China’s Government Is Too Big For Its Britches
While the Internet battles over whether or not the iPad is worth a damn, the real world spells nothing but trouble. The biggest problem we face? An approaching shift in the balance of power on planet Earth. America’s position as the bastion of democracy may still be in tact, but that is about all that is. China now owns about as much of the U.S. as its citizens do, Obama and other politicians continue to suck up to the Chineses for big business, and China could care less about human rights, let alone the opinions in the west. Let’s take a brief look at where the world power structure has gone.
Who Is Running This Circus?
Not long ago President Obama was ridiculed for not meeting with the Dailai Lama, a slap in the face for anyone interested in human rights. We reported on this, as did many other, as Obama opted to appease China seeking favor before a meeting. Now China has all but “forbade” Obama to meet with the Dailai Lama? Forbade? Imagine Nikita Khrushchev forbidding Kennedy to talk to East Germans. Huh?
U.S. Government Sells America
It is no secret China holds a lion’s share of the Federal debt. Somehow our leaders managed to sell a disproportionate sum of Treasury Bonds to a communist regime? Now Wall Street (of all entities) fears the Chinese may call in their markers if America gets “too frisky” in world dealings. Huh once, and Huh twice!
Aggression By Any Other Name
It is also no secret, though many choose to ignore it, that American policy since President Eisenhower has been directed primarily by the military industrial complex. Ok, maybe you do not want to accept this, you want to believe you really elect people, just listen any way. China has threatened “retaliatory” action because George Bush’s (and the aforementioned MIC) arms deal to Taiwan is being approved by Obama. Retaliation? Where or when have we seen this type of rhetoric before? Familiar terms from hot and cold wars thru eternity.
China Gets Tough, What’s New?
China is warning of severe consequences over this arms deal with Taiwan. So? What is big old China afraid Taiwan will launch a helicopter attack, or maybe a patriot missile demo? Let’s see here. China spies on anyone who gives a hoot about human rights and freedom using Google? Tells the United States of America not to meet with the symbol of kindness and fairness in the world – the Dailai Lama – or else? Sabotages the Copenhagen Climate Summit before our very eyes? And, last but not least, China bullies the rest of the world in a hundred other similar situations. China’s government has always been tough, face it.
The only difference between Chinese relations with the rest of the world now, is that everyone is kissing their little behinds. What has anyone benefited from these “normalized” relations? Some big business entities made billions from cheap labor, and consumers got some price breaks – sort of. If you add all the eggs in the basket, the WalMart shopper who saved $2 last year, lost $50 in federal debt, loss of jobs, not to mention self respect. The average Chinese citizen? They work in a sweat shop instead of a rice paddy. Great job – a new world order.
Simple Solutions to Complex Problems
America is already at war, what is there to fear? More war? I am not advocating agression here, but the Chinese government is waging a type of warfare as dangerous and impactful as the shooting kind. Maybe not as gruesome in YouTube video coverage, but the end result is the same human suffering. The solutions to China’s government’s overestimated self worth are simple. A lesson is in order.
Pull out. Let me say that again, pull out. What? Is China going to invade India? Have at it, you have already sucked the life out of everyone having had any dealings with you (except some business tycoons). I hate to sound pugilistic or like a war monger here, but the relations our officials have struck with the Chinese government have cause nearly irreparable damage not only to workers and businesses in the west, but those who cannot defend themselves within China. Just send these guys a marker for the several trillion the west owes them, nationalize key industries (except for friends that is), and watch China back up or dry up.
Just think, the world will not have to worry about Chinese factories pumping out pollutants and more, there will be nothing to produce. The up side of reneging on loans puts the burden on China – now that is devious. The ramping up of western industry to meet the up slope of the demand side? Well, everyone from Germans to Mexicans will stand up and cheer that one. The rest of this tale can go on and on obviously. Talking tough is great when there is something to back it up – that is besides one’s own investment and demand. China has somehow managed to bluff its way into some sort of world supremacy illusion.
