Over the last century, Third World elites bemoaned a “brain drain,” as their best educated students left corrupt and dysfunctional economic systems to make a better live for themselves in the West.
All that has changed are the faces and the names.
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It Starts Like ThisBy lex, on March 18th, 2010
March 18th, 2010 | Tags: culture | Category: Politics and Culture
32 comments to It Starts Like This |
Targets of Opportunityblog advertising is good for you Credo"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones "Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra" "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche "A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier "Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas "Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex Amazon AssociateFor the Effort!Winnar! Subscribe CategoriesPagesTagsacademy
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If China gets to the point that there is more liberty in life and business there than here, I wouldn’t mind voting with my feet. They also have an exponentially growing Christian community. Perhaps competition will be good for keeping this country free – or else. Another place I watch with interest is Eastern Europe, with reasonable flat income taxes. Their problem is corruption, but if that lessens? Perhaps even the Dems may be prompted to remember this country’s founders’ observation that human nature is fallen and that free trade in both goods & people has a role in keeping governments honest. I cheer China on. They are slowly becoming freer than they used to be. But as for us? We act like Hertz rather than Avis.
The Christian community is hemmed in by the government, which is strongly fascist in nature. One example is teh Bible that is legal in China does not include the Book of Revelation. If you try to have an unregistered Church you may find yourself in prison, or executed for your trouble.
There are very serious problems with China and the economic climate is seductive. A move to China is not one I would make as a Christian.
I hear ya, not now. But when the underground Christian community gets to be really large (in spite of and because of acknowledged current persecution), I wonder if they won’t have an influence on their government. Because, on the other hand, the Euros first lost their way in faith, and now look at their governing principles. And look at the US too – is faith only in Jesus Christ rising or falling in this country? What might your answer predict as to this country’s trajectory? Which are the parties of socialism? Those that believe there are many ways to God, or only one?
Operationally, the US long ago ceased to be a Christian country. Certainly the founders founded the country with a deep knowledge of sinful man and the biblical principles needed to hem him in. But, as John Adams expressed it, the constitution will only work with a moral people. While many were Deists, even the Deist held to Christian morality and the country was ruled by them.
By the end of the 19th century, the largest denomination, the Methodists, were slipping away from their Wesleyan principles, and the Presbyterians were on the same path beside them. Simultaneously you see the rise of progressivism in T. Roosevelt and Wilson. The real slippery slope was created by FDR and the New Deal. Johnson’s Great Society and the New Left sealed the deal. You can see the effects in so called leftist “Evangelicals” like Wallis and Campolo who think abortion and the homosexual lifestyle is just peachy and within the bounds of a non-sinful lifestyle.
I think the trajectory of this country is pretty clear given the above, and the financial immortality we’ve seen over the last 15 years. Jim Nelson Black in “When Nations Die” noted that no society that found itself in the position ours is has ever pulled back from the brink. Obama and his nonsense is not the cause. He is a symptom of a much more aggressive, deadly disease.
Well said. +1 That’s why I don’t have much hope that even a sweeping Republican victory will do more than delay the day. On account of politicians only running to where the public wants ‘em. Without an inner heart change by the majority, we’re screwed.
Ditto +2
The Chinese government is still quite repressive. The freedoms we take for granted here do not exist and they intend to keep it that way. Despite our flaws, I feel a newfound appreciation for the U.S. of A. every time I return from Asia.
But the Christian underground is growing exponentially….
The problem here is that all of the economic models, theories and texts we use to promote “global trade” are based on conditions that no longer exist. Standard theory is based on the concept of “comparative advantage” whereby the trade-off is between those jobs best done by a low-paid, low-tech, unskilled work force (the Far East) and a hi-paid, high-skilled highly educated workforce (the US & Europe) Today, however, while the Far East still has a plethora of low-wage workers, they are as highly trained an educated a work-force as is ours. Thus countries like China now have an ABSOLUTE advantage. Yet our trade policy still is built on the comparative model, with the result that China is eating our lunch. To be competitive one of two things has to happen: 1) US wages have to sink to the level of the Chinese, or 2) China, et al., must be forced to become unionized and thus see workers wages rise. Good luck with that. We are truly doomed on a slowly sinking economic ship. The tide of history has turned against us.
A British diplomat whose name I cannot recall once said of China’s economic and military potential over 100 yrs ago: “China is a sleeping Giant–Let her sleep.”
VX, I believe comparative advantage still holds, even if China ultimately has an absolute advantage in every single article. Please see An Economic Case Against Envying Another Person’s Improved Productivity and see if you don’t agree with me.
Virgil, I’ve seen references that Napoleon Bonaparte said that “China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world.”
While Boney wasn’t a British Diplomat, he dd put a fair amount of effort into being in charge of what Englishmen of the time could or could not say or do.
The Chinese don’t need tremendous productivity advancements to be number one in cost. How do you beat fifty cents an hour? The justification for CapEx has to be pretty compelling based on a quality or throughput argument.
