Our industries reduced costs and increased profits by destroying unions, substituting inferior materials and outsourcing jobs, then outsourcing entire companies, first to the maquiladora programs of Mexico and then to the cheap labor and manufacturing of Asia. I wrote the procedural papers in Spanish for the maquiladora program that sent Emerson Electric from Santa Ana, California, to Mexicali, Baja California, in 1986. I was also instrumental in setting up shops in Thailand, Taiwan, India and Bangladesh for textile and medical-device companies in the 1990s and 2000s.
Now we are dependent on other nations for our basic goods. Our leaders in Washington spin their wheels deciding how to attack current policy such as healthcare and undermine current leaders such as the president rather than improve infrastructure and overall economic wellbeing. Infighting has replaced outgrowing. Lies, mistrust and indecision have won over focus, determination and good ol' Yankee ingenuity. We flounder while other countries prosper and China is now, finally, poised to reap the world's financial rewards we have so nonchalantly cast aside.
Let's not forget where much of this money has come from. American jobs and entire commodities have been exported to China so that American companies now must pay China. During the recent worldwide recession the US Fed and American banks sold (read gave) trillions of dollars in notes and bonds to China. In turn, China has used this money, along with other money earned from an exploding economy, to build partnerships worldwide.
There are now as many countries dependent primarily on China for their export/import needs as on the US. In the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s the US had no equal. Where the US threatens war and calamity, China promises economic cooperation and growth. Throughout Africa China is creating partnerships and collaboration. In South America China has pledged billions in trade. Chinese banks are financing a new canal through Nicaragua to replace the outdated Panama Canal.
The greatest irony of all is the fact that American greed has sent American money to China who is using it to replace American ineptitude and inaction and fear of US military intervention and overthrow with economic stability, cooperation and prosperity outside of American influence, all thanks to the mighty US dollar. The IMF and WB's days are numbered, China has won and we can thank ourselves for being the primary reason for this.
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