Damn! I’m made in China (revisited)

I wrote a piece back on 06/27/2005 called “Damn! I’m made in China“. A very inspired piece if I say so. For those that don’t want to go to the article, here are my money words:

Those damn pesky Iraq insurgents/terrorists/facists/Islamo-facists/evil-do’ers can’t shake a stick at those running The People’s Republic of China Corporation. The China execs just say the hell with all that annoying blood, bombshells, and bullets with ol’ America. They’ll rather buy 115-year old U.S. energy stalwarts and make a grab for all our “consume it all or bust” philosophy. But I’m a big, bad ol’ alarmist! We’ll see pals and palettes. When China Corporation presses that magic button that will activate the chip embedded in our well-fed asses, I won’t be the only person outside singing with the magpies with a “what the fuck” look in my eyes.

As you all know my dear, lovely, strong, and wonderfully unique Americans, we are on the strong democracy kick. With Iraq moving on the democratic path (along with President Bush constantly reminding us), I find it extremely odd how China is treated. This is Red China right? The largest communist government in the world, right? And we hate communism, right? Yet American business are fighting battle royales with each other to throw money at ol’ China. And all we get, from the money and power elite is the following:

It’s a global economy and we have to get competitive. Besides, the consumer gets low prices at Wal-Mart. That’s Global Economy 101 so suck up buddy.

The consumer… Maybe I’ve been living in a pod somewhere but the consumer and the worker are the same. If the worker loses buying power, how can they consume as much? And don’t give me that “look at how well the retailers are during this holiday season” speech. I’m talking about a fundamental American way of doing things. If the global workforce is cheaper than the American workforce (which is fine), when are we going to see an adjustment in our overall standard-of-living to go down that path also? Fine, I’m too expensive and have to take a pay cut. But it sure doesn’t seem the market recognizes that fact or are slow to react. This is a process. The more economic power China gains (remember, their companies are state-owned) the less economic power we have. China will be able to dictate the market sooner rather than later. And will we like that?

This isn’t alarmist talk. This is straight talk. Why are we so cozy with communist China? Why do we have a split personality with China? Maybe I’m just missing something. Maybe I should join Red China in the 50-year plan to dominate (they are in year 25 from what I’ve heard). Guess it wouldn’t be so bad. Since my wife and I are movie buffs, we’ll be able to have an endless supply of cheap movies on DVD!

Sounds like heaven…

5 Responses to “Damn! I’m made in China (revisited)”

1. Tony says:

   December 29, 2005 at 2:11 pm

   Maybe I’ve been living in a pod somewhere but the consumer and the worker are the same. If the worker loses buying power, how can they consume as much?

   It’s easy my befuddled brother. They simply buy their consumables from China at half the price because the Chinese workers are paid half as much.
2. T-Steel says:

   December 29, 2005 at 3:21 pm

   Tony: First and foremost, you have been blogrolled. Don’t know why it took me so long in the first place. Secondly, I think you have something there. Keep lowering American workers pay since the price of Chinese goods are so low. You have a lot of wiggle room! 3000% profit instead of 4000% profit. BAM! Not bad and more sales my man. MORE SALES! MORE SALES! MORE SALES!
3. Tony says:

   January 2, 2006 at 12:21 am

   Hey, thanks for the plug! (This was before my infamous Kwanzaa post ;))

   But on a more serious note, free trade is killing us. We need cooperation from big business, government and labor unions to make this work.

   I am in favor of limited tariffs against China and other countries who don’t allow free access to our stuff. But labor unions are going to have to be reasonable and tread softly and businesses are going to have to cooperate and keep jobs in the US (maybe even receiving tax breaks for doing so).

   Once you get to know me, you’re going to discover I’m a bit of an isolationist both militarily and economically.
4. T-Steel says:

   January 2, 2006 at 11:53 pm

   I’m becoming more isolationist economically. I have not heard a solid answer as to why free trade is great for us. In fact, I keep hearing the lame “they do the work that we don’t want to do” excuse to much. C’mon! Like Americans won’t make DVD players, game consoles, stereos, etc. “Love America, Hate Americans” is becoming more and more true in corporate circles.
5. Tony says:

   January 3, 2006 at 4:05 pm

   It’s really funny… I was a “buy American” kind of guy for many, many years (strange for an evil Republican, I know :)), until I opened up my first IBM XT to do an upgrade and read the names on the motherboard chips. Mitsubishi, Sony, Twitchipusi, they are all Japanese!!!.

   Why in the hell should I buy an American computer when IBM didn’t buy American?