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Let's Cry - A River of Tears It is astonishing to see the constant whining in the US Media, from all sources ....... The US must stop blaming everyone else for its own faults and mistakes, and stop trying to avoid responsibility for its actions by trying to push its pain onto other nations. But the US Right seems to always seek quick fixes abroad instead of focusing on the long hard process of structural reform at home. The US assumes that it is the only country in the world and can form policy independent of other considerations. But US regulations are not world standards, nor is US policy the base from which the rest of the world begins to function. Perhaps it's time for that bloated sense of entitlement to cease. |
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US wage levels rise to the point where the country cannot be competitive, then other countries like China are accused of paying 'slave wages' and and the US demands a huge tariff to 'level the playing field'. Low-cost production does not mean 'slave wages'. It's true that China's wages in the automotive sectors are not at the US$40-US$80 per hour that the UAW receives, but that's hardly a standard of measure - and in fact is the reason that most industrial production has left the USA. Every developing country naturally begins from a base of low wages that gradually increase as the economy develops. There is nothing sinister in this. Japan was for many years a very low-wage country but wage levels rose as it developed, and most production left Japan for a lower-cost location. The same is already happening to China. If US companies want to pay high wages, that's their choice and they can live with the result. The US has a high standard of living with a high average wage level, so US products are more expensive to make than those of China. But US products are also more expensive to make than those of almost every other country in the world too. The US must either moderate its wage levels or move to higher-tech and higher-cost products, and they have chosen to do the latter. They cannot produce consumer products with their wage levels, so that means aircraft, systems, arms and weapons, financial services, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals. The other jobs are gone. It doesn't matter where they went; if it isn't China, it will be someplace else. |
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If a country exports to the US at a product price lower than the domestic producer price, there will be instant accusations of 'dumping' or of 'market manipulation', again with a demand for high tariffs to stop the 'cheating'. In fact, there is no evidence that China, India, Brazil and other developing countries are cheating on anything. What we are seeing in these comments is Jingoism - that blind Right-Wing patriotism that tells me I and my country are always right, good and pure, in spite of any evidence to the contrary. According to the US Right, in any product or sector where the US is not competitive, that's the result of other countries 'manipulating' or 'dumping' or 'engaging in anti-competitive behavior'. According to them, if anyone can do anything better or cheaper than the US, that's a 'disparity' and 'a barrier to free trade'. |
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If tariffs and other measures appear unsuccessful in slowing the rise of a competing nation, the US turns to accusations of 'currency manipulation' - which is what they did to Japan and are now doing to China - with accusations that a country is keeping its currency artificially low and preventing US manufacturers from competing. If, as the US Right-Wing media tell us, it is China's responsiblity to increase the value of the Yuan so that more Americans can have jobs, then it is America's responsiblity to increase the value of the US$ so that more Chinese can have jobs. Every year, there are many millions of new graduates entering the job market in China, so the US should keep the dollar's value high and help China create all those needed jobs. To be frank, American unemployement is none of China's business. It is completely unreasonable to expect any government to take action against its own people for the sake of those in other nations. And for sure, the US has never worried about the unemployment they caused in other countries by their own currency manipulation or their mercantilist trade practices. |
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Most US politicians use the exchange rate as a political weapon, though few are sufficiently educated to have any idea what they are talking about. China must strongly resist the constant US pressure to revalue the RMB because that will damage both countries as well as the world economy. As we would expect, it is really only the US that is crying about China's currency value. Europe worries about their trade deficit, but they seldom accuse China of being unfair or of manipulating the currency. Again, the RMB revaluation is seen as a tempting way to pass US economic troubles to China. For currency manipulation as a protectionist measure, the US is unquestionably the worst offender. Time and time again, the US has manipulated its own currency, or forced others to revalue, without apparent concern about the welfare of other nations. |
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The US will often claim that China's rapid progress stems from jobs "stolen" from America. These claims derive from the doctrine of "Divine Right", which says that when God created the universe His intention was that the US would be better at everything. So, by definition, if any country manufactures anything, they "stole" the jobs from the US. It doesn't seem to occur to Americans that other countries are simply better than the US, at many things. Japanese, German AND Chinese cars are higher quality than US autos, and those from Japan and China are less expensive too. It's not because they're 'unfair'; it's because they're better and more efficient. If the US wants to 'level the playing field', they should try improving themselves. In the past, Americans have blamed the UK, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and now China, for their troubles. But the fault is only that of America. The US Right blames everyone but itself for its troubles. Canadian Banks and Credit Card companies moved their call centers to India, where there is a high level of education, a good level of English, and low labor costs. They get the same result for half the price. How can we blame India for that? Why is it India's fault that the Canadian banks outsourced their call centers? It's the same with US manufacturing. US companies came to China to buy goods because they got the same result at a lower cost. How can you blame China for that? How can anyone say that China is 'stealing jobs'? |
