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Originally Posted by
freethinker 
I respect your views and thanks for the anecdotes. One could say that the shit has yet to hit the fan- namely that the Chinese economy will at first feel the tinges of economic despair gripping the West and then soon accelerate in its decline and China's decline will be far steeper than ours. China relies on American consumers and European Consumers to buy its goods. It is great for them that African and Middle Eastern countries are buying as well but even they are feeling the hurt of the global economic crisis (Dubai getting loans from Abu Dhabi, etc).
The China economic engine has started and has it's own population to use as fuel for quite some time. It also has locked in the cheapest labor and pegs it's currency to the dollar to ensure that American and European countries have no other less expensive option but to buy from China.
If there is a source that is less expensive, numerous, homologous, hardworking and as intelligent as China's people in the world, it remains to be seen.
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What I fear though is that the opportunists you mentioned have already arrived and instead of having noble goals (like push for job creation) they are instead filling their own pockets from the ship (USA) that they see as sinking.
Well it was the socialist mindset creep in government, that everyone was entitled to own their own home even if they can't afford it, started by Clinton (Community Reinvestment Act) and finished by the 2005 Congress (the ones in right now) that caused the economic mess and huge national debt we are in right now.
That "hate capitalism" socialist policy has cost the poor who were conned into giving up their life savings for a down payment on something they couldn't afford by a Government who was backing the play with tax payers money and bilking investors the world over. To the point that the actual ratings of the securities were altered!
If the real estate bubble was allowed to be a typical speculative, wealthy only type game, only the rich who held property too long would have lost. I been through one before so I know what happens. But no! The Congress decided to get Freddie and Fannie into the sub-prime game and now we are in debt to the Chinese to our eyeballs because of it.
Now Barney Frank want's to get rid of the two GSE's because nobody will buy their stock and thus can't attract any investors. He wants to create a new socialist government controlled entity so it can attract (and bilk) investors (retirees life savings) out of their hard earned money all over again.
We all, even the poor, are going to pay dearly due to the high inflation that's coming for years. It's already started last month and the Fed isn't tightening one bit so they intend for it to be high to pay back in cheaper dollars.
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Liberal or Conservative nothing is ever done in Washington precisely because that is how the corporations that pay lobbyists want it to be. But it is wrong to say that nothing gets done- a whole lot gets done for the corporate interests - look at wall street, auto makers, etc... The question is where do we go from here as a society? And why do we hold ourselves up to ideals that never existed in the first place (free market, etc). We are capitalist in regards to profits and socialist in regards to losses.
The tax payer is not a ATM machine of endless money, I calculated that everyone would have to work something like three or four months full time for free to pay for something that they had nothing to do with by a socialist government mentality that can't even run their own State of California well, much less the US Government. Sub-prime lending abuse started in California and their government is bankrupt, issuing IOU's. (But then conservative Texas has a good economy and no sub-prime mess. Why is that?)
We need to focus on endeavors that the rest of the world can't compete with the U.S. on, reverse or minimize the outbound cash flow, cut the fat like unions getting $75 a hour and 95% pay if not working and focus on competing nationally better. The fat should also be cut in other areas as well, so it's just not labor, but management as well.
Also the deflation rate should have been allowed to continue, it was a natural adjustment, to bring US prices down to more realistic world prices so we can compete on a more even level with other nations.
With all things being equal, labor costs and prices that is, companies would decide to move operations back to the US from other countries to avoid instability, government control and shipping costs.
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why are we still in Iraq?
It's obvious, Middle East stability and control is vital to the U.S. for it's energy and national security.
China like the U.S., doesn't have abundant energy resources as cheap as oil, it would be there in a heartbeat and cutting everyone else off, or making them pay higher prices.
The Middle East countries accept US involvement because we are interested in maintaining the peace and letting the free market of capitalism to work.
Those who reject the US involvement can do so, but if they threaten the region, like Saddam did, they will be dealt with.
If the US pulled out of the Middle East, there would be a rush of hostile nations in to fill the power void and thus hamper our ability to maintain our economic and national security by controlling a energy resource as cheap as oil.
So that's why we are in Iraq and Afghanistan and why Obama, despite his political campaign rhetoric, hasn't pulled out one troop out and rather increased troops instead.
Hopefully with Apple's iPad, more textbooks will become available to users at a lower cost that will explain the complicated political and economic relationships that exist between countries of the world. Shed a bit of light to the average American so they can understand the why's and how comes.
It's the ignorant public that is electing ignorant politicians.
