Re: [Salon] Imagine the inflation if we just cut off from China one day?

Actually American quality of life has improved because of China. I remember what I saw in the 1980s when I came for college. Average Americans didn't have  cotton clothing. They mostly wore polyester and the shoes were poor quality also as I saw when I visited the  stores that Americans would buy things from.  China has democratized quality of life in US.

On Monday, May 13, 2024 at 02:29:27 PM GMT+5, Mayraj Fahim via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:


As Emanuel Todd has pointed has pointed out  US GDP is fictitious nor  productive. 

In the glorious 1930s, the total production of steel, automobiles, refrigerators and televisions, these were real goods. Now we have a production of intangible goods, which sometimes (and some very often) consider useless. Therefore, they have only nominal value.
Emmanuel Todd: “Western economic power, measured on the basis of GDP, is fictitious”


On Monday, May 13, 2024 at 01:19:54 PM GMT+5, Peter Beattie (SSC) <pbeattie@cuhk.edu.hk> wrote:


Agreed. Agriculture makes up around 1% of US GDP, and if that disappeared, we’d feel more than 1% less wealthy. Whereas the “service” provided by bankers and lawyers in constructing and selling derivatives  may well be north of 1% of US GDP, and if that disappeared, it would be like John Bolton’s line about the consequences of half of the UN disappearing (except accurate in this case).

 

 

Peter Beattie

Assistant Professor; Assistant Programme Director, MSSc in Global Political Economy

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

+852 3943 9794

 

www.beatt.ie 

 

Social Evolution, Political Psychology, and the Media in Democracy:

The Invisible Hand in the U.S. Marketplace of Ideas (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030028008

 

From: Salon <salon-bounces@listserve.com> On Behalf Of Mayraj Fahim via Salon
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2024 3:57 PM
To: Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>; salon@listserve.com; Clyde Prestowitz <presto@econstrat.org>
Subject: Re: [Salon] Imagine the inflation if we just cut off from China one day?

 

Many things made in China. I think GDP ratio masks that. 

 

On Monday, May 13, 2024 at 08:55:32 AM GMT+5, Clyde Prestowitz via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:

 

 

We must put things in perspective. Imports from China account for about 2 percent of U.S. gdp. Not insignificant but not enough to spark a runaway wave of unstoppable inflation.

 

From: Salon <salon-bounces@listserve.com> On Behalf Of Chas Freeman via Salon
Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2024 9:43 PM
To: salon@listserve.com
Subject: [Salon] Imagine the inflation if we just cut off from China one day?

 

People don't realise the difference between Chinese manufacturing costs and those in the West. Here an entrepreneur is quoted >$50 per box for his sunglasses, vs. $2 from China. Imagine the inflation if we just cut off from China one day? I'm in favour of re-shoring and an... 1/3

 

That’s the reality. It is not great that we are where we are. But we are where we are. We can’t just wish it away. There’s no magic potion to solve this. And the geopolitics and military people who tell you a war with the Chinese won’t collapse Western economies are conning you.

 

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