achieve world military dominance? Did England not conspire to achieve world colonial dominance?
Do most world achievements occur through mere happenstance or are they the result of the greatest minds of the time conspiring to set the stage for dominating implementation? Interestingly, studies have shown that the difference between individual achievers and the vast majority of lesser men is that achievers create a written plan and then set about to implement it. If that is so for accomplished individuals, would it not be more so for great societies? No, fate is not the purveyor of our misfortune.
Our founders wrote in the federalist papers of their concerns for the eventual collapse of our country when they expounded on why previous republics failed. In creating our newest form of Republic, they studied the failures of others stating that when elites were able to place puppet politicians in the functions of government, their republics failed. While our founders created a system of bicameral government, overlapping terms of the house, president, and senate, shared system of government between local, state, and federal systems, all designed to thwart the overtaking of government by the elite, but they failed to realize the concentration of power that capitalism would eventually afford our elite over our political system as the centuries progressed.
China certainly had a strategy for mining America's wealth but it could not have been exercised if not for the weak underbelly of our political system. That underbelly was the dependence of political leaders on the fortunes of business and banking for their re-elections. This was the incipient crack through which the corruption of our American Republic began, and it is this symbiotic poison that we must now severe if we wish to avoid being dashed against the historical rocks of other failed republics, some of which also were the world’s political giants of their time.
»
- Luc Vallee's blog
- 17343 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
I'm astonished, you compare the Chinese government with Nazi Germany?
Study some history man, there is nothing in common
Wasn't it Mussolini of whom they said, "At least he made the trains run on time"?
The lazy thinker's admiration of using a gun to force people to do what you want.
If I wanted to know how bad it could get if business and government were even more indistinguished from each other, I would go there. That country seems to be the "all the bad practices in the world, ratcheted up to 11", with a bit of efficiency over freedom thrown in for no cost. That said, I already see a bit of this with Taiwan and Hong Kong - force wont work, so why not try to co-opt politically?
When I hear the term competition used at the international level, I read that as a measure on how a country is able to keep people subservient.
Very true, Banzai. Just sensing the energy and growth draws a sharp contrast with the sense of decay in the U.S. And parts of Europe.
Indeed,
you only have to look on this site - where many are clever people - to see the same old naive comments about how with china...
if they push us we've got the carriers and tomohawks...
if you owe the bank 20 trillion its their problem...
its lazy thinking and thats the problem
http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/blog/2010/12/the-impact/of-buying
63 direct jobs for every $149.00
purchase of a product manufactured in your own back-yard
Of course apply this short video with your own flag
and importantly buy local.
And now, the real reason China came to prominence. They simply couldn't ignore British run, laissez faire, Hong Kong running circles around them anymore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong#Economy
Hehe...He said " incipient crack."
FTW
First rule: Capital follows the path of least resistance. That sums up what has taken place between America and China.
wu wei (that's how china ate america's lunch)
Not too long ago, everyone was terrified that Japan would eat our lunch ...
Now it's China's turn, huh? I don't know, but when you fatten an animal enough, it's only good for "eating" in the end. Maybe it will be different with China this time and they won't end up like Japan, but I'm unconvinced.
In software design, pushing "responsibility" "down" the system removes complexity bottlenecks and results in much more robust and fault tolerant system. You think central planning, which in the end has never worked in the history of mankind is going to work this time?
I agree. They cannot see the forest for the trees. China will boom until it busts, and we won't hear about them again for a hundred years.
Central planning fails in the end everywhere it is ever tried. Those Commies in Russia sure could make tanks and rockets. TVs and shoes? Not so much.
Exactly, Japan in the late 1980s hit a 40% ratio of direct investment to GDP, this was the largest historically of any country at that time. The problem for Japan was you could only keep that level for so long and then it has to come down to 5-7% which is normal for developed countries.
