RELAPSE INTO FOREIGN DEPENDENCY
John Q. Pridger

24 June, 2005: The changes Pridger has witnessed in his relatively short life time are truly incredible. He has seen the greatest, richest, and most powerful, nation in the history of civilization willfully transform itself from a politically and economically independent republic into economic dependence on an array of potential foreign enemies.

In 1815 Thomas Jefferson wrote (in a letter to Jean Batiste Say):

"...experience has shown that continued peace depends not merely on our own justice and prudence, but on that of others also, that when forced into war, the interception of exchanges which must be made across a wide ocean, becomes a powerful weapon in the hands of an enemy domineering over that element, and to the other distresses of war adds the want of all those necessaries for which we have permitted ourselves to be dependent on others, even arms and clothing.  This fact, therefore, solves the question by reducing it to its ultimate form, whether profit or preservation is the first interest of a State ?  We are consequently become manufacturers to a degree incredible to those who do not see it, and who only consider the short period of time during which we have been driven to them by the suicidal policy of England.  The prohibiting duties we lay on all articles of foreign manufacture which prudence requires us to establish at home, with the patriotic determination of every good citizen to use no foreign article which can be made within ourselves, without regard to difference of price, secures us against a relapse into foreign dependency..."

Throughout the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, America maintained its political and economic independence through protective trade policy. True enough, it was a bumpy road, and protective tariffs were sometime an on again off again entanglement of regulation. There have always been a powerful lot of "free traders" embattling the "protectionists," but it was protectionism that insured that we became, and remained, a great and independent industrial nation.

The wise policies which secured us against "a relapse into foreign dependency" have been reversed now for about twenty-five years, and we have lapsed into a serious state of dependency -- not upon England or our European kindred nations upon which we once depended, but upon a wide array of Arab, Asian, and Latin American nations, and most significantly in recent years, China. These nations are our manufacturers and and the suppliers of our vital needs, from oil and food to our most basic consumer goods. Many of these same nations that now provide us with our wherewithal to maintain our much coveted "American life-style" are also our major financial creditors, to whom we are so far indebted that we must kid ourselves by saying that "foreign debt is good."

We are awash in debt -- both privately and publically. Debt has become a national way of life. It's in the genes of our very monetary system, which is a debt system whereby every dollar is a debt note that accrues interest and thus more debt by merely existing. It's a hopeless system that nobody in Washington is even suggesting doing anything about. The only thing that Congress can do is to raise the debt ceiling, so that we can continue to function as a nation. They have begun to worry about fixing Social Security, but not the underlying system. The debt money system is even more sacrosanct than Social Security.

We, and our elected mis-representatives have actually forgotten what freedom and indepence are. We believe it is the ability to be awash in perpetural debt while living on the fat of many lands. They think freedom is the ability to engage in conspicuous over-consumption and waste, and plunder the resources of the earth without thought beyond tomorrow. There's nothing that raising the debt ceiling will not cure.

Globalization of our economy, for the benefit of international capital, has brought many of our finest and most important domestic industries down. Many of our great iron and steel industries, our great airline companies, and our great shipping companies have disappeared, along with many others. All are threatened. We now depend on the foreign competition to satisfy our needs, along with a dwindling few "American" survivors that continue to resist moving offshore.

Globalization says that if an American company cannot compete in the globalized free market, it should move its production to Mexico or Asia so that it can compete. Either that, or it must cut wages and benefits of American workers until they can compete. Needless to say, this is a forced race to the floor, as far as American labor is concerned, and (broadly speaking), labor is "We the People."

The downsized or cheaply employed American worker then depends upon the cheap prices of foreign imports to maintain his life style, effectively throwing his vote for more job export, more downsizing, and more wage and benefit cuts. This isn't happening by accident as we are supposed to believe, it's happening because our supposedly representative government no longer represents American workers. It represents Wall Street, international capital, and the "consumer." Since we are all consumers, the fiction that our government is pursuing trade policies for the benefit everybody is an easy sell to the weak and the blind, who neither see what is really happening, nor have the power to change things even if they did. They cannot change things because they cannot see the truth, and if they saw the truth, they would discover that they have no representation, and their vote is counted only at the Wal-Mart checkout counter, but is meaningless at the ballot box.

