Love him or hate him... he's right

[GoldenRivet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=qtjfMjjce2Y

[SteamWake]

He is a good speaker and raises alot of valid points.

I dident catch whom he was addressing.

[GoldenRivet]

I would assume it was some chapter of a Rotary Club?

i didnt catch it either... but the way he made a few references to rotary members and rotary club it makes sense

[Platapus]

So if we can't afford to invade a country....

(what's the answer?)

[Tchocky]

Originally Posted by Platapus

So if we can't afford to invade a country....

(what's the answer?)

Invade a country that has things you can sell. I foresee no problems

[ivank]

I agree with him

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Platapus

So if we can't afford to invade a country....

(what's the answer?)

Trade with it! There's no surer way to make a country capitalist, prosperous, and non-threatning. Just don't let the protectionists know about it or or our new friends will be all pissed of about all the quotas and regulations.

[Tchocky]

Nothing keeps people out of war like a good balance sheet^

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

Trade with it! There's no surer way to make a country capitalist, prosperous, and non-threatning.

Truer words have seldom been posted on this forum.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

Trade with it! There's no surer way to make a country capitalist, prosperous, and non-threatning.

does China count?

militarily speaking they are one of the more threatening IMHO

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

does China count?

militarily speaking they are one of the more threatening IMHO

Yep, them too. China began liberalizing its trade system after Xiapoing's economic reforms took hold in the 80's. In less than ten years there were protests and calls for reformation of the CCP.

At the moment, China is exactly where other US trade partners in the region were just a few decades ago; Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong (even though it's Chinese now), Singapore, Taiwan, etc.... What was once a bass-ackwards hole of a country has, through trade, become a rapidly modernizing and prosperous nation, or at least in those parts of the country where free trade is allowed. The rest of it is still a hole.

In any case, as China swallowed up the market for low-tech, crappy jobs like textiles and plastics manufacturing, its citizens gradually became wealthy enough to do more than just work and exist. Demand for new products, new policies, and new freedoms was created. Even the poorest manufacturing workers in the SEZs make over 8 times what their counterparts on the collective farms do, and that figure will only climb as more and more flock to the urban centers and trade permeates Chinese society ever further.

The main thing holding China back (and pissing them off) is the byzantine system of trade quotas, restrictions, and tariffs seperating them from US consumers. Threatened industries in the US have spent the past three decades trying to keep China out through their PACs. It hasn't done them much good, as they're mostly being run out of business anyways, but the harm they have done to the US and Chinese economies in the meantime is considerable. It wasn't until 2009 that the restrictions on China's biggest exports were really loosened, and it will probably be another 10 years before they are gone. Don;'t even get me started on those lousy, protectionist, dinosaurs.