China is running around 66% today, a complete crazy number packed with bullet trains, empty cities, etc. When this ration goes to normal, and export trade is better balanced (which will have to happen one way or another), China's ecomony is in huge trouble. They are juicing everything, but it can't go on.....
China is not Japan.
In the 80's it was Japanese corps competing with the US corps. The US government still respected US business and its own peoples sovereignty and stepped in through the Plaza Accords to squelch the Japanesse growth cycle.
Today, the Chindian growth cycle is being driven by the US MNC that do not give a shit about this country other than sucking the wealth out of it. And the US government has been bought off and will not step in the same as against the Japanese.
American MNC are killing this country and until we instill some limits on trade, IP appropriation, offshoring and onshoring of labor, etc, the parasite MNC will consume the host and then move on.
the us president george bush sr lobbied for china while presdient and after and enjoys tremendous business ownership interests there
us corporations were blinded by greed, pure and simple. they all imagined, "if every chinese buys just one of our product we will be rich"
the chinese welcomed their investment with the intention of stealing their technology and never permitting profits to be repatriated
the us outsourced its industry abroad, again for pure greed
the us opeened its universitys and corporations to chinese spies who promptly stole everything
the us ran out of money first
end of game
Couldn't help but be reminded of Alexander Gerschenkron's writings on the "advantages of backwardness." He wrote mostly about the USSR and Eastern Europe, but the basic idea of skipping stages in economic development still very applicable here.
I am not convinced that China's the carefully planned miracle that many claim. (Another parallel w/ Russia: all the Potemkin Apartment Buildings, if you believe Jim Chanos). But the West has certainly proven itself very willing to sell rope (and bonds) to China.
7 million plus manufacturing jobs in 11 years since the WTO documents were executed by GWB.
Be clear in your mind that NO! democrat has tried to walk back to the fork in the road.
A video that I have enjoyed and that was shared here today by another poster, all credit to the original poster and my sincere gratitude for sharing the information.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5064665078176641728#
Charlie Rose November 15 1994
54:46 - 5 years ago
Sir James Goldsmith
A great piece, JW. The predictions by Sir James Goldsmith were uncanny. Just watched the entire thing and there is revelation up to the last minute, literally. Laura Tyson is still out there and she appears from time to time. I wonder what she thinks about here stance at that time. Thanks for posting that. BTW: it was from November 15 1994!
Excellent JW - was thinking about the same clip myself which sums the article up nicely - especially the bit about capital and labour where the gains of the labour slice of profit - increased by grimly prising it out of the elite over the last hundred years - have been given up almost instantly by 'free trade'.
Its also worth noting the role of our incompetent politicians of all persuasions who have been outmaneuvred year after year by china inc. Truly pathetic.
bush and blair deserve special mention
Its not looking good for a turnaround soon either... here in oz we watch china closely, and predictions of its demise have been going for almost a decade now, it'll happen.... eventually.
I am half through that video and I can't stop laughing at the talking head of the Clinton administration. Everything that came out of her mouth ended up being pure, unadulterated bullshit. Thank you for sharing.
Yep and the interviewer really makes a total prick of himself too.
That's just the way Charlie Rose is. He has to be taken with a large dose of castor oil. He gets the most amazing guests and that is why he has been on the air so long. Knowing that, one can overlook his interruptions and constant useless banter.
Ok, that helps
thanks cobber
According to Jim Willie, the American establishment outsourced our industry to China in return for their buying our debt and leasing their gold to us. This was all done through various trade treaties and granting China most favored trading status. I believe the ultimate goal is to turn America into a giant agricultural growing area leaving China as a manufacturing center. That's why all those peasants from south of the border are encouraged to come to Amerika.
that plan sucks, land here is too expensive. Easier to farm the teenage african warlord wannabes
" land here is too expensive"
It's getting cheaper every day....
where? lmk, I am totally a buyer
.
