That’s a very common expression, used by Donald Trump, isn’t it? ‘We’ve been ripped off for decades by China and just about every other nation, etc. etc.’ What that phrase indicates, is that China and other nations, have been deliberately trying to kill America, and Trump is going to save us. Am I being fair?
Let’s review a little history. Chairman Mao, died in 1976, and aside from killing probably hundreds of millions, China was an absolute zero as far as manufacturing, and even basic civilization. China was comparable to East Germany after WW II. East Germany was literally a communist slave state. Thousands were killed, trying to escape to the west sector. East Germany made the Trabant, and West was making Mercedes. This went on for almost four decades, and finally, on November 9, 1989, the commies gave up, and opened the borders between West and East Germany. China was East Germany, when Mao died, and America was West Germany, if you wish to compare the two.
Sam Walton, who founded Walmart, died in 1992. Sam always stressed in his advertising, that he would not sell anything in his stores, which were not made in America. When Sam died, I am sure he wanted his policies to remain in Walmarts. I have no doubts, that many nations with cheap labor, approached Sam, with offers to produce exactly the same as his “Made in America,’ tools, clothing, and hardware, at much lower prices than he was paying. Sam said NO.
When Sam died, his kids became probably the richest kids in America, and it seems almost immediately, Walmarts became known as “China Marts,” Thanks to his kids? Probably. I think it was Walmart, which got China going. By 2011, China became the world’s largest manufacturing nation. China built some factories, gave tax relief, and discounted utilities to attract business. Fortunately, many corporations and manufacturers are moving back to America, and this had already begun before Trump took office. These moves take time and money, and cannot be done instantaneously. I salute Donald Trump for his efforts, but I stand behind last week’s column.
Has China ever ‘invented’ anything, but rather copied everything she has, from America? Did China ‘rip us off,’ or did Walmarts, Home Depots, Hobby Lobby, and wholesalers of clothing, furniture, shoes, tires, hardware, and probably 75% of every single thing sold in American stores. They ‘ripped us off,’ by buying from China? Did China force America to buy from it? No, the wholesalers of everything in America, did it.
I am a fire nut, and when I lived in Philadelphia, I was a member of the ‘Second Alarmers Association,’ which in cases of extra alarms, we would be there to give coffee and doughnuts to weary firemen. The biggest fires I ever witnessed, were in abandoned Philly factories. The products hey used to make, and hired Americans, all went to China. .America has lost many thousands of factories to China, and it was the wholesalers of everything, and ex-manufacturers of everything, which did it. Ripped off? Yes, but not by China. American wholesalers and buyers did it on their own. China welcomed it, and those trillions of dollars has made her obnoxious, power mad, and a threat to the world. It all started with irresponsible buyers, buying from China.
America is full of abandoned factories, steel mills, clothing manufacturers, tire manufacturers, et al, which have killed us, not China, who offered low prices, and other attractions, like municipalities do every day in America, to attract business. America’s higher wages and unions, made it difficult to make things here, and there was no will power in America, to say NO, like Sam Walton did. Will Trump’s tariffs help now, or won’t it take several years for manufacturing to return here? I think that is the case, if we don’t get into a recession sooner, because of stock gyrations from one extreme to the other. The Dow has not recovered from where it was before the Covid epidemic. I want America to once again make what we consume, but I have not yet seen any foundations laid for the large corporations supposedly coming here. This would be big news, if and hopefully when, it has happened. I want them to come here, but I think the price of gold which as I write this is, way over $3,200 an once, is indicative of more and more ‘investors’ in stocks and bit coins, getting tired of gyrating stock prices, and bit coins which are backed by absolutely nothing. It is also the effect of Trump’s driving the dollar down in comparison to the EU money.
I know the expression, Buy low, and sell high. I bought silver at its low last week, but unless you actually NEED the dollars, don’t sell. Gold and silver prices are directly linked to their cost to produce. There’s no 35 or 50% markup, like in retail stores. The ‘spot price,’ is what miners get when the take the ore out of the ground, and as you can see, our gold and silver are so low over the cost of milling, smelting, assaying, manufacturing, distributing, etc. I say ‘assaying,’ which is finding out if there is any gold in the ore, as it is hardly ever seen with the naked eye, if it is, It’s called “High Grade,” and that’s so rare, that it has its own set of values.
As I wrote last week, Argentina has literally almost totally recovered from communist rule for decades, and they have done it with no tariffs! They just shrunk government. Wouldn’t Canada abolish all their tariffs if we did the same? And the same with Germany, Britain, and even Mexico? Wasn’t just shrinking government , better than having the buck lose value, and America looking like it is run by hillbillies, changing their minds about everything, in just a couple of hours?
Don Stott – don@coloradogold.com. 970-249-4646