On 2011-02-17 17:55:41 -0500, busbus said:

What is happening now? The money is pouring out of this country. How
does China pay for its high speed rail? By the money you and I pay
for all the freaking goods they produce and sell in places like Wal-
Mart, Home Depot, Best Buy and all those other stores. Because we, as
consumers, have demanded "the Chine Price" for so freaking long that
we have almost pushed manufacturing and other businesses that used to
bring money into this country out to places like China (especially
China).

We could have "the China price" for US-made goods, except that business
has forgotten its intitial impetus. Used to be that a company was
started to provide a needed good or service. Not so today -- a
company's main purpose, at least for publicly-held companies, is the
"enhancement of shareholder value."

The economy -- buying and selling real goods adn services for real mony
-- has been replaced with the "financial economy", generating inflated
"value" for an asset. (How much air can you beat into a gallon of ice
cream before it becomes just air? Oh, sorry, you don't get a gallon
anymore -- the half-gallon has become something like 1.56 quarts,
before you even consider the added air.)

The final factor operating against a decent price for a US-made good is
executive compensation. The CEO makes 300, or 3,000 times the salary of
the working stiff? Till me how THAT makes us competitive, or,
ultimately, how we'll even be able to buy China's "China-priced" goods.