China's Weaponized Economy-First Presentation Words and Music

The following is the original version of the presentation (along with jokes).  It was adapted to present this from the perspective of writers who used their writing to change the world (or attempt to do so).
For groups interested in a presentation, please respond to gmfpc1@gmail.com.

The power point from the actual presentation will be posted later.

How China Stole the Heart and Soul of America

Thank you for coming and to our hosts.  This is a great program.

This is the first presentation of this subject by me to a large group and I have to ask, (pause and look up) “Did they read my book before inviting me to speak?”

I am here to entertain. (pause)  I am going to scare the bejezzus out of you, I hope, but I’ll end with a message of hope.

 I am not one of those doom and gloom people who has given up.  But you know who did?  (pause/look up) Both presidential candidates!  It’s true, this happened live on television during the second debate.

 I thought  Oh No! (pause) I’m turning into one of those old men who throws his shoe through the television set!

When Abraham Lincoln, in 1862 met with a writer, he "allegedly" said, "so you’re the young lady who started the civil war."

This meeting was my inspiration for the novel "World War C" from which "China's weaponized economy" springs which in turn leads to this presentation, "How China Stole the heart and soul of America"

So, "What is the heart and soul of America" (pause) and who was that person Lincoln spoke to?

The heart and soul of America is manufacturing and innovation. If you look at our national heroes they fall under two major categories:

1) people who built unique works: Carnegie, Edison and Bell; and also the adopted heroes of Europe; like Einstein, and even the German rocket pioneer Werner Von Brauhan.

2) The other group is the writers Steinbeck, Hemmingway, Arthur C. Clark, Edgar Allen Poe, our dead host Faulkner.

Fortunately for us writers, this second group list is endless compared to the list of the captains of industry.

They represent two areas of our society: 1. Manufacturing and innovation 2. Education

From this you might guess that my thesis is that China has stolen our manufacturing and innovation from us.  But they are also stealing our seats of education.

Manufacturing also provides real life training for teachers as well as jobs.  It also is the crucible of innovation. Without it our schools will diminish and die.

Already we see examples of education growing in China and we see the closing of schools and reduction of departments particularly those in engineering.   Right here in New Orleans the engineering department at Tulane largely closed after 2005.

How China did this is the more complicated part of the analysis.

There are several reasons; but these are all under a single banner which may be a little hard for you to accept, but which I intend to prove in the next 15 minutes…We are at war with China! Or, China is at war with us and Congress doesn’t even know it!

China has taken advantage of a vacuum of leadership in the country which is unprecedented the last 200 years.

PAUSE: Wow, this is not going to be the happiest speech you’ll hear today.

I am not one of the people who believes that the United States has to collapse at this point in time.   I WILL END WITH SOME HOPEFUL INFORMATION.

Harriet Beacher Stoe was the author who met with Lincoln.  UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, her book played a large role in freeing the black slaves from the south. First published in weekly installments from June 5, 1851 to April 1, 1852 in the journal National Era, Harriet Beacher Stowe's may have done more to free the slaves than any person beyond Lincoln.

When I sat down to write my book, I read her book first. The power and horror her book portrayed indirectly in that book was hard to miss.

So today, I will try to present Horror so it is hard to miss.

I don’t know how you would present Horror, (pause) but  I am going to use some statistics; (Pause) which I will try to get through fairly quickly.

First, I want to read to you a passage from a book that is (500 bce) 2500 years old by Sun Tsu, who was Chinese.

"Therefore, the skilful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field." The art of war by Sun Tzu

The goal of war has been answered in a book by Clausewitz, ‘On the Nature of War’. (I paraphrase slightly) The goal of war is to bend your enemy to your will, and in order to do that you must disarm your enemy.

One of the things I am also going to show you when we go through the statistics is not only has war been conducted but that the war has been conducted successfully.

My goal aside from selling a few copies of my books. Is to do the same thing that my hero, Harriet Beacher Stoe did. Which is to start or at least recognize a war.  I also intend to bring congress to account.

So let me start my presentation. At the end you will have 5 minutes in order to ask questions.

I suggest you make note of at least one or two questions you would like to ask.  (pause) Because if you don’t I am going to spend that 5 minutes reading my poetry. (pause)

Would like to extend credit to: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/contact

HOW THEY DID IT-Stole heart and soul of America

The Chinese undervalue their currency by about 40 percent in order to gain a critical advantage over foreign competitors.