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We read daily claims that China's development has been due ONLY to transfer of technology by US firms. Once again, this reflects the firm belief of the US Right Wing that America is supreme in all categories, so the only way China could have progressed was by copying US technology - including putting men in space. They ignore the fact that the US has always refused the transfer of high technology to China. |
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We read that China is doing well ONLY because it copied the US 'Economic System', but the US Right ignores the fact that China has created double-digit growth for more than 20 years, while the US has never managed more than a few percentage points. More likely, it is precisely because China did NOT copy the US model that it has done so well. China has its own development model, its own systems and strategies, which have so far proven rather more successful and resilient than those of the US and the West generally. In most ways that matter, the West either sat silently and did nothing to help, or actively tried to hinder China's progress and development. Nobody but China can take credit for what the country has accomplished. But to hear the Americans tell it, it was only by 'copying' US attitudes, systems and technology, that China achieved some success. |
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"It's odd that twenty five years ago the most popular thing in China was a bicycle. Today, it's a car, thanks to us. We (Americans) made the Chinese economy boom." One comment I see far too often is that the US 'got China into the WTO', and is now suffering for that, and that's nonsense. The US fought for 20 years to keep China OUT OF the WTO, and when prevention was no longer possible, the US acquiesced and took credit for it. |
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The US media subscribe to a doctrine that America is always sacrificing it's own welfare to assist other nations - in this case, permitting them to cheat on free trade. But in fact, the US is the most ruthless of all mercantilist nations, and I believe we would be hard-pressed indeed to find instances where the US actually made a sacrifice to help anyone. This is pure Jingoism, based only on Right-Wing ideology. |
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The US claims today that developing nations are becoming successful only because they are polluting their own countries, and that if they had environmental protection laws like the US, the 'unfair competition' would disappear. So, there are cries for punitive tariffs on all goods from developing countries. It is of course true that worker and environmental protections are legitimate political goals in every country. The flaw in the US reasoning is that the Western countries (including the US) had no such protections or goals for many years while polluting the world free of charge. But now that they have gotten religion and are beginning to pay for their sins, they want to force all other countries to either match the new US costs or be heavily penalised with tariffs. That is the worst kind of economic imperialism because it would condemn poor countries to remain poor forever. If the US had had to pay those costs in all past years, it might still be a developing country. It is incredibly arrogant to say now that "US trading partners who pollute their countries and exploit their workers would be given an incentive to clean up their manufacturing operations." There is no high-mindedness in that position. Nobody punished America for the past 100 years of exploiting its workers and polluting its country. Yes, poor countries are polluting, have low wages, few benefits, little worker protection. But if they can't get a start, they will never have them. They need the same chance now that America had. If the West now wants to impose on the 2nd and 3rd tier countries several layers of environmental, social security and worker benefits costs, we are condemning them to poverty forever. If you look at the areas that have risen - Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, they all began from a low-wage, poor-quality, hard-work-for-little-pay base. But as they lifted themselves out of poverty, that all changed. Every country follows the same pattern, from necessity. The US cannot now short-circuit that process for others when they took such full advantage of it themselves. We cannot force every country to the highest common denominator; they must begin where they are, and progress from there. The US has no right to pass on its costs of production to all other countries, but the US Right somehow seriously expects Haiti or Peru to begin paying those same wages or be penalised by huge tariffs on their exports. Haiti today has no legislated minimum wage, no liveable wages, no worker protection, no social security safety net, because they cannot afford these things. But if they cannot get a start somewhere, they will never have these things. To punish Haiti for that, would be obscene, but that doesn't mean the US Right won't push for it to happen. China's progress is astonishing; they've done in 30 years what others have needed 100 years to do, and it's not stopping. Wages and benefits are increasing, as is worker protection and so much else. But it can't all be done in a day. If we try to force China to match the highest levels immediately, everything will grind to a halt. There is no high moral ground for the US to say these are 'worthy global causes'. The Americans are simply using their new-found morality to destroy developing economies that are more competitive than the US. |