Just read an article in a May 2010 issue of TIME celebrating the influx of Chinese business investment in America, more specifically “Companies from China are spending billions to build factories in the U.S. and creating new jobs for American workers.” Yes, you read that right. Just how much are we talking about? Five billion dollars’ worth in 2009; previous annual investment averaged $500 million.
Who wrote this and why is she so happy? Sheridan Prasso, who wrote The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient, is considered an expert on All Things Asian. Fair enough.
But I’m not nearly as excited as she is, and I’d be glad to tell you why. Too much control on a national level. Strategically speaking, this could be disastrous.
1. China holds the biggest chunk of our national debt.
2. We love to buy “Made in China” crap because it’s cheap. I present you the Wal-Mart Model: higher quality, non-China suppliers have been or are being ran out of business because Americans have chosen crap over spending a few extra pennies. This also encompasses all the cheap-ass components our American manufacturers have chosen to use in their products.
3. We are now allowing Chinese entrepreneurs to build new and ACQUIRE existing non-profitable American factories. It would appear that China has made them non-profitable (with their notorious low-balling labor costs) and is now swooping in to “save” them in their desperate under-valued state.
Sound like a recipe for disaster? China is becoming our daddy in all ways that matter, economically. Our debtor, our boss, our mother’s breast milk, our daddy. Sorry to be so blunt. We owe them, we work for them, we depend on them for our substandard stuff. Maybe a little too much power held by our new Commie friends? Just a thought.
Maybe I’m a xenophobe, business is business, if we’re yoked together, no one can nuke the other, right? Let’s all join hands now and sing “Kumbaya” in Mandarin. And wracking my brain, I can’t think of anybody they’ve attacked in modern history.
I’m no China Expert; I’m just One Stoopid American. But knowing the very little I know about the Chinese Mindset, this is what I think. Americans are greedy and focused on the short-term gain. (But I can get the Chinese version 3¢ cheaper today!) Meanwhile, the Chinese concept of long-term spans generations…we hand over all power to them, willingly, without a shot ever fired, and they defeat us and our way of life the exact way we’ve defeated other countries – ECONOMICALLY.
And our government is helping them through tax credits and other business incentives (a state payroll tax credit of $1500 per employee!). Sometimes I think we’re so stoopid, we get everything we deserve. Theoretically, we could be paying them to take complete economic control over us.
Just what factories/ companies are we talking about here? Oh, a $1 billion plant in Corpus Christi making seamless pipe for oil drilling (makes us a little more slave-like in the whole big OIL picture, if that’s even possible), a wind-energy turbine plant/ wind farm in Nevada (another small vulnerability in the utility area), four factory acquisitions for machine tool-makers, under four different brands.
Of course, Rush Limbaugh followers rant about Chinese flags flying higher on the pole out front than the U.S. flag…which frustrates me. People, who gives a damn about what flags are flying, KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE MONEY! Another annoying distraction: the positive spin the media gives anyone who deighns to give us a dime today, pocketing dollars later. In Corpus Christi, they're throwing backyard barbecues to welcome their new neighbors.
Call me suspicious. I may not have to deal with the fall-out in my lifetime, but my sons will.
Who wrote this and why is she so happy? Sheridan Prasso, who wrote The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient, is considered an expert on All Things Asian. Fair enough.
But I’m not nearly as excited as she is, and I’d be glad to tell you why. Too much control on a national level. Strategically speaking, this could be disastrous.
1. China holds the biggest chunk of our national debt.
2. We love to buy “Made in China” crap because it’s cheap. I present you the Wal-Mart Model: higher quality, non-China suppliers have been or are being ran out of business because Americans have chosen crap over spending a few extra pennies. This also encompasses all the cheap-ass components our American manufacturers have chosen to use in their products.
3. We are now allowing Chinese entrepreneurs to build new and ACQUIRE existing non-profitable American factories. It would appear that China has made them non-profitable (with their notorious low-balling labor costs) and is now swooping in to “save” them in their desperate under-valued state.
Sound like a recipe for disaster? China is becoming our daddy in all ways that matter, economically. Our debtor, our boss, our mother’s breast milk, our daddy. Sorry to be so blunt. We owe them, we work for them, we depend on them for our substandard stuff. Maybe a little too much power held by our new Commie friends? Just a thought.
Maybe I’m a xenophobe, business is business, if we’re yoked together, no one can nuke the other, right? Let’s all join hands now and sing “Kumbaya” in Mandarin. And wracking my brain, I can’t think of anybody they’ve attacked in modern history.
I’m no China Expert; I’m just One Stoopid American. But knowing the very little I know about the Chinese Mindset, this is what I think. Americans are greedy and focused on the short-term gain. (But I can get the Chinese version 3¢ cheaper today!) Meanwhile, the Chinese concept of long-term spans generations…we hand over all power to them, willingly, without a shot ever fired, and they defeat us and our way of life the exact way we’ve defeated other countries – ECONOMICALLY.
And our government is helping them through tax credits and other business incentives (a state payroll tax credit of $1500 per employee!). Sometimes I think we’re so stoopid, we get everything we deserve. Theoretically, we could be paying them to take complete economic control over us.
Just what factories/ companies are we talking about here? Oh, a $1 billion plant in Corpus Christi making seamless pipe for oil drilling (makes us a little more slave-like in the whole big OIL picture, if that’s even possible), a wind-energy turbine plant/ wind farm in Nevada (another small vulnerability in the utility area), four factory acquisitions for machine tool-makers, under four different brands.
Of course, Rush Limbaugh followers rant about Chinese flags flying higher on the pole out front than the U.S. flag…which frustrates me. People, who gives a damn about what flags are flying, KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE MONEY! Another annoying distraction: the positive spin the media gives anyone who deighns to give us a dime today, pocketing dollars later. In Corpus Christi, they're throwing backyard barbecues to welcome their new neighbors.
Call me suspicious. I may not have to deal with the fall-out in my lifetime, but my sons will.
If I'm in left field on this, please correct me, folks! Am I being naive or an alarmist? I just know from a business strategy standpoint, this sucks.
ReplyDeleteI'm not business-smart enough to argue with you, but I felt compelled to point out that China seems to rushing headlong to the Right and capitalism, while the US seems to be moving just as quickly the other direction.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought, but maybe China really IS going to save us - economically, but more importantly, philosophically. Perhaps they are just what we need to remind us of who we are.
I mean "were".
I wish I could think more positively about this development. I follow Teddy Roosevelt's idea of "big stick" diplomacy. Someone just needs to keep an eye on the ACQUISITIONS and make sure everything that goes into our weapons systems and military machines remains held by us.
ReplyDelete