Got caught with our knickers down!
 

How did the greatest country in the world become dependent on China, 90% of our medication, medical masks, and ventilators. Granted, a pandemic doesn't occur frequently, thank God. Sure hope this problem will be quickly solved.

Unfortunately, this happened (IMHO) because people want cheap. Remember all the outcry when more American-made was proposed about how EXPENSIVE everything would become?

Need more
 

We need more of this 'thinking'.

First 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee commercial - YouTube

I've always been a "buy American" girl, but hard to do when that industry doesn't exist. Guess I need to change it to "build American"

China also owns Billions of American Treasury bonds. If they called them in, it would cause a huge economic disaster. Our dependency upon these products (made in cheap labor sweat shops) has been known for years. It may be too late to do something about it due to the global economy we now live in. This problem is above most of our pay grades.

Since we got out of high school the trend has been to improve our lifestyle by passing work and environmental laws that encourage (maybe force) businesses to outsource in order to remain competitive. Unfortunately we do not always think of unintended consequences for our actions.

To me the lesson about China or any other country is that we need each other. Good reason why not to alienate anyone unnecessarily. Each country could produce what it is most efficient at and then trade for what they need.

Self sufficiency is a great ideal but in practice we could probably do better if there was cooperation internationally. We could pull together as people just like we can do it as Villagers.

You would make a good NATO ambassador.

Does capitalism have a national strategy? No. Successful capitalism means customer satisfaction, max quality at a competitive cost. Once a competitor has found a cost advantage, the other competitors must adapt or adopt, or they die.

If you look at 60 years of inflation history, you will find that inflation means too many dollars chasing too few goods. In the 70's we were the world's manufacturing center, which brought in tons of the worlds' currencies for our products, and inflation went out of control. Then the crook went to china to open it for US goods, and it backfired, China saw the opportunity to become the world's dominate manufacturer with its centralized planning and authoritarian government. So the next 40 years that was there goal, no matter how they could get there.

No centralized strategy means everyone can choose their own, so review the rules of capitalism above. Also, from friends who lived in the Soviet Union, under communism/authoritarian governments, one fears the government. Under democracy and freedom, you fear each other.

The capitalistic strategy of the US is the customer/consumer comes first, and they are the prize to capture, and when everything becomes a commodity, meaning very little pricing power, cost cutting is the only way to increase profitability. or you go out of business.

So that's my explanation, having watched it and looked at the data over those last 50 years. Others may disagree, but I use the data and economic theory from experience to understand.

sportsguy

Simple answer is cheap labor and lack of regulations. Longer answer is environmental restrictions, labor unions, an always increasing minimum wage, and people very much liking buying stuff for as little as possible.

We didn't get caught.....we welcomed it!
Steve

Since this all started with China not giving information about the spread of this virus for months after they knew it was out there, we should charge China whatever cost it will be to the US to fight it. Just deduct the amount it cost us from the debt we owe them.

Because our government is stupid and bought off by lobbyists. The NIH gives huge sums of money to big pharma, but requires little of them. All we would have to do is stipulate that if you want NIH government money you have to manufacture at least enough in the U.S. to supply the U.S. market. How hard is that?

Once upon a time, I needed a prototype part made out of aluminum. It took me months to find someone who could and would make the part for me. They wanted $450 for a single piece. I went online to China and had several parts made to my specifications delivered to my home within 2 weeks for a total cost of $4.50. Believe me, I understand our desire to rely on China.

We need to bring jobs back to our country. Sounds good, but.