Web Letters | The Nation

Great 'People's World' article about China and the labor movement

China isn't the cause of America's bad economy. Here is a good article that discusses how China bashing is a destraction from America's real economic problems: "Message to my fellow workers: China-bashing is a bad idea."

Is China the enemy?

US unions should cooperate with Chinese unions on areas of common interest. Back in 2008, the Chinese government passed a law requiring foreign companies operating in China to allow their employees to unionize. I suspect that China is being used as a scapegoat for decades of failed economic policies. Tibet has been an integral part of China for centuries and the Chinese Communists ended slavery in Tibet and improved the quality of life. What ahppened to support from the left for People's China!

China and tariffs

This is a very interesting article. I particularly liked the term "Enemy Deprivation Syndrome." However, China will have to get in line behind Iraq and Iran in order to justify Star Wars Missile Defense Systems that do not work.

Many of the viewpoints in this article reflect a panic stricken version of the "chicken little the sky is falling" syndrome. China is not the first economic superpower we have faced. As Alexander Hamilton note in his "Report On Manufactures," the British had a twenty-year head start with the Industrial Revolution. A "free trade" relationship with them meant they could dump their manufactured goods on the American economy and prevent the development of our industrial base with their cheap goods. Hamilton's answer was to create a wall of tariffs, behind which we could develop an national independent industrial base and economy. It worked! We didn't need to threaten any other country with sanctions or the use of force. We didn't try to compete with the British, because our objective was an independent economy and not trade! If you want our industrial base and its jobs back, all you need are tariffs!

We do need a government-funded stimulus plan repairing and improving our Infrastructure which will, I repeat, will, create jobs and have a ripple effect on the whole economy. This was of particular interest to Henry Clay in the economic plan he called "The American System," in order to build roads and improve water transportation for commerce.

China is not responsible for the economic downfall of the West. It was "free trade" policies that began in the Clinton administration that allowed the multinationals and economic elites to go abroad for cheap labor. China is now allowing strikes so that wages can rise and create an internal consumer class that will support an independent Chinese economy. The multinationals and economic elites will not leave China because protectionist policies will create an market that will blow international trade out of the water. Western markets are committing economic suicide, so they had better pay some attention to an internal market!