Being Tough Is Tough
Just some tough thoughts on tough posturing. I urge you, as a citizen of whatever state wherein you reside, to watch the video below of President Dwight D. Eisenhower as he stepped down from office in 1961. This speech was unprecedented before or since. It reveals an underlying caution, not only for people to guard against this “military industrial complex”, but obviously against similar forces which put the world in peril. Dramatic as my suggestions are, we have never realized before hand any great peril prior being forced to face it. After you watch President Eisenhower, think who is running China’s policy? There use to be this saying; “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Well, nowadays when it gets tough, leaders whine and hide apparently.
For all our knowledge, all our technology, and no matter how small the world has gotten, tyranny is still set loose on the unsuspecting world. This is Sheepy’s dramatic report on world supremacy, and telling China to stuff it.
About the Author
Sheepy was born Sheepy Bell Butler Víctor María de Todos los Santos Teódulo de Franco y Bahamonde August 16th, 1812. An honor graduate of Columbia University class of 1964 with contemporary Clark Hoyt (Editor NYT's). Sheepy attained her MA from Stanford in 66 along with notable classmate Ted Koppel of Nightline fame. No kidding. Her early journalism career was interrupted when she joined the Central Intelligence Agency (to user her obvious acumen) in 1968. Sheepy underwent top secret Avatar persona transplant in 1968 when she was the cryptology liaison from the CIY to Israeli intelligence. Not until James Cameron's recent revelation of Avatar technology has Sheepy been at liberty to reveal her identity. She an editorial Editor at Everything PR News. Upcoming bylines for Sheepy reveal her dedication to truth and clarity in online news. Sheepy's up close and personal rhetorical are designed to take the world by storm, "One Sheep at a Time."
There is enough warning in the article, and a big big warning at the beginning of the trailer, stating RESTRICTED 
Please put a warning on the trailer. There is very disturbing material in it. Not fair to watch thinking it ...
Sleeky20x, I know everyone hates a price increase. But honestly, do you feel the new services and content justify it? ...
i sold my x box 360 a few months ago. i loved xbox but ive saved about $300 since i ...
I think this is a problem Ive always played Live and i really like the how the prices are now ...
Did the Old Spice campaign result in increased sales? 
John, You are correct, take me to your leader. LOL
Always,
Phil (I think therefore I am) 
Comment by John C.L on 4 February 2010:
Excellent viewpoint! Especially the part about seeing our “savings” in a broader context – though we’ve won some price breaks as consumers, we’ve lost it ten-fold elsewhere! Though 80% of our economy is services, manufacturing is still a pillar! It’s what got us where we are in the first place.
People imagine that producing in China is cheaper because their labor is cheap and they don’t require any additional benefits – like minimum wage, health insurance, unions etc… But the price that we save on labor we pay in quality, intellectual property theft, safety standards, not to mention that when you add transport fees and taxes we don’t actually save that much. Leveraging the kind of economies of scale we can call forth in the old US of A would likely produce similar prices all things considered, but we would keep our own labor force employed and stop hemorrhaging money.
One thing I also wanted to comment on was your “calling in marker” remark. The Chinese buy our debt mainly using things like 52 week T-Bills and 10 year T-Bonds – things that mature over a given amount of time. There is nothing they can do to call in anything, they can only wait patiently for their investments to mature. The only way to financially pressure us is to refuse to buy more. That would be significant but would in turn bring much more dire consequences to their economy when we retaliate. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Comment by Phil Butler on 4 February 2010:
Thanks so much John, I know sheepy will be so pleased you elaborated on some of this. She is very busy as you might expect, and is sincere in her desire for things to be set on the right course again. From my viewpoint, and hers, I think you are spot on. Whether or not Obama and other politicians are in the pocket of big business is not irrelevant, but the needed changes are not dependent on that as much as they are people understanding the bottom line.
You cannot ship your base or core value to somewhere else and expect to continue to lead – anything. I often think how much we could have done had we modified our own industrial base, made environmentally sound decisions, trained people to produce better quality and quantity. We lost a lot of time by sub-contracting out what feeds the people of America. Service industries have have one major drawback, they need other industries to propogate enough economic stimulus to support them. Working at McDonald’s to buy a burger at Burger King is not exactly the American dream. We are talking stagnation here.