They start with the lowest wage work and move up.  In 1975 I saw a factory in NYC burn to the ground.  It was full of valueless trinkets of plastic.  Today China provides almost all of the cell phones sold in the US and is the primary supplier to the U.S. Department of Defense.

This cost was underwritten by their government with low labor which means that many Chinese companies are able to  thrive while their competition in the United States goes out of business. But that is a minor part

The major part is that we have been encouraged by low costs to SHIP OUR MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY TO CHINA!

They have also protected their markets from us. According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs.

Reserves in a war come from the economy.

What percent of weapons came from non defense contractors in World War II?   It was over 80%. 4 of 5 weapons came from the private sector in all out war. Who do you think does all that manufacturing today?

Everything you are wearing comes from china you're cell phones and computers come from china or a country under their influence.

AS I stand here and you look at me and you see an author one who has not surrendered as your presidential candidates have.. I look out there and I see the potential generals and the next great war.

Somewhere out in this audience is at least one leader

Someone who is here because of their passion

Or because their passion stands to be awoken

Who is the leader out there in the audience looking to me for inspiration

I am here because we are at war.

Our enemy has disarmed us.

You know the enemy

It is the country that made the shirt you are wearing.

They made the pen you are writing with

they made your cell phone and your computer.

they made your watch.

The arsenal of democracy has oursourced its manufacturing to the enemy.

ON TO STATISTICS

In 2000, there were more than 17 millionAmericans working in manufacturing, but now there are less than 12 million.

The United States has a trade imbalance that is more than 7 times largerthan any other nation on earth has.

According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, the United States has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities a day over the last 10 years. During 2010 alone, an average of 23 manufacturing facilitiespermanently shut down in the United States every single day. Overall, the United States has lost more than 56,000manufacturing facilities since 2001.

The United States has lost a staggering 32 percentof its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000. (1/3 OF OUR MANUFACTURING!)

Since the auto industry bailout, approximately 70 percent of all GM vehicles have been built outside the United States. Do you remember when the United States was the dominant manufacturer of automobiles and trucks on the globe? Well, in 2010 the U.S. ran a trade deficit in automobiles, trucks and parts of $110 billion. In 2010, South Korea exported 12 times as many automobiles, trucks and parts to us as we exported to them

China Specific-Those are general facts, now let’s talk about china

As of September 2012 China has 470 mainland skyscrapers compared to 533 in the United States. Chicago is credited with the invention of the skyscraper. So we are ahead in something? No. There are 332 skyscrapers under construction in China with another 516 in the pipeline. Only Six (yes 6-1.5%) are in construction in the US with 24 more in planning. So who will have the technology to build skyscrapers in 10 years? http://www.china.org.cn/business/2012-09/24/content_26609301.htm. Where is the 1.7 trillion won (yuan) to build these coming from do you think?

Our trade deficit with China in 2011 was $295.5 billion. That was the largest trade deficit that one country has had with another country in the history of the planet.

In 2011, our trade deficit with China was 28 times largerthan it was back in 1990 and more than 49,000 times largerthan it was back in 1985.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobsto China every single year.

In 2010, China produced more than twice as manyautomobiles as the United States did.

.In 2010, China produced 627 millionmetric tons of steel. The United States only produced 80 million metric tons of steel.

In 2010, China produced 7.3 millionmetric tons of cotton. The United States only produced 3.4 million metric tons of cotton.

(joke) Today, China produces nearly twice as much beeras the United States does.

85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China. The new World Trade Center toweris going to include glass that has been imported from China. The new Martin Luther King memorial on the National Mall was made in China.

Right now, China is producing more than three times as much coal as the United States does.

China is now the number one supplierof components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems. How stupid can we possibly be?

GOVERNMENT

There is another enemy. Do you know who it is?
This enemy is incidious.
This enemy has rendered your currencyworthless
they stood by, even assisted while China robbed us of our ability to defend ourselves.
They stole from your children and your parents
They are exempt from every law, they make themselves safe behind their health insurance, their police forces, their huge retirements and salaries.
And they make you pay for it.
They started out as good and noble men, but now
They are the most corrupt organization in the country
They are the congress
They talk of helping us, while they rob from the trust fund of the infirm and elderly.
The National Debt

The U.S. government has stolen $15,876,457,645,132.66 from future generations (15 trillion dollars)

Unfunded obligations OF THE GOVERNMENT are According to Professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, the U.S. government is facing a future "fiscal gap" of more than 200 trillion dollars.

