Alan,
I apologize for starting this and will try to explain my feelings a little
more coherently.
You have made some great arguments and of course I am not against trade. I
like it better when the balance of trade is a little closer to par, but that
is our problem, not the Chinese. High quality products are to be preferred
wherever they come from and the asian nations have demonstrated that they can
approach perfection on a QC basis.
China has indeed come a long way since the end of the cold war and their
current culture is much preferable to the Mao years. I feel we need to
continue to encourage that trend while realizing that by western standards
they still have a way to go.
I guess what bothers me is the way in which we have allowed our economy to
become so dependent on Chinese credit. And even in the throws of our recession
we continue to print enormous amounts of unsupported currency and expect the
Chinese to back up our debt. We are mortgaging our national economy while our
manufacturing base languishes. The Chinese flood our markets with cheap and in
some cases very shoddy merchandise of questionable provenance. I realize that
would not be possible if there were no demand, but the result has been to
transfer large amounts of our national treasure to China for very little real
value. Walking through a "Dollar Store" or in this case a Harbor Freight, I'm
reminded that the Dutch bought Manhattan Island for $28 in beads. Are we to
lose our country in a shower of worthless shiny junk?
I have grandchildren whom I fear will be greatly disadvantaged by the
profligacy of our feel good generation. We need to support our own industrial
base or there will be no wealth to redistribute. And while we continue to buy
massive amounts of imports we have factions in our nation who press to destroy
the business that has not yet been run out of the country. Our president has
promised we will cut our carbon emissions by 83%, a move which if accomplished
will degrade the US standard of living to that last seen in 1875. Who is going
to be buying Chinese goods then?
Again I apologize for being so off topic.
Bill Lawrence
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