Walmart, and a covey of other companies have all but sold America out. Who said things have to be that cheap any way? What is wrong with buying one frying pan in 20 years for $100, versus buying 20 at $12 once a year? Long range thinking? Marketing of this idea is another sellout. People spend their entire paycheck at Walmart buying things that will be in the landfill in 6 months? Insanity. Save a few bucks and buy something of value if you can find it any more.
Sorry John, my simplistic way of thinking of these things is juvenile sometimes, but it is logical. I know it is easy for you too see too. We could be much farther along. Maybe Sachs Goldman and the like would not be as rich, but the little people would be far better off.
Thanks again,
Always,
Phil
PS Sheepy is doing interviews with environmental geologists at the moment.
Comment by Jason on 5 February 2010:
Chinese are temperamental don’t mess with us!
You westerners and the fascination with china. Communist made us inferior for just a while. Now, we will surpass you mutha truckers!
Just kidding. I’m american likewise. Chinese will never beat americans at the arts and creativity.
Comment by John C.L on 5 February 2010:
Hey Phil,
Thank you for the response, it’s very refreshing to see people who care about their blogs and what readers have to say.
I think to some extent all of our politicians are beholden to special interest. Lobbying wouldn’t be the huge industry it is if it weren’t so effective. The question is whether or not these politicians care more about the people or the special interests. I think the Scott Brown victory reminded them who they SHOULD be listening to – but how long will that lesson last?
The problem is pervasive, it starts in our education system and even in the way we think. We tend to disassociate our supremacy and our economy. We believe that our military might is what holds us at the top. This is fundamentally untrue, it’s our way of doing things (best practices), our R&D, our education, our innovation, our can do attitude, our production capacity etc that spurred us along. Obama said it in his debate with McCain – “No power in history has lost its economic edge but maintained its military dominance” – armies are expensive. As such our weak point was never our military, it was our economy. In years past one was as unassailable as the other, but as time has progressed that’s changed. While our military is deadlier than it’s ever been, our economy has become uncompetitive. For the first time ever we’ve been outdone in the competitiveness report…by Switzerland. We’re also fallen far behind on infrastructure vital for the 21st century – Internet! Our capacity, speed and price remain mediocre at best.
I believe that patriotism nowadays needs to be applied to the economy. My background is business, I was educated in Canada and worked in Wall Street as an equity trader just before the collapse. I have witnessed what our corporate leaders have been taught when they were in school and what types of people work in our banks. In school we were taught a pure logical approach to business – that is to say outsource if it’s less expensive, use any and all means to get ahead. There is nothing wrong with that mentality if you look at it from a global business stand-point as a business owner, but if you see the effects on your home country and fellow citizens you start to think differently. The problem is that applying a patriotic economic view puts you at a competitive disadvantage as your prices using local labor would inevitably be higher. As one business owner once told me “I can buy it cheaper at Wal-Mart retail than my supplier sells it to me wholesale!” We need to make it so that economic sense would keep our industry home. One way I think that’ll happen is to revalue the Yuan to its fair value. At that point exports from China will not be nearly as attractive. The first companies to bring back production will also have the appeal of being viewed by consumers as a companies that care about America and not just the bottom line, a perception which would be a huge competitive asset (look as Google.)
It’s important to recognize however that this phenomenon was inevitable, it’s a flaw in corporate governance. The way companies are run means that their number one drive is profits to satisfy shareholders. When the American market was saturated with goods they started exporting. When foreign markets were saturated with goods and the obscene profits became the norm, companies needed a new way to increase profits for the never-satisfied shareholders. They lowered cost – downsizing and outsourcing being the key mechanisms. They identified two places with huge populations that were basically starving and that could work for much, much less money and for longer hours but would still be better off than they were – China and India. Since India remained a difficult place to do business but China made it much easier our companies flocked there. The rest is history.
