Why the China Trade Deal is Meaningless
Fair warning: This is a rant about something that sticks in my craw, so if you don't want to read a rant, just click onto something less incendiary. I suggest:
The United States government has once again declared victory... while lying down with a "WELCOME" pasted across its chest. The Obama administration is touting a deal for China to buy $45 billion in U.S. goods over a three year period.
That sounds like lot of money. It's not. It's chickenfeed. In last August alone, the trade deficit between the U.S. and China was $28 billion. The trade deficit for all of last year was $252 billion. Assuming similar deficits over the next three years, that $45 billion (most of which would probably have been purchased anyway) will reduce the trade deficit by a whopping 6 percent.
Whoop-de-freakin'-doo.
It amazes me that people can't connect the dots. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you export all the good jobs to a country with cheap labor, you'll end up with masses of unemployed people in your own country. And it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that cheaper labor is going to goose up corporate profits.
But ooops! I forgot!
That's what "Free Trade" is all about, right?
And, let's face it, "Free Trade" is a great idea. I know that because every politician and executive in this country is always saying so, right?
Hey, as soon as anybody sees some "Free Trade", please let me know! I'll jump right on my unicorn and ride over and take a look at it. And I'll bring along my pals, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, so that they can take a gander, too.
Yeah, "Free Trade" is a great idea... in theory. However, Free Trade does not exist today and will never exist, because it assumes that either it's possible to create a level playing field or that "market forces" will somehow create a level playing field. But that never happens.
"Free Trade" isn't free if currency is being manipulated. And that's EXACTLY what's been happening between the United States and China. China's currency manipulation has gutted the U.S. manufacturing sector while the country's politicians (of both parties) have pocketed campaign contributions from the business satraps who've profited along with the Chinese.
"Free Trade" isn't free when the workers aren't free to join an independent union. Unions are illegal in China. Instead, they have a fake "trade union" organization that is simply part of the government.
"Free Trade" isn't free if you're not free to leave your job. Dig deep enough into the supply chain of many outsourcing deals and you will find slave labor. And not just adult slaves. There's also child slavery going on.
At least Chinese company even enslaved retarded people. The firm kept them chained up, fed them dog food, and never let them take a bath. And beat them when they tried to escape. Think about that... next time you buy a consumer electronics device that's made in China.
"Free Trade" isn't free when one country is committed to reduce pollution and the other doesn't care a tinker's damn if children die because they're pumped full of toxic sludge. China has terrible pollution and local governments are in cahoots with the polluters.
"Free Trade" isn't free when intellectual property is stolen. U.S. companies move to China are required to partner with Chinese firms. Those joint ventures are NOTORIOUS as conduits for stealing U.S. Intellectual Property. So forget about U.S. "innovation" saving the U.S. economy. Innovation is just overhead if it's not protected.
So, as we go forward, let's call "Free Trade" what it really is: "selling out the U.S.A. in order to goose corporate profits." And let's call the proponents of "Free Trade" (Republican and Democrat) what they really are: naive fools and greedy traitors.
Which brings us to Obama. Right now he's touting the idea that the $45 billion that China has promised to purchase will create jobs. Yeah, for a while, maybe. But the truth is that Obama can and will do NOTHING that will reverse 30 years of terrible decision making when it comes to trade policy.
Decades ago, the decision was made to sacrifice the American worker in order to make sure that executives got huge salaries. The result was cheaper goods from abroad, of course. But what's the use of $300 tablet computer if you can't make enough to feed your family?
The U.S. used to have plenty of high-paying jobs, union and non-union, that allowed people to buy goods that were manufactured locally. Now we're inundated with a flood of cheap crap and grateful that the Chinese are going to buy a few items, like big airplanes, that they can't yet manufacture on their own.
Give them another decade.
According to the New York Times, General Electric just signed a deal to create a "joint venture" that will not only begin the outsourcing of Obama's touted jobs into China but will result in the transfer of knowledge of some of the U.S. most vital avionics technology into Chinese hands.
Rest assured, the Chinese will know how to use slave labor, currency manipulation and a lack of pollution controls to make the same stuff cheaper. And then sell it back to the U.S. If there is anybody besides C-level executives who have enough money to buy anything, that is.
Now that the real estate bubble is no longer propping up the U.S. economy, we're left with an unemployment crisis that will remain endemic, and that means that Obama will be a one-term president.
But don't hold your breath thinking it will get any better with a Republican in office. The Republicans are just as guilty -- more guilty in fact -- for the promulgation of the huge lie that Free Trade is good for the U.S.
Meanwhile, the Chinese are laughing, laughing, laughing. They're so much smarter than we are. They make "Free Trade" noises and then jigger the system so that they win. And because U.S. politicians are stupid, and U.S. executives are traitors, the Chinese have no problem running rings around our pitiful attempts to make them toe the line.
Meanwhile, the Tea Party lamebrains think the problem is that USA is becoming "socialist." That notion, of course, is beyond ridiculous, since big business calls the shots in the U.S. government. But it's doubly absurd when you consider that our collective butts are being seriously kicked by a socialist government that controls their economy from the top down.
Well, the Tea Party can blather on and on about how "socialism" is the problem, but the REAL problem is that politicians from BOTH parties care more about getting reelected and then getting a fat K-street job than they care about serving the American public.
And American executives -- and the investment firms that back them -- care only about profits and the U.SA. be damned. Meanwhile, the Chinese economy is growing at double digits while the U.S.A. can't even decrease unemployment by a percentage point.
Oops, I forgot again! Sorry!
"Free Trade" is GOOD idea. It makes the U.S. economy stronger. It's GOOD for the U.S. worker.
Keep saying that over and over and over and over, and you'll eventually believe it. Especially if believing it means that you can goose up your "executive compensation" by exporting jobs to a country that uses retarded children as slave labor... and still feel like you're a member of the human race.
The die is cast. The U.S. is toast. China won. Game over.
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