America makes aircraft carriers. China sells stuff…

[Mr Natural]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

Back in the day, they said the same thing about Made in Japan stuff.

 

[JWBooth]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

meh my ass. Crappy as it is, they are the only country manufacturing anything. Thank you so much NAFTA...

I think the Trans Pacific Partnership is the correct target here as opposed to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Neither does anything for free trade

 

[JWBooth]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

Back in the day, they said the same thing about Made in Japan stuff.

A fourty year old Toyota or Honda (with decent routine maintenance) will run rings around a similar Chevy Malibu

 

[xband]

So true and they are kicking our ass in just about every economic endeavor. We are watching the USA Empire slowly die before our eyes, thanks to our rapacious oligarchs and the politicians they own. Not necessarily a bad thing. A warlike empire needs termination.

Excellent column by Fred Reed.
A Dolorous Imbalance


Now R supporters commence Xiden comments and D supporters Putin/Trump are lovers comments, just like little naughty second graders.

Prototype of China’s 385 mph maglev train

Pingtang Bridge, recently opened. Well over a thousand feet high



“An almost entirely automated port in China, during unload of a container ship. “

They also have 3 aircraft carriers under construction and two completed and in service.

Their first aircraft carrier has problems. If you don't at first succeed, try and try, again. A long journey begins with the first step.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

Back in the day, they said the same thing about Made in Japan stuff.

The fact is that none of us actually knows where stuff comes from. Apple is an American based corporation but its shares are held by funds across the world. I own some. Where are their products made and where are the parts assembled ?

If Chinese products are crap they will not sell. My Huawei phone is a solid piece of kit and far superior to the iphone I had before it.

The curbs on China are not related to quality. They should be related to human rights abuses and that requires the world to come together.

 

[xband]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

Back in the day, they said the same thing about Made in Japan stuff.

A Marine tail gunner/radio operator in WW II said, the plums are ripe for the picking. The Marine tail gunner said there nothing in my house that says Made in Japan. I found one in his office made of of fired porcelain with Made in Japan on the bottom, he blamed it on his wife.

 

[The Irish Ram]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

meh my ass. Crappy as it is, they are the only country manufacturing anything. Thank you so much NAFTA...

I think the Trans Pacific Partnership is the correct target here as opposed to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Neither does anything for free trade

TPP is to the Pacific Rim as NAFTA is to China. We pay, they win, we lose.

 

[Rigby5]

This has only been happening for three plus decades now. Again, if you can convince the American worker to labor for slave wages with no benefits, if you can convince cities and towns to give corporations free land and no taxes (beyond the sweetheart deals they have now), and if you can import the raw materials in bulk and at cost, you might, I mean you might be able to manufacture goods in bulk that could compete price wise with the likes of China. As for the infrastructure issues, well, not much can be said there. Both parties consider it an issue to varying degrees. Democrats want grandiose plans which Republicans reject, and Republicans won't spend enough money to even make a dent in repairing what we have, which Democrats reject. Ergo, nothing gets done.

EDIT -IMHO the United States will never be a manufacturing powerhouse again and it's silly to try and pursue it. We have evolved into a service economy. Our time and resources would be better spent on education, getting kids..and adults up to speed and trained in STEM and other useful disciplines

The problem is the investment money we have in the US is being wasted on military spending like aircraft carriers, that we don't really need.
We don't need slave labor to beat the Chinese, because we can use robotics.

Agreed. All part of the overall equation. But if we use robotics to compete with China, we are going to displace millions of workers and will need to find something for these people to do. So it's either universal income, affordable housing, and universal healthcare (your basic needs are taken care of), or it's education and training and let the issue work itself out over the next few decades.

Programming is easy and there is infinite need.
Everyone can be retrained.
But we likely should also reduce the population.
The old standard was based on the concept of having more children as recruits for our armed forces.
That is obsolete.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

So true and they are kicking our ass in just about every economic endeavor. We are watching the USA Empire slowly die before our eyes, thanks to our rapacious oligarchs and the politicians they own. Not necessarily a bad thing. A warlike empire needs termination.

Excellent column by Fred Reed.
A Dolorous Imbalance


Now R supporters commence Xiden comments and D supporters Putin/Trump are lovers comments, just like little naughty second graders.

Prototype of China’s 385 mph maglev train

Pingtang Bridge, recently opened. Well over a thousand feet high



“An almost entirely automated port in China, during unload of a container ship. “

Hidke Tojo, who became Japan's Premier in 1941... said... "Democracy will never be a permanent governance. It will eventually fall to corruption, greed and collapse within itself"

Not saying he was an awesome guy or anything, but hard to argue against what he said

 

[Rigby5]

So true and they are kicking our ass in just about every economic endeavor. We are watching the USA Empire slowly die before our eyes, thanks to our rapacious oligarchs and the politicians they own. Not necessarily a bad thing. A warlike empire needs termination.

Excellent column by Fred Reed.
A Dolorous Imbalance


Now R supporters commence Xiden comments and D supporters Putin/Trump are lovers comments, just like little naughty second graders.

Prototype of China’s 385 mph maglev train

Pingtang Bridge, recently opened. Well over a thousand feet high



“An almost entirely automated port in China, during unload of a container ship. “

They also have 3 aircraft carriers under construction and two completed and in service.

{...
since 1985 has acquired retired aircraft carriers for study; namely, the Australian HMAS Melbourne and the ex-Soviet carriers Minsk, Kiev and Varyag. The Varyag later underwent an extensive refit to be converted into the Liaoning, China's first operational aircraft carrier, which also served as a basis for China's subsequent design iterations. As of 2018, the PLAN has two combat-ready aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and Shandong, with the third under construction. It is projected that China may possess five or six aircraft carriers by the 2030s.
...}

 

[gipper]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

Back in the day, they said the same thing about Made in Japan stuff.

