China joined the WTO in 2001 and has gained $13 trillion in GDP since then. America has gained $11 trillion during the same time period, has a quarter of the population of China, but most Americans have not seen any increase in their standard of living, and many have become a lot poorer. So China isn't making America poorer, as such, even though most Americans believe it has. The One Percent made all the gains.
However in the past 20 years, almost 5 million manufacturing jobs in America have been lost, as factories moved overseas, creating Rust Belt de-industrialisation, a surge in poverty levels and anti-China sentiment.
Dayton, Ohio, home of the Wright brothers, was once known as “The City of 1,000 Factories” and the Silicon Valley of its age. From 2001 to 2007, the city lost almost 23,000 jobs, as factories such as General Motors shut down. Ironically in 2015, Chinese glass-maker Fuyao set up a factory in Dayton employing 2,300 workers - the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary American Factory.
But how much is globalisation, and China in particular, to blame for America's deindustrialisation woes, and how much the one-percenters and unequal distribution of wealth? America's GDP after all has grown by some US$11 trillion since 2001.
5 comments:
Very nice post -- I liked this "you cannot really blame China for how the pie is being cut in the United States." We can however blame both the USA and China for the use of convict labour, and for not protecting workers' basic rights, to organize and demand higher wages. So there is some similarity between the two countries elites. Despite the violence of the Chinese régime, I think that Michael Hudson is very right when he remarks that while the "statement that “China has avoided financialization” may not be the actual case, as various moves have been taken in financialization, ... we can say that China seems to be aware of the risks in financialization, and has taken measures to attempt to contain it, causing discontent from US financial interests which would want to see China going further down the road."
http://thesaker.is/americas-neoliberal-financialization-policy-vs-chinas-industrial-socialism/
It's a trade off between corruption and shame. China's elite are bigger patriots than their American counterpart.
And somewhat more threatened as, having no democratic voice at all to contend with, they have defend their position and claims to legitimacy by pointing to improving conditions. They are terrified of a crash's implications for their own position, whereas western elites live off them like fungi
Indeed, but try to show some respect for fungi.
“they have defend their position and claims to legitimacy by pointing to improving conditions.”
Which is what matters to people. The western liberal democracy don’t deliver. It’s just words and a self proclaimed superiority of a system.
A lot of Chinese don’t agree that they don’t have any democracy. That picture is painted by the liberal west.
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