As VX mentions, the Chinese are improving technically every day. Once what was laughable quality is coming up to world class standards with all the transplanted western firm setting up shop. Hard to beat their trade barriers and tariffs too. They intend to remain the world’s leading exporter.
Wilco, I’ve often said that no blue-collar job in the US is safe as long as there is a Bolivian tin-miner alive willing to double his wages to come out of the mines to assemble washers & dryers for Whirlpool at $1.00/hr.
Same thing with India I understand.
Good for China! I think we should celebrate their success.
I own several Chinese based research companies in the bio-chemical and software space and they have done quite well in the past couple years. I agree with Virgil…I think China will be a very strong competitor in the next 10-15 years, and there will be plenty of opportunities for Americans to benefit from such competition.
Why should we not celebrate their success? We are our own worst enemy…we seem to enjoy destroying ourselves from within…it’s nice to see a success story – even if it is in China.
“We seem to enjoy destroying ourselves from within….”
Sure, now we can celebrate working toward the potential of destroying ourselves from outside by supporting a country that has the potential and demonstrated desire to use the services and knowledge gained against the USA.
I’d like to believe that China is just a big happy and huggy panda bear, but reality is that the Chinese government is not that, and it makes sense to protect ourselves. Where the happy medium is I don’t know, but I’d say that the wholesale exportation of manufacturing etc offshore in search of short term profits has the potential to be dangerously short-sighted and I’m fairly sure that a lot of the problems we have at home result from jobs loss….ie., the increasingly large numbers of Americans who look to a large government nanny to take care of them since they cannot take care of themselves without jobs.
Maybe I’m too simple on this score. But a lot of the business people who talk up the money they make by being offshore sound to me like people selling rope to the mob readying to hang them.
SteveC – China certainly isn’t a huggy panda bear (that’s a good one by the way..). I would much rather see us excel at China’s expense…in the long run, I hope that is what happens. However, you have to admit we haven’t sold any rope to a mob ready to hang us…we are hanging ourselves.
“a lot of the business people who talk up the money they make by being offshore sound to me like people selling rope to the mob readying to hang them.”
Precisely.
From a security standpoint: During WWII the US virtually brought German industrial production to a halt by bombing the ball bearing factories in Schweinfurt Germany. Today, American industrial production depends on parts made overseas that could be simply cut off. Markets informed by the internet and low cost shipping allow companies to prosper or fail based on a 0.5% cost difference half a world away.
As a late follow-on to the foregoing comments, check out this story about China’s experts posting on the internet how to bring down their good friend, the USa’s, power grid.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/world/asia/21grid.html
I’m sure that the government there had nothing to do with approving this…right. There must be a message to us in this, too. Seems awfully transparent to me as a threat of what could happen if they got angry over little stuff like our support for Taiwan (I’d be very reluctant to invest in Taiwan right now, BTW) or our poor spending policies that, thanks to the House of Reps, looks like it won’t be solved anytime soon (as the economic problems don’t look like they’ll be resolved soon, either…and could get a lot worse). I wonder what China is thinking.
Look at the shift in demographics. China’s top 25% in intelligence is more than the TOTAL North American population. Their number of gifted students exceeds the total number we have in K-12. In the next decade more Chinese will move from rural to urban living than the entire US population. They will all want housing, cars, jobs, washer, dryers, TVs, iPods, laptops, clothes. 250 Chinese babies are born every 6 minutes.
But until China is forced to float the yuan in relation to rest of world currency they will maintain a decided price and business advantage. Their admonition to us to get our debt in order or else rings hollow when all we have to do is threaten 10% tariffs on any and all goods from China.
But China is better positioned than the US for the inevitable bubble bursting that will occur due to their lending practices. Most Chinese buy government minted gold coins every week at the post office. The government encourages them to do so. They are smarter than us – we buy savings bonds and treasuries. And you can still enjoy your Starbucks and Big Mac in Tianamen Sq so what’s not to like?
This is the same country that exports salmon-that-takes-like-something-that-should-be-battered-and-fried-and-served-only-at-Mcdonalds, condoms that are a health hazard (made with talc), toys with lead paint, poisoned petfood and toxic heparin for dialysis patients, highly corrosive “copper” pipes laden with impurities, drywall that disintegrates and corrodes the pipes in the walls, bolts that are cast and not forged so they fail under pressure and lead to deaths on amusement park rides and airplane accidents?
Just checking.
By the way, the above all applies to a country called China.
Liz – We do love those cheap Chinese made products! Just think, we can save a bundle and buy 3x as much!
Not only that, but we can bury ourselves in debt and have China hold that debt!
Like I said, we are destroying ourselves from within.
While it’s true we like cheap Hanna Montana lunch boxes, it isn’t true of heparin, copper pipes, drywall, high-strength bolts, poisoned dogfood, or condoms (obviously).