It’s certainly isn’t true of products from Japan or China today, but some Americans need to believe stupid shit.

 

[gipper]

Point of the article seems to be that China does business, the US does empire and the empire is fading fast.
Reed has done a number of articles regarding Chinese advances.

The job of the US Navy is to keep the sea lanes open and not build an Empire.

That’s another fallacy some Americans like to tell themselves.

 

[Rigby5]

So true and they are kicking our ass in just about every economic endeavor. We are watching the USA Empire slowly die before our eyes, thanks to our rapacious oligarchs and the politicians they own. Not necessarily a bad thing. A warlike empire needs termination.

Excellent column by Fred Reed.
A Dolorous Imbalance


Now R supporters commence Xiden comments and D supporters Putin/Trump are lovers comments, just like little naughty second graders.

Prototype of China’s 385 mph maglev train

Pingtang Bridge, recently opened. Well over a thousand feet high



“An almost entirely automated port in China, during unload of a container ship. “

Hidke Tojo, who became Japan's Premier in 1941... said... "Democracy will never be a permanent governance. It will eventually fall to corruption, greed and collapse within itself"

Not saying he was an awesome guy or anything, but hard to argue against what he said

View attachment 491132

I would argue.
Greed is a problem, but is also a motivator.
In a democracy you can have the corruption where everyone tries to vote for privileges for themselves, but they should be neutralizing each other.
Not only should everyone vote against the corrupt privilege's because they are wrong, but because it can't work if everyone gets them.
The final safety is that this is not a direct democracy, but a representative one, and one would hope that then those elected actually know more about economics than the average.

Then compare the weaknesses of democracy with the even more obvious flaws of anything else.
In theory a benevolent dictatorship could be smarter and better, but there is no means of prevent succession conflicts and corruption.
With a aristocracy like Japan, the ruling class is bound to become isolated and indifferent to the lives of the majority.

 

[Rigby5]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

meh my ass. Crappy as it is, they are the only country manufacturing anything. Thank you so much NAFTA...

I think the Trans Pacific Partnership is the correct target here as opposed to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Neither does anything for free trade

We never want "free trade" as that always is easily abused.
What we want instead is "fair trade".

The problem with NAFTA was only that Mexico uses Value Added Taxes (VAT), paid by the customer when products purchased, while the US uses income tax, paid by the seller at the end of the year. Which means Mexican product sold in the US avoid both VAT and income taxes, while US products sold in Mexico pay both VAT and income taxes.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

So true and they are kicking our ass in just about every economic endeavor. We are watching the USA Empire slowly die before our eyes, thanks to our rapacious oligarchs and the politicians they own. Not necessarily a bad thing. A warlike empire needs termination.

Excellent column by Fred Reed.
A Dolorous Imbalance


Now R supporters commence Xiden comments and D supporters Putin/Trump are lovers comments, just like little naughty second graders.

Prototype of China’s 385 mph maglev train

Pingtang Bridge, recently opened. Well over a thousand feet high



“An almost entirely automated port in China, during unload of a container ship. “

Hidke Tojo, who became Japan's Premier in 1941... said... "Democracy will never be a permanent governance. It will eventually fall to corruption, greed and collapse within itself"

Not saying he was an awesome guy or anything, but hard to argue against what he said

View attachment 491132

I would argue.
Greed is a problem, but is also a motivator.
In a democracy you can have the corruption where everyone tries to vote for privileges for themselves, but they should be neutralizing each other.
Not only should everyone vote against the corrupt privilege's because they are wrong, but because it can't work if everyone gets them.
The final safety is that this is not a direct democracy, but a representative one, and one would hope that then those elected actually know more about economics than the average.

Then compare the weaknesses of democracy with the even more obvious flaws of anything else.
In theory a benevolent dictatorship could be smarter and better, but there is no means of prevent succession conflicts and corruption.
With a aristocracy like Japan, the ruling class is bound to become isolated and indifferent to the lives of the majority.

One could spend a lifetime arguing over government styles.
Democracy-Capitalism is the best we have.
But we are no longer a representative Democracy anyway.
We have actually followed right into what Tojo was saying... corruption and greed eventually consumes it. Today we are a corporatist oligarchy.

 

[BluesLegend]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

We don't control the world's energy supply, so we can't cut it off.

Google nuclear warheads.

 

[BluesLegend]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

meh my ass. Crappy as it is, they are the only country manufacturing anything. Thank you so much NAFTA...

You know little to nothing about American manufacturing.

 

[BluesLegend]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

Back in the day, they said the same thing about Made in Japan stuff.

Speaking of Japan they are pissed that China is counterfeiting their products.

 

[BluesLegend]

Meh, China's products are crap quality. Second if we cut off their energy supply and they will fold like a cheap lawn chair.

Back in the day, they said the same thing about Made in Japan stuff.

It’s certainly isn’t true of products from Japan or China today, but some Americans need to believe stupid shit.

Said nobody who just spent two weeks fixing a crap made in China machine.

 

[bendog]

NAFTA has nothing to do with the Navy or the military. But no doubt that fact that we guarantee the seas for free trade is a holdover from the Reagan Doctrine. Obviously the Navy was pretty useless in Trump's attempt to bring Jina to heel. It may be good that Biden is not getting in Germany's way to contract with Russia for natl gas, which is a deal neither side can cut off for political reasons without hurting their own economies. OF course, Poland and Ukraine fear Putin. But maybe there's another way to obtain E. Europe stability.