Chop Stick Nation

During the Pax Romana, Rome insured that there would not be any disruptive wars.  For ensuring this peace Rome extracted tribute from countries to pay for their far-flung armies and also got rich by bringing many of those riches back to Rome.

During the current Pax America, we have done much the same by becoming the world’s policeman.  Some would call this American hegemony or colonialism which is, I think, incorrect because unlike Rome we have not extracted any tribute (no oil from Iraq, sorry) from countries we protect.  It’s also incorrect because we have, unlike Rome, always tried to justify our intervention by seeing direct threats to our country’s security.  Rome never had to do this because the whole world was Roman.  An affront anywhere was an affront against Rome.

One could argue that our policing has been selective.  We police rich neighborhoods over poor, we stand back when two rival gangs seem hell bent on wiping each other out, and we use underhanded informants, take questionable plea bargains and use entrapment tactics, but those who want no police at all in the world amaze me.  For the most part, we’ve kept the peace.   

This peace has been paid for almost solely by the American taxpayer.  After WWII, there wasn’t anyone left standing who could pay for the peace except us, so it made sense for us pay for peace then.  Times have change.  We understood during the height of the cold war that we couldn’t continue doing this for ever so we tried to create military organizations like NATO and the UN Peacekeeping missions.  In point of fact, however, we still pay the lion’s share for these groups while losing command and control of missions.  Now it seems we have painted ourselves into a corner.

At the same time as the Pax Americana, companies felt comfortable in building factories  in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Europe because Uncle Sam not only guaranteed the peace, but also let US companies take advantage of low (even slave) labor costs in an environment where OSHA really was a small town in Wisconsin.

These now foreign companies could now, not only sell in the US, taking full advantage of our infrastructure, but also blow away the competition on price alone.  And many of them escaped paying any US taxes at all (GE for instance).

Now, we have become the world’s largest debtor nation with high unemployment.  A recent upbeat, turn-around news story showed a factory in Georgia that was actually selling something to the Chinese – chop sticks.  The company employed 20 people but they were looking to hire more.  As my grandmother in her dotage would have said, aren’t they clever.  The Chinese and Asians though, have millions of people making TVs, computer’s, clothes, cars, and a host of other products and exporting them to the US and the world.  All of these products have a little more value-added to them (wealth creation) than chop sticks.  Look at this picture Americans and weep.

I believe in free trade, but the way our political class has implemented free trade is idiotic.  Take the Defense Budget (not spent in the US to keep the peace) and add to it the trade imbalance and it is easy to see that there is nothing free or fair in free trade.

Our political classes (both Republican and Democratic) have given the US this brave new world, and I hear no one running for office now framing the problem in the above terms or offering solutions.  Political America has become like a snake eating its own tail: neither side seems to realize how the world has changed, and both now seem content to devour America itself.

If the Peacemakers are blessed, those who argue against something without giving a plausible or practical vision of the world they want are certainly the unblessed.  Whether it is the guy next door, talk radio, or highly acclaimed writers we should be wary of listening to them.  The only outcomes are mobs in the street and possibly another civil war. This is today’s Common Sense.

My personal belief is that they only way we’re going to change America is by changing the tax code.  But here are some other ways we might “Change America!”

We might try something like a foreign player rule for trade.  In some countries soccer and basketball teams are limited to the number of foreign player the team can have.  We might tell China and Asia, we won’t put tariffs on you products, but after your exports reach a certain imbalance, then we will put tariffs on.  This might give our trading partners (and US companies that once operated in the US) something to shoot at beside pure robber baron tactics. 

We might also tell our allies that they should start paying for their own protection or at least start building factories in the US (Toyota, BMW, and many others already do) with a small part of the profit from these factories going, not back to the Fatherland, but to US charities, infrastructure, education, etc.   At least let them know that we expect them to be good corporate citizens by American standards.

We might also pare back or get rid of our bloated bureaucracies (just about all qualify).  An unemployed lawyer isn’t a pretty thing to see, but then neither is an unemployed brick layer.

We might go back to the draft for military service.  As the economic divide deepens, even universal service makes more sense.

We might also look at some of the mom-and-apple pie issues that get some wrapping themselves in the American flag and singing God Bless America like Archie Bunker.  Education is certainly one and health care is another.   Even if we graduate more scientist and engineers the companies they work for will be overseas where the pay scale will not be US scale.  Today you can buy much cheaper –and in some cases better – healthcare overseas.  Our political class didn’t pass health care reform, the passed health insurance reform.

These ideas may never happen, but when you’re a chop stick nation, you’ve got to try something.

The CBS Chop Stick story:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/26/eveningnews/main20111856.shtml

I know I’ve painted with a wide brush on some of these issues.  I also know that China has benefitted indirectly from our policing effort.  Why go to war when you can get what you want simply by asking America for it.  The playing of America the Beautiful during the launch of their last space vehicle should hint at what they think of us:  We’re a Chop Stick Nation.