People pay extra for copper pipes so they last forever, but the contaminated Chinese products have so flooded the market it’s virtually impossible for the average consumer to even determine where the stuff was made. No one wants the drywall in their new home to rot within the first decade. So many things are made in China there’s no way to tell even by brand as everything is outsourced. Go in to a store and you can read the label on an item of clothing, for instance….but buy online and it’s impossible to tell if those are UK doc martins or Chinese knock-offs. Chinese products are inferior at the get-go, additionally the market is flooded with so many cheap counterfeit knock-offs and the Chinese are responsible for the vast majority of it. Do a google search for NATO helicopters counterfeit bolts and you’ll see the worldwide extent of this problem.
The company I used to work for, that was Idaho’s largest employer, has been moving its manufacturing facilities to Xi’an over the last few years (not mentioned in the article.) Me and a few thousand of my friends were laid off so our jobs could go to people making a tenth or less per hour. I’m a big proponent of economic freedom, but when it hurts your family and community it’s hard not to be bitter.
I moved on to a company that builds Locomotives and it was actually a great move for me. I’m hoping it’s harder to move a locomotive assembly facility overseas than it is to move one that makes Semiconductors.
Shine, Republic
by Robinson Jeffers
The quality of these trees, green height; of the sky, shining; of water, a clear flow; of the rock, hardness
And reticence: each is noble in its quality. The love of freedom has been the quality of western man.
There is a stubborn torch that flames from Marathon to Concord, its dangerous beauty binding three ages
Into one time; the waves of barbarism and civilization have eclipsed but have never quenched it.
For the Greeks the love of beauty, for Rome of ruling; for the present age the passionate love of discovery;
But in one noble passion we are one; and Washington, Luther, Tacitus, Eschylus, one kind of man.
And you, America, that passion made you. You were not born to prosperity, you were born to love freedom.
You did not say “en masse,” you said “independence.” But we cannot have all the luxuries and freedom also.
Freedom is poor and laborious; that torch is not safe but hungry, and often requires blood for its fuel.
You will tame it against it burn too clearly, you will hood it like a kept hawk, you will perch it on the wrist of Caesar.
But keep the tradition, conserve the forms, the observances, keep the spot sore. Be great, carve deep your heel-marks.
The states of the next age will no doubt remember you, and edge their love of freedom with contempt of luxury.
It is fact that in reality(Usually they say “in long term” but I think if it will be so then it is so. It just takes time to perfect the system.) capitalism = tyranny = kommunism = somebody has boss ;P.
So I think it is just the capitalistic leaders reching their target when things really globalise and get under the same roof.
The only other option is next to anarchism..
Years ago, I attended the graduation of my nephiew from UNC Cahrlotte. The program listed both the name and home of each graduate. What was appaling was that in the advanced degrees, all of the technical degrees were awarded to foreigners. Of the numerous PhDs awarded in the engineering/computer sciences area, all were to to residence of the far east. The only two PhDs awarded to people from the US were in education. It speaks a lot about where we are headed.
Boss, another classic example is the Chemistry Dept at the U of I in Champaign. It’s been ranked the No.1 Chem Dept in the nation for the past quarter century–ahead of MIT, Cal Tech–the lot. Practically 95% of the faculty and grad students are Chinese, and about 60-70% of the undergrads.Hell, it as basically that way even back in the sixties.
Idaho Joe;
Locomotives- Maybe not big enough.
Look at all of our ports and count the 220′ tall container cranes. All/most made in China.
More genius IQ Chinese kids hit 18 years old every year than there are 18 year olds in the USA.
Questions?
Buellar? Buellar?
What about the classic sell of IBM’s Think (stink) Pad division to Lenovo – I think the Chinese must have been laughing all the way to the bank. This must rank as one of the better “gifts” to China that the West has “done”
[My wife is mainland chinese, and when I visit her home town - which is quite provincial, I see the cooking etc done on charcoal stoves (out of town I'll admit), the long drop next door to the pig ( a bugger to get to at 02:00 in the morning) and the satellite dish / Lenovo Thinkpad / Desktop with QQ (its like a virus, but even worse)on the second floor. China is really wired, even out in the sticks. It's quite an eye opener.]
I also see it in the tech support field – work in telecoms and notice all the Tier 3 support centres are buggering off / have buggered off to China. Maybe its a case of learning Mandarin now, instead of Japanese as it was in the eighties. If thats the case, at least my son’s well positioned
Hello,
I agree with the posters aove who say we are destroying ourselves from within. As I noted in another thread, this country needs an industrial policy at the Federal level. That, along with tariffs, will help level the playing field. When I mentioned said policy it was bemoaned as socialism. I don’t think that’s quite the case. Japan has one, and you can’t call Japan socialist by any means. It’s far past time this country had one. Or, as Mr. Xenophon noted above, about the only way to level the field would be for our standard of living to drop signifigantly.
I’m not going to touch the “America is a Christian Nation” thing. One party in particular has used such ideas to exclude anyone who doesn’t think like them. Or, as Bush I put it in 1991, “Athiests can’t be patriotic Americans”. What a bunch of govno.
Phalanx08