China is held together by a police state and crony capitalism. Polluted, faced with shoddy technology, shoddy housing, corrupt government, it is simply a mirror of where the West is headed. The unification of China must not be taken for granted. The Coast and the interior are radically different and there is not much hope for the Chinese underclass. The state is afraid of everyone. China simply is a giant maquiladora which is tied to the developed world's consumption needs. As the export economy continues to collapse, we can see the Chinese miracle collapse also.
absolutely a maquila operation. USD > CL made china & we can take it away just as easily
So, why don't "we"? Good luck with that grasping, by the way.
Bingo!
Arrogance, greed and the resulting decay.
The chickens are coming home to roost. Enjoy.
If you think the Chinese planned this on their own, you are mistaken. There is a group, part of which is based right here in the US, that help to formulate the plan for China in the 70s & 80s. If you have any doubts, read more about the CFR, Trilateral Commision & Kissinger - who was sent on this special mission to China to educate the communists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDB7mxJv71E&feature=player_embedded#at=92
George Bush Sr can also be seen in this video. Kissinger & other Trilaterilists created the plan.
The Chinese executed it faithfully and replaced the Russians as the second super power. US & China will continue to work together, nobody is stealing anybody's lunch.
Peace.
Poverty-stricken economies were never a threat until the fascists and socialists got their toe-hold in the U.S.
For almost a century, the freedom and ability to keep what one earned fueled an increase in productivity that allowed one person to outperform an entire village of mud-hut dwellers, no matter how cheaply they worked. Our infrastructure of suppliers and talent lowered the cost, specialized talent was easy to find, and massive investment in special machine tooling along with economy of scale transformed mankind, raising us out of the mud.
China's strategy would have helped China and raised everyone's standard of living without hurting the U.S. economy if our government regulation, inflation, and taxation had not been skimming off the increases in productivity, then eventually destroying productivity. Investment slowed, profitability dropped, entitlement mentality took over, it became fashionable to hate smokestacks and industrialists and consumers alike. Given all this, America was ripe for the picking. America had followed the strategy laid out by Fabian socialists a century ago almost point by point. Put the first ten amendments to the constitution side by side with the ten planks of the Communist Manifesto, and consider which one is in effect today.
Clif's antidote to the gutting of our productive sectors is another huge dose of the medicine that is killing us.
I can't decide if this is more aligned with Hitler or Stalin. Such an easy shortcut. Just bring out the guns and 'make it so'. Presumably the wages would be subsidized with more infusions of paper money, because there isn't enough real wealth-generating activity going on for the goose-stepping fascists to steal. Revisiting private property laws might be laudable, if they can be reformed to recognize property rights, rather than violate them even further.
I guess, on analysis, this is a mixed approach, somewhere between fascism and communism. The same two stale false alternatives we are supposed to fight over.
No thanks.
All I can say is, you and what army? How about getting the fuck off our backs? We'll create the wealth, we'll create jobs, we'll hire people. We are men of ability and integrity. Nobody in the world can outperform us if you just leave us the fuck alone with all your goddamned bright ideas. Central planning doesn't work, it only serves to keep people in serfdom. The Quislings who advocate for central planning schemes like this have the morality of a tapeworm, and I'd lay money on a bet that Clif never created anything of value in his life, or if he did, he is the kind of businessman who looks to government for either a handout or a special dispensation to protect him from competitors. The kind of man who has no self-respect. A Real Man is not afraid of competition from anywhere, and finds other Real Men, even competitors, good trading partners. A fucking wimp that wants to bring the government gun in to deny property rights and try to dictate outcomes and make workers into government serfs is not worthy of respect.
Ya know, just sayin'. Stop lording it over us, debasing the currency, getting all up in our business, and stealing from us, and we will provide enough wealth for everyone. If you don't, we'll stay hunkered down in survival mode. We'll move our capital (OUR SAVINGS), you know OUR money, that WE earned, which BELONGS to US and not you, out of the reach of your grubby little fingers, out of range of your guns. This country is like Detroit. Inhabited by people who cannot afford to get out, who are fed by unwilling outsiders who get only hate in return for the toil extracted from them. Go ahead, try to stop us from moving assets out, so you can confiscate them. Corner us and find out what happens when brute force meets intelligent force.
