D
Dr. Jai Maharaj
Guest
China Business
Speaking Freely
CHRISTMAS IS MADE IN CHINA
By Lester R Brown
Asia Times
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows
guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you
are interested in contributing.
http://www.atimes.com/mediakit/write-for-atol.html
I know Santa Claus is Chinese because each Christmas
morning after all the gifts are unwrapped and things settle
down I systematically go through the presents to see where
they are made. The results are almost always the same:
roughly 70% are from China. After some research, it seems
that my one-family survey is representative of the country
as a whole.
Let's start with toys. Some 80% of the toys sold in the
United States -- from Barbie dolls to video games -- are
made in China. Talking toys that speak English learned the
language from Chinese workers. Electronic goods -- from
Apple's iPod to Microsoft's Xbox -- are made in China.
Clothing -- from the latest cashmere sweaters to gym suits
-- is also likely to have a "Made in China" label.
The Christmas tree itself may come from China. While real
Christmas trees are grown in every state in the United
States and are marketed locally, many families now gather
around artificial Christmas trees. Eight out of every 10
artificial Christmas trees sold in the United States are
made in China. Last year Americans spent over US$130
million on plastic Christmas trees from China, more than
90% of which were manufactured in the semi-tropical
southern city of Shenzhen.
This year Americans will spend over $1 billion on Christmas
ornaments from China. And in perhaps the greatest irony of
all, even nativity scenes are made in China. Last year
Americans spent more than $39 million buying nativity
scenes shipped in from the East. China's success in
attracting foreign investment capital and mobilizing this
huge workforce has made it the workshop of the world.
That the US Christmas is made in China is a metaphor for a
far deeper set of economic issues affecting the United
States. Today Christmas is celebrated in both the United
States and China -- but for different reasons and with far
different economic consequences. For the Chinese, the
manufacturing bonanza means record profits, rising incomes,
and, in a society where people save some 40% of their
income, a sharp jump in savings. In the United States,
Christmas shopping expenditures, headed for another record
high this year, contribute to rising credit card debt and a
soaring trade deficit.
Underneath the American Christmas spirit and good cheer is
a debt-laden society that appears to have lost its way,
marred in the quicksand of consumerism. As a society, we
seem to have forgotten how to save so we can invest in a
better future. Instead of leaving our children a promising
economic future, we are bequeathing them the largest debt
burden of any generation in history.
At the personal level, credit card debt just keeps
climbing, and at the government level, we have the largest
deficit in history. At the international level, we have a
trade deficit that moves to a new high month after month.
It's not the fact that our Christmas is made in China, but
rather the mindset that has led to it that is most
disturbing. We want to consume no matter what. We want to
spend now and let our children pay. It is this same mindset
that introduces tax cuts while waging a costly war.
Economic sacrifice is no longer part of our vocabulary.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President
Roosevelt banned the sale of private cars in order to
mobilize the manufacturing capacity and engineering skills
of the US automobile industry to build tanks and planes. In
contrast, after 9/11, President Bush urged us to go
shopping.
In the United States we are so intent on consuming that
personal savings have virtually disappeared. We have an
average of five credit cards for every man, woman, and
child. Of the 145 million cardholders, only 55 million
clear their accounts each month. The other 90 million
cannot seem to catch up and are paying steep interest rates
on their remaining balance. Millions of people are so
deeply in debt that they may remain indebted for life.
The official national debt, the product of years of fiscal
deficits, now totals $8.5 trillion -- some $64,000 per
taxpayer. (See data at Earth Policy Institute) By the end
of the Bush administration in 2008, this figure is
projected to reach a staggering $9.4 trillion. We are
digging a fiscal black hole and sinking deeper and deeper
into it.
Each month the Treasury covers the fiscal deficit by
auctioning off securities. The two leading international
buyers of US Treasury securities are Japan and China. In
this role, China is now also becoming our banker. This
developing country, where income levels are one sixth those
of the United States, is financing the excesses of an
affluent industrial society. What's wrong with this
picture?
In times past, when our fiscal deficits were covered
largely by US lenders, interest payments on the debt were
reinvested in the United States. Now they are flowing
abroad to Japan, China and other foreign holders of US
debt.