At the same time I believe something is broken in our most basic building block – hiring practices. Our companies don’t hire the most talented or the best suited – they hire the best resume. As we all know most resumes are “embellished” so that they border on lies. Hundreds of resumes come in, all looking the same, most are discarded in 15 seconds! During the interview they ask standard questions and the candidate responds with standard answers. Once they start work and it comes to light that their resume was embellished they can’t be fired – it would look bad for the hiring manager. THAT’s for the few who get hired the traditional way, most simply get referred. How on earth are we to hire the best talent that way? What happened to integrity, work ethic and intelligence as the most sought after traits? what happened to the company that’s more like a family than a place to work? We’ve become mercenaries for hire to the highest bidder. I say all this after having witnessed it firsthand. The Wall Street trading floor was littered with people whose sole motivation was money regardless of ANY consequence. They NEEDED to get ahead, most were entirely convinced that their worth was inestimable even as we all wondered at lunch what we actually contributed to our society as Traders. I’m not sure how we managed to fit all those egos into that comparably small space. That’s the exact type of person that was responsible for the credit crisis; the logical outcome of the type of education I’ve described earlier. Though our business schools do have classes like “business ethics” and “responsible corporate governance” they’re geared more towards stopping corruption than at allowing people to see the bigger picture and their place in that picture.
On a positive note I’m very encouraged by Obama’s recent policies. The fact that he’s standing up and doing the right thing – like meeting the Dalai Lama and helping Taiwan defend itself – is encouraging. His idea of doubling exports in a great one also. I still think he’s not able to make hard enough decisions yet but hope that he’ll progressively become able to do so out of necessity. The U.S is pretty much broke, why are we still assuming the extremely expensive traditional role of world police? Discontinuing our expensive payments to various governments around the world that do nothing to boost our security, our worthless and VERY expensive wars (they want us out and we’re not making much difference) and various other costly endeavors would put us back on stable footing. It’s time for America to worry about itself for a while, I’m sure people will understand. More than a few will probably even be happy to see us go – at least until they see what the world will look like without us! “Beware what you wish for, it might just come true”
I don’t thinks your point of view in simplistic Phil, I can see you understand the issues from your post. I apologize for the long post but it’s a discussion that requires a lot of elaboration.
@Jason: LoL, that’s very true! Remember though, our economy is still 3 times larger than theirs! If they continue growing at their double digit growth it would take them 20 years before they match U.S output, we’re still far ahead of the game! How do we keep it that way though?
Kind Regards,
John.
P.S: I very much look forward to reading what Sheepy has to say when she has the time!
Comment by Phil Butler on 6 February 2010:
John, Again thanks so much for your valuable time and insight. You put down about 40 things I needed to say in the various articles about these things. As you can imagine, this news site takes up a chunk of time to have to elaborate too much. I have several very revealing and informative pieces started, but something else comes up every time I start research.
People like you, the people who have a grasp of the situation, are the ones who will help things get set on a better course. As you already probably discerned, I am in favor of helping the world, people in China and everywhere sharing and being productive. Just not at the expense of the goose that laid the golden egg. I wonder if those mights politicos in Beijing ever stop to consider if American lives and resources had not been expended in the Pacific theater in WWII, everyone in China would be speaking Japanese at this moment? We owe them? They loaned us? I know they never consider this or the fact that if Chiang Kai Shek and the fathers of their brothers on Taiwan had left sooner, Japan would now be talking with Washington about the economy. Just some what ifs and thoughts.
We have done some harm to the world over the decades. Made terrible mistakes. Even launched nuclear attacks against our fellow man. But the average American, not the businessmen or politician, has time and time again given up life and property for fellows abroad. More so than any other nationality. I just get a little on my ear when people or governments press the little man in America John. What did any nation ever really do for the little man in America? When China actually does something for humanity, above and beyond, that government might deserve respect rather than some primal form of fear from her neighbors.
Thanks so much John, for the time it took to reflect in such a way. This is rare in case you did not know.
Always,
Phil