I actually first agreed with almost all of your statements, but on further reflection I find the critique of the OP's "solution" proposal exaggerated.
And also somewhat dishonest, as at the same time you suggest "more freedom & less intervention" as the better approach - which could really work, but you completely fail to mention the unattractive measures necessary to foster such an approach: repeal minimum wage laws and/or erect trade barriers or import duties, reduce gov't welfare payments, and so on.
Hmm. I do hope you are not implying that some lies or half-truths are necessary...
Bravo Tax Slave!
See my post above regarding a possible event on US Treasury debt in the near term...
and an accompanying return of US Jobs to the US!
The government must collaspe before we will have the freedom and liberty to enjoy prosperity again.
+ 1 standing ovation!!!!
I particularly liked this:
we (USA) outsourced our carcinogenic pollution & industrial slave labor to China, gave them a bunch of paper, and collected cheap shit... Explain to me again where my lunch went?
Depending on how you look at it I think we got better than cheap shit. I think we got free shit. They loaned us the money to continue buying shit from them, and we debased the value of the loans (TBills) to less than inflation. They GAVE us money to buy shit.
They ate out lunch alright, but we seem to be looting their house while they laugh over our burgers and fries. Of course that doesn't mean much if you were a factory worker and your job was outsourced.
If you think losing your industrial and intellectual base to be replaced by a crooked banking and political complex and a bunch of cheap trinkets combined with the threat of immediate currency collapse is a good deal, then yea, sure,
You're not losing your burgers and fries. You're getting your burgers and fries fed to you while your hands and brain fall off.
We didn't lose our manufacturing base. We sold it, and even then it's really closer to rented it out. We could easily restart our manufacturing if we had the will. Matter of fact, with oil prices climbing it's looking more and more likely that we'll have to do just that.
Meanwhile, what will China be left with when the US and Europe stop importing so much of China's crap? They'll left with bonds that are in effect worthless because the US and Europe will have inflated away the value.
If you worked in manufacturing this doesn't seem like a good deal to you. I get that. The fix is to back off the regulations here and let small business get back to doing what they do. Finding ways to put people to work.
Oh really? What do you think happened to our manufacturing base - that they mothballed it and can fire it up again within a few days?
China's Industrial Espionage...
http://seenoevilspeaknoevilhearnoevil.blogspot.com/2011/02/chinese-indus...
OT: 2 Min Hilarious Vid...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Uju3tYS2s
China's Industrial Espionage...
http://seenoevilspeaknoevilhearnoevil.blogspot.com/2011/02/chinese-indus...
OT: 2 Min Hilarious Vid...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Uju3tYS2s
Then by all means stop giving China this kind of preference, even if it means the multinationals, their lobbyists, and pro-China US government officials commit acts against the US to defend China.
Be willing to look for China's enablers in our government, on K street, and in various parts of the private sector. Then neutralize whatever influence they have and clean up all the damage that they have done. Finally, be willing to defend our own US citizens that wish to work.
We are reaping the last 30 years of dumbed down education. While the politicians quibble about minor amounts of money, the hollowed out american empire is crumbling before our eyes. People forget that england, spain, and portugal once ruled most of the world, and they are just small countries now, the same path we are going down.
While we borrow money from the chinese, give them all our industry, buy their goods with borrowed money and then have to pay them interest on the money we borrowed in the first place. How dumb are we, paying for our own demise.
Dumbing down conveniently laid at the feet of public education may satisfy, but imo nobody--including the despised "sheeple"--is that stupid or that "uneducated." The facts are fairly simple.
The problem is absolute corporate dominance of the mass media. Once you define and control the debate, Einstein wouldn't have a chance.
...And how dumb are the Chinese, to think we will actually pay them back in real terms?