Comments by "Harry Mills" (@harrymills2770) on "Trump-Kim summit sends strong message to China" video.
-
2
-
If Trump jacks up the tariffs on Chinese goods to 25%, the river of jobs leaving china will become a flood. And they held the summit in Vietnam, which is EXACTLY the part of the world that will profit, handsomely, if those tariffs kick in, because SE Asia is where those jobs are going, already. And China's economy is already stumbling, because of Trump's threat to carry out the 25% tariffs. And more.
The Chinese have been behaving like thugs in the world economy, and it's catching up to them. Their current policies have all the hallmarks of Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere, which seemed like a good thing, when Japan seemed to offering an alternative to European colonialism. But as soon as they got in the door, they proved that their brand of imperialism was far more brutal and exploitative than even the European colonialists prior to that.
For Chinese to compete in the world economy, they need an educated and productive middle class, but you can't maintain that middle class under totalitarian rule. As soon as people start getting educated and build their skill sets, they start questioning authority. China's always happy to crush dissent, but it comes at great cost in economic freedom and growth. They can't compete with us without becoming more like us. There's the same glass ceiling above Chinese ambitions that there was over Soviet ambitions.
I think they underestimated their vulnerability, with things all going their way, offering sweetheart deals to get in the door with many countries in various difficulties, but once in, they show what they're really after and how they operate, and one after another, countries are saying they don't want the Chinese. It turns out that their proposed infrastructure improvements in one country after another are tied to using Chinese companies to build the infrastructure, with control over all aspects.
My big worry was how the Chinese were buying up so much American debt. They thought by doing so that they'd have the U.S.A. at their mercy, and that all presidents would fold like Obama-Biden or Clinton or Bush, in order to finance the welfare-state Ponzi scheme (and the bloated war machine) that establishment politicians can't seem to resist. If the big spenders can't beg to borrow Chinese money, then the deficits on which they rely (at the expense of our children and grandchildren) will eventually sink the USA's economic boat.
Trump changed all that. But if USA doesn't get its fiscal house in order, de-facto Chinese economic hegemony will be close to absolute. Trump's attacking the prosperity side of the equation. We'll see what he can do in the next 6 years to put the budget on a trajectory to fiscal solvency, but economic growth and American jobs are the underpinning of that. Obama was CERTAIN that American factory jobs were dinosaurs, and that there was no bringing them back from extinction. All Trump had to do to bring investment back to the USA was threaten to trade with other countries the way they trade with the USA.
There was INSTANT reaction to those threats. There were sudden announcements of new factories in the USA and jobs fleeing China for parts South, where labor is cheap and tariffs are low.
I don't see the USA farming out its welfare programs to the 50 states any time soon, but in the meantime, it doesn't take huge changes in how Food Stamps and other programs are administered to get things under control. When Alabama passed laws requiring able-bodied welfare and food-stamp recipients to WORK for their benefits, the welfare rolls dropped by 85%. 85%! To see for yourself, just Google "How many food stamp recipients left the rolls in alabama?" You don't have to eliminate the social safety net in order to rein in the ridiculous excesses and high costs.
Other states have (and will) follow suit. But it takes a Republican governor and state legislature to pass those kinds of resolutions. As big-spending-and-taxing-and-regulating states go broke, the tide will turn.
Then, if Trump can keep his promise to reduce the American military footprint, abroad, then the bloated Defense Department can actually work on National Defense, starting with securing our nation's borders! With HUGE SAVINGS for American taxpayers. Reining-in the welfare state AND the military-industrial complex are the two keys to fiscal solvency, and - by an annoyingly and necessarily zig-zag path, Trump is getting us there. He may be the best president we've ever had, in spite of his flaws.
2
-
1
-
1