Dependent on Japan?

I honestly wish I could agree with the P.C. (non-Austrian) "economists," who today seem to believe that we are dependent upon Japan! This is about as true as saying that we are dependent on blood sucking welfare recipients for our economic health. Look at the facts, and first of all go back to 1945.

When a war is over, it is customary for the victor to leave the vanquished in the ashes of his own making, but not good 'ole humanitarian America. General MacArthur urged us to re-build our enemy and be kind to them. Douglas MacArthur was a wealthy, vain man who did his beach landings a couple of times so the cameras could get it just right, and his corncob pipe and silver revolvers would show well in the glitter of the sun. He loved the adulation from the press, his underlings, and those he benefited. He wrote a Constitution for them, and at his urging, our treasury and dummy Congress send boatloads of cash to poor little Japan, who had been wrecked by its own actions. Our steel mills were worn out, thanks to the war, as were our most basic of infrastructure and manufacturing facilities. We sent billions to Japan, so they could have the latest technology and state of the art steel plants and factories. They then sold us steel at low prices, from the mills we provided, stole our patents and copied them with impunity, manufactured our inventions, and paid no royalties unless forced to do so by a court. They refused our autos, requiring each one to be individually "inspected for flaws," while they sent hundreds of thousands of theirs to us, of course with no individual inspections. The first Hondas that arrived here were miserable little two cylinder affairs, which were so absurd, that the few remaining ones are collectible. Our balance of trade with Japan, and China alone, approaches $400 billion each year. Our American rice growers can't sell them rice, and others of us can't sell them much of anything else.

Is it possible that Japan's huge run up in the 1970's and 1980's was partly because we re-built them? Is it possible that the largess Japan received from America was partly responsible for their boom that went bust? Where would Japan be now, if they hadn't been rebuilt by their former enemy? Where would we be now, if we had kept the dollars at home, rebuilt our own infrastructure, factories, steel mills, and lowered taxes?

We now are supposed to believe that California and Japan are so intertwined that if one goes, the other will go also. They are indeed tied together. We buy, and they sell to us! We are the largest debtor nation on earth, thanks to Japan, and now China. If they fail, it will hurt us? I beg to differ! If they go down the tubes, perhaps our blind politicians will see to it that our taxes and regulations are made reasonable, so our factories can re-open, and former workers can be re-hired. Perhaps someone will blow up a few agencies in D.C. so we can get back to being a productive, manufacturing nation, rather than one who mistakenly thinks that "information" can be a substitute for the production line, and that government helps us rather than gets in the way. I won't buy anything with a Japanese or Chinese name on it, because I want the dough to stay here. I buy New Balance shoes made in the USA, and have a Swiss watch and Leica Camera, since no watches or cameras seem to be made here. I shoot Kodak film, and my computer is made right here in my own town with American components.

America invented most of what Japan sells to us, be it the TV, VCR, elevator, machinery, camera, or you name it. After the war, a Leica camera was copied down to the tiniest screw, and presto! The Cannon camera was born. We invent, and thanks to cheap labor and not paying royalties, others can make it cheaper and sell it here, while our plants close and move to Mexico. This is a great way to achieve Utopia. I love America, and could care less if everyone else goes the way of all flesh. If Japan closes, or China turns off their lights, it's better for laid off Americans. If the Christmas ornaments were made in Maine or Minnesota rather than overseas, it would be fine with me.

I much prefer "fair" trade to "free" trade. Fair trade between nations having equal taxes, regulations, and life styles harms no one, and helps all participants. "Free" trade between unequals with no equalizing tariffs is absurd. How can America, hobbled with regulations, taxes, rules, bureaucrats, and a Congress that allows it all; possibly compete with a China which has probably half of its labor free, because it is prison labor, and a good part child labor, paid maybe a quarter an hour? How can America compete with Mexico, which cares nothing about the land, waste disposal, minimum wages, benefits, unions, or taxes? Mexican labor lives in hovels and makes a dollar an hour, and this is what "free" traders love? China now is trying to buy an abandoned Naval base in Long Beach, California so they can ship their illegals and merchandise with little port costs and observation.

I despise the fact that Japanese motorcycles and cars made here are supposedly so wonderful. The profits go straight to Tokyo! Japanese copy machines with American names are shipped here sans the glass cover, which is put on here, and it is said to be "assembled in America." Nuts! I am supposed to feel sorry for the Japanese economy going down the tubes? Try me! The sad fact is that California and Japan have a relationship that should be broken, because it is all Japan and China shipping to California, and the ships going back empty! I happen to love America, and am deeply sorry that $4 trillion has evaporated from our economy due too the market bubble bursting. It had to burst, just like Tokyo's land prices had to evaporate like a popsicle in August. That's why I am precious metals dealer, because I deal in something more than statistics purported by worthless "economists" and statisticians who can't see beyond their nose, and who think that California will fail if Japan fails. California may fail due to the idiotic Democrat governor, no juice, and a moronic bureaucracy, but not Japan. Anyone with a grain of common sense will realize that for far too many years, our trade with Japan has been virtually one sided. If they go bust, we may begin making what we consume again, and hooray!