“The most terrifying map in the world”
That’s what Chris MacIntosh over at the International Man blog calls it, and I won’t even try to argue.
That’s quite a dramatic reversal, wouldn’t ya say? Gee, looks like maybe shutting down an entire national economy indefinitely under a false pretext might not have been such a bright idea after all. The same might be said of offering tax breaks to effectively incentivize US corporations to export all American manufacturing capacity to a hostile foreign dictatorship, too. Well, unless your real aim all along wasn’t maintaining US prosperity, security, and international influence like you claimed during election-year stump speeches, that is.
But hey, that’s all just crazy talk. Please ignore my momentary lapse into batshit-nuts conspiracy theorizing, ‘kay?
BRM Peter nutshells it for us.
If ever there was proof of the old saying that “what goes around, comes around”, it’s there. China is basically out to dominate – and, if possible, humiliate – any nation that won’t dance to its tune. That includes the United States. The map above shows that, on balance, China is doing just that. Its commercial and industrial influence now exceeds that of the USA on the world scene.
The worst thing of all, from an American perspective, is that our business leaders – our oligarchs, for want of a better word – deliberately worked towards this. They’re the ones who moved manufacturing offshore, seeking greater profits by making goods in markets with lower wage and transport costs. They built the factories that China is using today to extend its influence, basically handing to the Chinese the commercial hegemony they now exploit. America is now left holding the short stick, because we no longer have the industrial and commercial might that was the foundation for our influence abroad. We handed that to China on a plate, and the Chinese have taken full advantage. Don’t blame them for that, either – we would have done exactly the same thing if our positions were reversed.
So, when you look at the problems we’re currently encountering with a very screwed-up supply chain, consider them in the light of that map. That’s why we’re experiencing them – because three-quarters of our supply chain is out of our control, and very much in China’s control. To paraphrase President Obama, “we built that”. It’s our fault, on a national scale, for allowing our barons of commerce and industry to sell our economic prosperity out from under us for a mess of pottage. However, you’ll never get our politicians to admit that, or accept any responsibility for it. Being the finest politicians money can buy, many of them were long since bought by Chinese “contributions”. There’s plenty of evidence of that; I’ll leave you to look it up for yourselves.
There oughta be some way to see that the ProPols and their hand-in-glove corporate partners in crime pay a price for what they’ve done to us, if only we could think of what it might be.
- Entries