This is intriguing......
But I think we are ALL missing the Elephant in the room here.
If Biden gets into the WH, this will most certainly give China a HUGE boost.
In the grand scheme of things, I think we are witnessing a perfect storm in which things are aligning to propel China to a position of world dominance.
I think everything else is a sideshow......and the greatest impact on humanity is the rise of China and how this election and all that is happening is going to push China to a place that other nations may not be able to challenge or stop.
Ok. China is a huge threat. Because they are Socialist. They have the economy to afford a huge military. Because they are socialist. Hey. Look. A successful Socialist Nation!
No, they got rich because greedy America Liberals chose to do business there....robbing America of jobs for blacks and the needy here in America.
You must be so proud.
By the way.....China is Communist. Socialism on steroids.
Communist is essentially absence of Government. No leaders, no followers. Everyone equal and votes on everything. Common ownership. Equal shares. So no. China is not Communist.
socialism is state control. The State owns everything, and through planned economy dictates everything. The Soviet Union. Or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was never Communist. Communism can’t work in a group larger than a few dozen.
And strictly speaking, China is not really socialist. Their economy is closer to capitalist free market, but not quite.
There were several things that led to China becoming an economic powerhouse. First was the American development of standardized shipping containers. The Sea Land containers were able to be preloaded at warehouses, and shipped intact.
Before the containers, it took a crew of Longshoremen all day to unload 40 tons. With the containers, it could be loaded in two minutes, max.
What this lower shipping cost meant was the advantage of domestic production was being lost, quickly. Before, American Made was cheaper. Because imported items were expensive, and the American Production was absent the huge shipping costs. When the huge shipping costs were no longer an issue, some protective tarriff’s were enacted to protect the American Jobs. These were destined to fail.
Let’s take cars. We were told that it cost too much for Americans to build the cars here. Yet, the Foreign Companies could set up American Subsidiaries, like Toyota, Nissan, or Volkswagen of America. Then they would build factories, and turn out cars, with American Labor, and mostly American sourced parts, and the cars sold.
But let’s talk about it honestly for a moment. The Gas Crunch of the 1970’s got Americans familiar with Foreign Cars. The small Toyota’s, and Datsun’s, and other makers. Small ugly econobox cars that ran twice or even three times as far on the gallon of gas. They cost less to buy, and cost less to operate. Suddenly the big American Car’s with their gas guzzling V-8’s were not making nearly as much sense. But the biggest killer was the greed of the American Corporations. The cars were designed to start falling apart, the American Cars, after a certain time. This worked to get people to trade in, and get a new car every few years.
The Japanese and other Foreign Cars were designed to last. They were small, ugly, and boring. But they got you from point A to point B reliably for a very long time. My first car, in the mid 1980s was a 1974 Toyota Corolla with more than a hundred thousand on the odometer. The car was ten years old, and ran fine. It had a Manual Transmission, and the car just went where you wanted it to, perhaps a little crowded with four inside, but it went.
The 1980’s saw these cars improve on styling, they were no longer quite so ugly. And the Pick Up Trucks began to take off. The “Mini Trucks”. Cheaper than the big Ford and Chevy’s. And with Four Wheel Drive, able to go about anywhere, again with great reliability, and very cheaply.
Now, think about this. You could buy a Pick Up Truck made in Japan, loaded on a ship, sent across six thousand miles of ocean over a month, unloaded at a dock, with all the fees and costs associated, cheaper than a Ford, Chevy, Dodge, or Jeep.
Foreign Companies built plants here, and turned profits while American Companies struggled.
My Toyota Van was built in Indiana with more than 85% of the parts and materials American Sourced. It cost less than an American Brand with even more Foreign Parts. A Toyota Truck built in Texas is about the same ratio of American Parts. Kia is building SUV’s here in Georgia with a majority of American Sourced Parts, not too far from where Ford shut down a plant that had been making the Taurus. Not Profitable for Ford, but somehow Profitable for Kia?
Capitalism is all about competition. And here is where protectionist policies hurt the people. The Market is supposed to decide who has the best product. Right now, that is the Ford F-150 Pick up. One is sold about every thirty seconds. Far more than the Toyota’s. Why? Why is the F-150 doing so well? Cost, style, and all the other things that buyers are looking for. Protectionist Policies, like restricted trade, is saying that your companies can not compete on the open market against anyone else.
Britain did not learn what Ford did. When they opened their markets about the same time we did, they did not adapt to the new reality. They continued down the same path, which is why British Cars are British in name only. The Bentley is a Volkswagen. The Jaguar is a Tata. The Mini is a BMW. Classic British cars in Name only. These brands did not up their game to compete, and they died out.
China learned during this period. They created a market demand for their products. Not Commie Stuff. But very inexpensive. Americans could do that too, but they aren’t. We’re too busy figuring out the next Stealth whatever.
We are being beaten, not because of sell out. We are being beaten because we are too busy roaring how great we are to take an honest look at the world, and our place. We’re awesome. We have Carriers. Yeah Bitches. Check us out. In the mean time the Carrier doesn’t work without components built in China.
Which by the way is how Japan ended up feeling threatened into World War II, their economy depended on American materials. Steel, Oil, and the rest.
Countries that have the protectionist policies you are claiming we should have had, are never the free ones. East Germany had such protectionist policies in place didn’t they? What kind of cars did they have? So did Russia, and their cars were similarly crap.
Blaming China for building stuff cheaper is stupid. Blaming Americans for buying similar quality for a lot less money is even dumber. Blaming American Corporations for adapting to survive is idiotic. If you want to blame someone, blame those same American Companies trying to survive, for not adapting decades ago.
China is passing us because they are willing to take on the impossible challenges. We did that before. The Moon race for one example. But a Dam like Three Gorges? We would never. The Tibetan Railroad? Virtually Impossible. China did it, we would not even try. It would be too expensive, too hard, and require too much money. How about the artificial island to build a new mega container port? We wouldn’t even consider it.
Pick one, say the Container Port. We want to build one like China has, and we have a Spot all picked out. Right off the coast of California. Republicans would argue that the Democrats in California were pumping the budget full of Pork Projects. The Island would never even get past the study part of the process.
And this is the last reason why China is kicked our asses. They are one nation. China. They are one people. Chinese. We are by comparison petty, argumentative, and determined to insure our own people fail, because of their political party affiliation.
Nancy Pelosi would not vote to find a Giant Dam in Republican Tennessee. No Republican would vote to build it in a Democratic Area.
You and your blaming of the other party for the situation, is exactly what I am talking about. It must be them. It must be they who are screwing us. It can’t be the guy in the mirror and his or her idiotic partisan bickering bullshit. What a change from when we went to the Moon. It wasn’t Democrats, or Republicans. It was Americans. Now, if you are an American, it depends not on where you live, or where you were born. It depends entirely on the letter identifying the political membership of the person as to if it is a good idea or bad one.