While the US fiscal deficit, driven partly by the war in
Iraq, soars to stratospheric levels, the country is facing
an unprecedented fiscal challenge as the baby boomer
generation retires, pushing up the costs of social
security, Medicaid, and Medicare. This, combined with the
growing interest payments on our debt to China and other
countries, will put a nearly impossible tax burden on the
next generation -- something for which they may never
forgive us.
The US trade deficit is growing by leaps and bounds, nearly
doubling from $452 billion in 2000 to an estimated $850
billion in 2006. Rising oil imports and the trade deficit
with China account for over half of it.
National policy failures such as not adequately supporting
the use of renewable energy technologies have contributed
to the growing US trade deficit. For example, the United
States should be a leading manufacturer and exporter of
solar cells and wind turbines, but it has fallen behind
both Europe and Japan. The solar cell, invented at Bell
Labs in 1954, is an American technology. But the US effort
to develop solar energy was so weak and sporadic that both
Germany and Japan forged ahead and developed robust solar
cell manufacturing and export industries.
The situation is similar with wind. Although the modern
wind industry was born in California at the beginning of
the 1980s, the US failure to sustain support for wind
resource development allowed European countries to largely
take over this industry.
Even though rising oil imports are widening our trade
deficit, we consume oil with abandon, weakening the economy
and undermining our political independence.
We have lost influence in world financial markets simply
because of our mounting debt, much of it held by other
countries. If China's leaders ever become convinced that
the dollar is headed continuously downward and they decide
to dump their dollar holdings, the dollar could collapse.
Beholden to other countries for oil and to finance our
debt, the United States is fast losing its leadership role
in the world. The question we are facing is not simply
whether our Christmas is made in China, but more
fundamentally whether we can restore the discipline and
values that made us a great nation -- a nation the world
admired, respected, and emulated. This is not something
that Santa Claus can deliver, not even a Chinese Santa
Claus. This is something only we can do.
Lester R. Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute
and author of Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows
guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you
are interested in contributing.
http://www.atimes.com/mediakit/write-for-atol.html
More at:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IL20Cb02.html
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
Speaking Freely
CHRISTMAS IS MADE IN CHINA
By Lester R Brown
Asia Times
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows
guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you
are interested in contributing.
http://www.atimes.com/mediakit/write-for-atol.html
I know Santa Claus is Chinese because each Christmas
morning after all the gifts are unwrapped and things settle
down I systematically go through the presents to see where
they are made. The results are almost always the same:
roughly 70% are from China. After some research, it seems
that my one-family survey is representative of the country
as a whole.
Let's start with toys. Some 80% of the toys sold in the
United States -- from Barbie dolls to video games -- are
made in China. Talking toys that speak English learned the
language from Chinese workers. Electronic goods -- from
Apple's iPod to Microsoft's Xbox -- are made in China.
Clothing -- from the latest cashmere sweaters to gym suits
-- is also likely to have a "Made in China" label.
The Christmas tree itself may come from China. While real
Christmas trees are grown in every state in the United
States and are marketed locally, many families now gather
around artificial Christmas trees. Eight out of every 10
artificial Christmas trees sold in the United States are
made in China. Last year Americans spent over US$130
million on plastic Christmas trees from China, more than
90% of which were manufactured in the semi-tropical
southern city of Shenzhen.
This year Americans will spend over $1 billion on Christmas
ornaments from China. And in perhaps the greatest irony of
all, even nativity scenes are made in China. Last year
Americans spent more than $39 million buying nativity
scenes shipped in from the East. China's success in
attracting foreign investment capital and mobilizing this
huge workforce has made it the workshop of the world.
That the US Christmas is made in China is a metaphor for a
far deeper set of economic issues affecting the United
States. Today Christmas is celebrated in both the United
States and China -- but for different reasons and with far
different economic consequences. For the Chinese, the
manufacturing bonanza means record profits, rising incomes,
and, in a society where people save some 40% of their
income, a sharp jump in savings. In the United States,
Christmas shopping expenditures, headed for another record
high this year, contribute to rising credit card debt and a
soaring trade deficit.
