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Monday, October 18, 2010

All we have to sell to other countries is our garbage...

Hey, look! America is shipping cars to China...


The Number One U.S. Export To China: Waste Paper And Scrap Metal

Historians tell us that by the very end of the Roman Empire, goods were pouring into Rome from all over the known world, but about the only thing being sent out of Rome was human waste and garbage. America has not yet reached that point, but we are certainly well on our way. In 2010, the number one U.S. export to China is "scrap and trash". Yes, you read the correctly. The number one thing that China buys from us is our garbage. According to author Clyde Prestowitz, China's number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment (nearly $50 billion) while our number one export to them is waste paper and scrap metal (approximately $8 billion). When it comes to world trade, China is literally wiping the floor with the United States. In August, the U.S. trade deficit with China set a new one month record of $28 billion dollars. Our insane trade policies are making China (along with several of our other "trade partners") incredibly wealthy, and the U.S. government ends up begging China to lend that money back to us to fund the exploding U.S. national debt. That just isn't stupidity - that is insanity.

The truth is that our "twin deficits" are literally bankrupting this nation. We are completely and totally destroying the economic future of our children and grandchildren.

But hey, the Vikings beat the Cowboys, Dancing With The Stars is heating up and we all have a bunch of DVDs to get caught up on so why worry ourselves, right?

Unfortunately, the reality is that we can't afford to be "comfortably numb" any longer if we hope to have any kind of a future.

It is time to wake up people.

Sadly, a significant percentage of young Americans these days can't even tell you what a "trade deficit" is.

If you don't believe this, just try a little experiment some time. Just go up to a few young Americans on the street and ask them to define "trade deficit" for you.

But fortunately, the vast majority of the readers of this column are quite informed. Unfortunately, I still don't believe that most of you really understand how incredibly dangerous the trade deficit is.

So just how dangerous is the trade deficit? Well, world famous investor Warren Buffett once put it this way....

"The U.S trade deficit is a bigger threat to the domestic economy than either the federal budget deficit or consumer debt and could lead to political turmoil... Right now, the rest of the world owns $3 trillion more of us than we own of them."

Between 2000 and 2009, America's trade deficit with China skyrocketed nearly 300 percent. Wealth, factories and jobs are leaving the United States at an astounding pace. The danger that this represents to our economy is so vast that it is hard to even describe.

If you ever find yourself in a debate with proponents of "free trade", you can almost always get them to eventually admit that "free trade" will raise the standard of living for workers in countries like China while significantly lowering the standard of living for U.S. workers, but that this must be done for the good of the emerging "global economy".

Of course U.S politicians never really mention this nasty little fact when they give speeches about how wonderful our trade policies are. They never really get around to mentioning that "free trade" is one of the key foundations of "globalism" and that we are being merged into a one world economy.

Today, American workers do not just compete with other American workers. Instead, U.S. workers now find themselves in direct competition for jobs with workers in China that makes less than a tenth of what an American worker would make. In China, a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour. Apple iPhones are manufactured in China by workers making about 293 dollars a month (and that was after a big raise).


Link:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-number-one-u-s-export-to-china-waste-paper-and-scrap-metal

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