America and the Uphill battle

  Sometimes I think that the reason America is changing is because of China.  All the terrible things that Americans increasingly observe their government doing are just things that China has always done.  One fact is sure, the American empire is in decline and a vacuum has appeared which seeks to be filled by some other superpower, namely China.  This means that there is now a conflict between the people on the way out and the those on the way in.
   Why is it that Americans have been so silent about the gentle foreign policy between America and China.  If you want to see your country stand, in the future, for what it stood for in the past, demand that your government condemn China.  Demand reforms in China.  That would seriously address the problems in America at the root.
   One other thing to keep in mind is that, while America will have decreasing authority over China, internally, American corporations will increasingly side with and collude with China because that is where all the growth is (supposedly).  This means that the citizens of the United States are in a battle, not only with a maturing fascist state, but with their own corporations.
    You have a serious uphill battle.  Perhaps disintegration of the Union is inevitable, but something tells me that the values for which it stands mean a lot to those who live there.  So much so, that they may be willing to fight for them.
    One other thing to ponder is this.  Is the American government becoming more like China (insofar as it is increasingly infringing on human rights), because it wants to compete in this dog eat dog modern world?  Perhaps it is making this change because of a kind of silent colonization.  The citizens of America are accepting these changes and so goes the government to be more and more like that in China.  Those Americans crippled by debt are now, essentially, just like the 900 million peasant-slaves in China.
   Could one country really hijack the government of another?  Possibly, if the key players in the government are actually the CEOs of corporations which have no allegiance to the country at all and simply seek to maximize growth.  To me it seems just as reasonable that the Bush administration could be seen as making "difficult decisions to protect Americans" as they could be seen as transforming the country into a compliant province of the next super power, namely China.

  peace

>>9
To clear up confusion, I'm >>8 & >>4 not the OP.

You'll be hard pressed to find a Chinese company in the US, but you will find many Korean and Japanese companies in the US because they are predominately service economies.

I agree. And the only time I really mentioned China was in >>8. In reality, I'm speaking in more broad terms, or at least attempting to.

None of these companies need to manufacture anything in their own countries

Right. I don't know about Korea, but I know there's still some stuff that's manufactured and Made In Japan, and I have no proof of this but anecdotally, I find products that are made in said country to be of better quality.

they can use chinese cheap labor and still make a profit, they make their money by possessing better technology and being better organised than their competitors.

Once again, I agree. Of course they make good profit, maybe even at times excess profit. Now, I find nothing wrong with profit, you need to make profit in order to keep a sustainable business, and is very important. *Goes to pat the company executive on the back for a job well done*

 What ends up happening is the customer ends up getting the raw end of the deal (as well as the laborers in China and elsewhere of course, but I'm not going to get into that). Planned obsolescence, a shoddy product that could have the potential to do so much more. And the controversy with the children receiving lead poisoning from the paint that was used as a finish on their toys, cribs, ect. because of poor or even non-existent quality control and inspection.

It boggles the mind to believe that pouring money into these American companies that don't even manufacture their goods here in America is the way to long term prosperity for this nation (and by long term, I don't mean just the next ten years). It just makes total sense to me if more of the American people bought quality goods that were made here in the United States instead of overseas that overall things would improve, economically and society as a whole.

Of course there is nothing wrong with buying things that weren't manufactured in the U.S., but it would seem that one going out of his way to purchasing a product that he ensured was 100% made in the U.S. is thought of by most as backwards and strange...but it's a good thing to do.

Is it idealist? Probably. Is it too late to change back? I would say so. Sure, if the general public were much more aware of this and actually cared enough, they'd be up in arms about this. Companies wouldn't stick their necks out, and would just continue to maintain the status quo. It's the classic case of maximizing profit over people; of course that's no surprise.

Meh.