"The Illusion of Progress"

As stories such as this one about "better times" show up every day, the bigger story of worker exploitation goes virtually unreported in the main media. We are seeing a false picture of progress. It is really the deficit spending that's going on, not any kind of real progress. And that deficit spending is going to be the burden of today's children- and grandchildren. The present Dalai Lama says, "If you sacrifice others for yourself, you will suffer the consequences."

Here's how it works:

US buys cheap stuff from China; China keeps a low-paid labor force by treating people like just another factor of production; Chinese won't buy expensive US goods that they don't need; China amasses a surplus of US dollars; They buy US government debt that the US is issuing to enable tax cuts; We pay China interest on the debt through our taxes; over time, we run up huge government deficits because our own economy can't make a go of it; China buys even more of the US debt; we pay even more interest to them through taxes, until they realize our money is getting pretty worthless; They stop buying US debt, US credit is maxxed out; the dollar crashes, the end of the economy as we know it has arrived.

Every step of the way, somebody gets wealthy. And, it is the Chinese working class, whose surplus labor has made it all possible, who has never gotten past basic subsistence.

How do you at least begin to untangle what is wrong with this picture?

a.) Boycott purchases of Chinese goods until China honors a Workers' Rights and a better Social Security system;
b.) Tax the wealthy until the deficits that made them rich are gone;
c.) Spend huge amounts on cleaning the environment and renewable energy.

But to tout an economy that is running on deficits is like the pig who belches after eating all the seed corn for next year's crop.