Donald Trump has big problems with red China, and I can't blame him. Trump says China manipulates its currency, which they do, and that they contribute to North Korea so extensively, that North Korea would undoubtedly fail totally without them. North Korea is a threat to the free world with their atomic bombs and rockets. Trump says that China should stop supporting North Korea, because they get nothing out of it and it risks World War Three. Maybe he can 'convince' China to stop supporting North Korea by all sorts of persuasion. But that's not what I have against China. A friend of mine, a couple of years ago, had a bet with friends to see who could find something in a big box store that was not made in China. It was a very difficult search, and took a long time. Red China, whose colleges and high schools require memorizing endless poems and history of Chairman Mao in order to graduate, rather than achievements in math, grammar, reading, and writing, is disgusting, and is the reason why Chinese students are the largest foreign population in U.S. colleges. They want to learn something.
Believe it or not, most people under 35, do not know where the word "Walmart" came from, and for that matter maybe they have never heard of Henry Ford, from whom the cars are named. Sam Walton started Walmart, and of course the name is literally a 'mart by Walton,' and "Sam's Club" comes from Sam Walton's name also. Sam Walton started his chain of stores, promising to sell only American made goods. He kept his word! No one bought from China when Sam Walton was alive, and there were no other big box stores yet formed, such as Target, Home Depot, etc. Sam Walton sold nothing but American made merchandise, and China was a backward, communist, slave state, with no prosperity or wealth of any kind, as is common with communist nations such as North Korea.
When Sam Walton died, he left his business to his four kids, who instantly became some of America's wealthiest people, supposedly $168 billion net worth between the four of them. Ignoring their father's advice to only buy American goods, they approached China and Japan to see if they could produce things cheaper than Americans. They could and did. The change happened pretty quickly, and in what seemed like no time, Chinese goods were flooding Walmarts, and subsequent chains. Hundreds of thousands of American workers were laid off and lost the jobs which supported their families. Hundreds of factories closed, never to reopen. Try yourself to find merchandise in any store not made in China. It is a hard thing to find. Bill Clinton signed NAFTA which cost more thousands of American jobs and closed factories. Chinese rulers discovered that they'd better relax their strict communist rules and allow a bit of capitalism in if they wanted to get rich and have a wealthy class. They did, and while Americans lost jobs and factories, China soon had a semi-capitalistic economic system, which generated huge profits. It became a Humpty Dumpty affair which could never be put back together again, it seems. Maybe anyway. The U.S. has over a $4 trillion balance of trade deficit with China. Free trade? Goofy economists say 'free trade' is the ticket, but I say "Free trade between equals is great," but not with unequals, which counts out China, Japan, and Mexico for starters. Tariffs are supposed to equalize trade between unequals.
Typical of a communist nation with little freedom to make decisions, China's economy now is in the dumps and has hundreds and maybe even thousands of closed factories. People bought what they needed, those needs were satiated, and the demand fell off. The world's economy is in trouble, not just China's. Thanks to the lack of freedom in China, government runs things, not the supply and demand capitalistic method of controlling production, and it has caught up with them. Do I care? No, and I refuse to go into a Walmart, because I want to buy things not made in China. Donald Trump says that if Whirlpool indeed moves its factories to Mexico, he will install a 35% tariff on all their washers and dryers.. Would Ford change their mind about a huge new factory in Mexico if Trump put the squeeze on them? Maybe they will change their minds and stay here? Maybe that's why Trump is the only candidate left on the Republican side. Maybe his promise to "Make America Great Again" will come true, and will cause him to be elected President. Maybe America has a chance now. Maybe factories and jobs will come back to America. Wouldn't that be grand?
Silly 'free traders' say that with free trade between unequals, Americans can now buy stuff cheaper, but does that really compute, when millions have lost their jobs, thousands of factories closed and rusting away, and millions have to work two menial jobs just to stay alive, eat, and make mortgage payments? China and Japan have literally stolen millions of U.S. patents and paid not a dime in royalties to the patent holders. They are great copiers, but terrible inventors. Endless violations of property rights, patents, techniques, processes, and even original thought, have crossed the Pacific Ocean since WW II, and we have been the victims, not the beneficiaries. I am certain that most of us would rather pay more and have what we buy made here, than supporting a communist nation. Free trade between unequals is like a high school baseball team playing the Yankees. Nuts to free trade between unequals. Now, China is going to make airplanes and cars. I doubt that they will be worth much, since China has yet to be good enough to make fine, precision, tools. They make Christmas lights, toothbrushes, and simple things, but I wouldn't ride in or buy a Chinese car or airplane. 49 books left which will not be re-printed.