Rambling Thoughts on Global Stuff

While enjoying a third or fourth (or twelfth) time looking through a favorite large coffee-table book displaying our national parks, I suddenly wanted to know when this was published.  Checking near the front of the book and finding that typical information page, there was the publishing year of 1993.  Followed by the line, "Printed in China."

Somehow this gave me a slight shock, followed by a pang of resentment.  Sure, I knew many of our commodities of the day are made in China, but beautiful books with photos of our beautiful home country scenery - reminders of our beautiful lifestyle here in the Good Ole USA - printed in CHINA?  This thought was not beautiful.  Toys, cameras and a wide array of gadgets that pass through our everyday world, things I have begun to dismiss as unimportant to my "real life," their point of origin hardly matters.  But books!  Books are sacred to me.

So then I'm forced to remember all the email forwards that drift my way from concerned folks who ask us to avoid buying Chinese products, to help our own economy by buying American.  I have often dutifully passed these forwards along with my added minimal comments, and have little-by-little become more aware of the massive trade imbalance between us and China.  Well, I say I am aware of imbalance, but truth is, I have no clue how many products line the shelves of Chinese shops that say "Made in USA."  My gut feeling is that there is a pretty heavy imbalance, but I can't claim to know the particulars.  This business of world trade is far beyond my scope.  But it does seem a bit sad that when I stop at the local Walmart to pick up a Stanley tool (bearing that age-old American label) that the clear wording on the tag says, "Made in China."  We wanted a lantern to take along on a camping trip.  We would just stop and pick up a lantern from Coleman, an American name known everywhere for camping gear quality.  All four of their lantern varieties were "Made in China."

By this point, any reader might expect me to launch into a tirade against the trade inequities or indeed, against the Chinese government or its people.  In fact, the whole thing causes me to do a good bit deeper questioning.  I question the very fundamentals of why things develop the way they do.  Since our country took the leading role in creativity and productivity beginning almost two centuries ago, and since these capacities took us to world recognition as the leader in development and production through most of the twentieth century, how have other nations begun to take the helm?

For my simple way of seeing things, it appears to be a matter of evolution.  A world filled with people wanting billions of products will naturally buy them wherever they can do so at the best bargain.  A nation of people willing to work hard to manufacture those huge numbers of products and sell them for less will become the leading exporter.  Of course I know there exists in our world (much is reported concerning China) horrible sacrifices of humanity and there is deplorable treatment by extremist governments that have no concern for their own citizens, but that condition does not change the first premise: where products are produced for less, they will be sold for less and trade imbalances will follow.  Is it "right?"  I can't say whether the evolution itself can be labeled "right" or "wrong," it's what happens in our world.  Watching it happen and hearing of the mistreatment of humans, even including small children, we are told, tries my idealist nature and can make me want to scream insanely.  That would do nothing but add more noise to the massive insanity already growing to unimaginable proportions.  So rather than scream, I try to think.

Yes, I pay attention to where things are produced, and at times I will spend more for a commodity if I can find it with a USA label.  And I drive a Ford.  But in this massive world economy, there is going to continue an evolutionary process with supply and demand that will keep me buying items made in China, Mexico, Japan, Korea - anywhere on Earth but my own country - because some things simply are not produced here at all.  And a large part of my idealistic nature allows me to see this in a good way, philosophically.  One World has long been my desire to witness; a One-World government should eventually grow to be the helping hand to all of humanity - that's the direction my idealism goes.  And I'm sure the reason people sneer at such an idea is the pathetic lack of candidates to become that capable world leadership.  Though our democratic form of government seems most reasonable to become such a strength, our national twisting and manipulation of the term "democracy" has probably pushed the concept backward in its potential.  Sorry to say it, but our way of actually living here in this - even if it is the best example of governance thus far - "Land of the Free & Home of the Brave," under the touted concept of "Liberty and Justice for ALL," just isn't up to the standard we tried to set.

So I say, use the trade imbalances and the fear of other nations' strengths to re-enforce our basic principles that can and should return us to world leadership and respect.  Notice I don't add "dominance" to that list.  Those in our own system who want to dominate frighten me more than do the foreign powers trying to build their economies and strengths in our world.

I need to study up on Clinton's Global Initiative.  He may have something great happening there.