Underneath the American Christmas spirit and good cheer is
a debt-laden society that appears to have lost its way,
marred in the quicksand of consumerism. As a society, we
seem to have forgotten how to save so we can invest in a
better future. Instead of leaving our children a promising
economic future, we are bequeathing them the largest debt
burden of any generation in history.
At the personal level, credit card debt just keeps
climbing, and at the government level, we have the largest
deficit in history. At the international level, we have a
trade deficit that moves to a new high month after month.
It's not the fact that our Christmas is made in China, but
rather the mindset that has led to it that is most
disturbing. We want to consume no matter what. We want to
spend now and let our children pay. It is this same mindset
that introduces tax cuts while waging a costly war.
Economic sacrifice is no longer part of our vocabulary.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President
Roosevelt banned the sale of private cars in order to
mobilize the manufacturing capacity and engineering skills
of the US automobile industry to build tanks and planes. In
contrast, after 9/11, President Bush urged us to go
shopping.
In the United States we are so intent on consuming that
personal savings have virtually disappeared. We have an
average of five credit cards for every man, woman, and
child. Of the 145 million cardholders, only 55 million
clear their accounts each month. The other 90 million
cannot seem to catch up and are paying steep interest rates
on their remaining balance. Millions of people are so
deeply in debt that they may remain indebted for life.
The official national debt, the product of years of fiscal
deficits, now totals $8.5 trillion -- some $64,000 per
taxpayer. (See data at Earth Policy Institute) By the end
of the Bush administration in 2008, this figure is
projected to reach a staggering $9.4 trillion. We are
digging a fiscal black hole and sinking deeper and deeper
into it.
Each month the Treasury covers the fiscal deficit by
auctioning off securities. The two leading international
buyers of US Treasury securities are Japan and China. In
this role, China is now also becoming our banker. This
developing country, where income levels are one sixth those
of the United States, is financing the excesses of an
affluent industrial society. What's wrong with this
picture?
In times past, when our fiscal deficits were covered
largely by US lenders, interest payments on the debt were
reinvested in the United States. Now they are flowing
abroad to Japan, China and other foreign holders of US
debt.
While the US fiscal deficit, driven partly by the war in
Iraq, soars to stratospheric levels, the country is facing
an unprecedented fiscal challenge as the baby boomer
generation retires, pushing up the costs of social
security, Medicaid, and Medicare. This, combined with the
growing interest payments on our debt to China and other
countries, will put a nearly impossible tax burden on the
next generation -- something for which they may never
forgive us.
The US trade deficit is growing by leaps and bounds, nearly
doubling from $452 billion in 2000 to an estimated $850
billion in 2006. Rising oil imports and the trade deficit
with China account for over half of it.
National policy failures such as not adequately supporting
the use of renewable energy technologies have contributed
to the growing US trade deficit. For example, the United
States should be a leading manufacturer and exporter of
solar cells and wind turbines, but it has fallen behind
both Europe and Japan. The solar cell, invented at Bell
Labs in 1954, is an American technology. But the US effort
to develop solar energy was so weak and sporadic that both
Germany and Japan forged ahead and developed robust solar
cell manufacturing and export industries.
The situation is similar with wind. Although the modern
wind industry was born in California at the beginning of
the 1980s, the US failure to sustain support for wind
resource development allowed European countries to largely
take over this industry.
Even though rising oil imports are widening our trade
deficit, we consume oil with abandon, weakening the economy
and undermining our political independence.
We have lost influence in world financial markets simply
because of our mounting debt, much of it held by other
countries. If China's leaders ever become convinced that
the dollar is headed continuously downward and they decide
to dump their dollar holdings, the dollar could collapse.
Beholden to other countries for oil and to finance our
debt, the United States is fast losing its leadership role
in the world. The question we are facing is not simply
whether our Christmas is made in China, but more
fundamentally whether we can restore the discipline and
values that made us a great nation -- a nation the world
admired, respected, and emulated. This is not something
that Santa Claus can deliver, not even a Chinese Santa
Claus. This is something only we can do.
Lester R. Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute
and author of Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows
guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you
are interested in contributing.
http://www.atimes.com/mediakit/write-for-atol.html
More at:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IL20Cb02.html
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.