The road that we are on will either be default or to hyperinflation.

BOTH PARTIES AND BOTH BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT

#5 Barack Obama will become the first president to run deficits of more than a trillion dollars during each of his first four yearsin office.

#7 The U.S. national debt has increased by more than 1.6 trillion dollars since the Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives. So far, this Congress has added more to the national debt than the first 97 Congresses combined.

42 cents of each dollar spent by government is borrowed

Manufacturing in the USA: How U.S. Trade Policy Offshores Jobs | Daniel J. Ikenson | Cato Institute: Congressional Testimony

The two enemies will leave us bankrupt, and without the ability to make anything for ourselves

Good News

Solutions are in book, I'll save that for those of you who want to see if there is a way out of this.But the war has not been won yet. And of we act quickly with a will. And we get the help of our allies overseas than it might yet be possible that we will win this war.

One of the few weapons we have left is our diversity. We are not only Asian, we are also German, we are all of europe, we are African. If we, the United States and Europe, provide the moral leadership we are capable of, our allies, those who are a part of who we are, will rally to us.

We must, as a group, take our technological expertise. To the extent we have not lost it we may yet win this new economic world war. Cooperation is necessary and that means providing moral leadership which will require a correction of misguided philosophy beginning with Congress.

. If we can povide a moral unifying force, not the greed machine of washington or the radical groups, but a logical, mankind based morality; then we can potentially, if we act quickly enough form the type of coallition that can defeat China in this war. But we must manufacture our way out of it, starting with the lowest paying jobs and ending with the highest. We must protect our arts, but we must recapture our sciences. We must be responsible for debt, but we must allow our students to become educated and escape debt if they are consciensous, if they study in areas which benefit us in the war and if they apply themselves afterwards.

Many point to the "inevitable collapse" of the american economy. We can certainly see that happening if the corruption in our government is not dealt with. It is not the historical result, however, especially if we recognize we are at war with a weaponized economy.
Our debt is out of control as is the debt of europe. We can only fix the debt by creating the type of inflation which would lead such a relative reduction in the amount of debt that it would be manageable. One professor has estimated that cutting the U.S. trade deficit in half would create 5 million more jobsin the United States.
Fortunately we have two examples of where this occurred successfully. One is in the United States in response to the economic attack by OPEC in the 1970(s). We were assisted in this regard by the computer revolution (new manufacturing) and by the leadership of Ronald Regan and William Clinton. Clearly both leadership and manufacturing were required for this success. This is discussed in "China's Weaponized Economy-How we lost the war with China."
There is another example, extremely well known in history. This happened in Germany during the great depression. Germany suffered from a crushing debt impossed by the Allied powers after World War I. They went through a period of staggering inflation, perhaps not even matched by what we will see in America.

This allowed the countries debt a measure of control, even though the human suffering was unprecedented.
Then came the gear up to World War II which was, again, a manufacturing renassaince. Even after a failed attempt at world domination and a second round of curshing economic hardship, Germany came back to be one of a handfull of technological manufacturing centers in the world capable of banding together to take on the Asian weaponized economy.
This shows that with a disciplined population, and a little help from friends, it is not impossible to recover from crushing hardship and debt and technological inferiority.

END OF PRESENTATION-OPEN TO QUESTIONS

comrades congratulations your have won the war with the united states. Tóngzhì zhùhè nǐ yíngdéle yǔ měiguó de zhànzhēng.

According to author Clyde Prestowitz, China’s number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment. According to an article in U.S. News & World Report, during 2010 the number one U.S. export to China was “scrap and trash”.

All over the United States, road and bridge projects are being outsourced to Chinese firms. Just check out the following excerpt from a recent ABC News article....In New York there is a $400 million renovation project on the Alexander Hamilton Bridge.In California, there is a $7.2 billion project to rebuild the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland. but much of the work is going to Chinese government-owned firms."When we subsidize jobs in China, we're not creating any wealth in the United States," said Scott Paul, executive director for the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

The Chinese economy has grown 7 times fasterthan the U.S. economy has over the past decade.

The Chinese economy is projected to be larger than the U.S. economy by 2016.

One economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times largerthan the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

.China now holds approximately more than a trillion dollarsof U.S. government debt. If you were alive back when Jesus was born and you had spent a million dollars every single day since then, you still would not have spent that much money by now.