Among other things, the greatest maritime nation in the world effectively no longer has its own foreign trade merchant marine. That is, it has one that is a mere shadow of what it once was, and only a mere fraction of what it should be, considering our growing dependence on foreign trade for our national livelihood. More than 95% of our foreign, transoceanic, trade is carried in the ships of other nations.

Of the "American flag" fleet of general cargo merchant ships (which numbers only about 78 ships), only one was built in the U.S.A. The rest are "Made in Japan", "Made in Korea", or Germany, the Netherlands, or even in the former U.S.S.R.! And, in spite of the American flag, the overwhelming majority of those "American" ships are owned by foreign shipping corporations! Forty-seven of those ships are government subsidized for national security purposes (The Maritime Security Fleet), and the overwhelming majority of those so subsidized are foreign owned.

A couple of years ago Pridger had the pleasure of being a crew member on an "American" container ship during it's major shipyard repair period. The ship was one of our subsidized "Maritime Security Fleet" ships, thus it was one of our national security assets. But nothing about the ship, other than the crew itself, was "American made." It had been built in Korea and was owned by a Danish shipping company. Even the American flag that waved proudly from the stern flag staff was undoubtedly "Made in China."

The shipyard we spent almost three weeks in was not an American shipyard. It was Chinese -- a shipyard partly owned by the infamous Red Army. Most of us in the crew loved the place. The little bar district just outside the shipyard gate was a literal seamen's paradise, and we had a great time. But the situation was very incongruous, to say the least, i.e. the Red Army effectively servicing our national security assets.

This level of dependence is unconscionable, and is literally both economic and strategic madness. Not only do we pay the freight on our vast volume of foreign imports to the foreign competition, but the freight profits from the cargoes carried by the ships that pose as our own American flag merchant fleet go to the competition too! Not only are we dependent on foreign imports, but we're almost totally dependent on the foreign competition to deliver the goods. Not only that, but the very port infrastructure -- the giant container cranes that work the ships in American ports -- are increasingly "Made in China"! And, we pay the Chinese to do the necessary work on our "Maritime Security Fleet" ships. Unbelievable, but true!

Of course, in a globalized "free market" economy, none of this matters. The only thing that does matter is that the company maximize its profit potential. And the American government has signed up to globalization and free market "rule."

We're more dependent on foreigners for our general welfare now than during the pre-Revolutionary colonial period! If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he would scratch his head in wonder at the folly of our government.

Our growing dependence on China is particularly significant and troubling. Pridger's has dug up one of his old posts on China (13 December, 2003):

TRADING WITH OUR FRIENDS, THE ENEMY

At some point, we're going to have to face down China, or be faced down by China, over the status of Taiwan. China's national and international stature and military power are all on the rise. Unless we have some super-secret weaponry the government has not yet told us of, and that China hasn't managed to get from us on the sly (or purchase it from former President Clinton), China will eventually be the military master of Asia. Pridger

Forty years ago it was against American law to make innocent purchases in Red Chinese department stores in Hong Kong and elsewhere. I did it anyway, of course, purchasing an abacus and a copy of Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book" of quotations. Man! I felt wicked, and a little guilty, when I did that dastardly deal! Now this big, wicked, enemy enjoys a multi-billion dollar trade surplus with the United States. All we have to do is go to Wal Mart to get any number of things from the same Red China. If Communism is still the enemy, then we're trading with the enemy in a big way — and shopping at Wal Mart is the way that most of us trade with the enemy. Pridger

The Peoples' Republic of China, though it has moderated its rhetoric considerably (i.e., having become receptive to American capital), and all modesty aside, is still the biggest, baddest, "Evil Empire" in the world (meaning it is very big, has the largest military establishment on the planet, and is still officially communist). China has a long memory, lots of patience, and plenty of time. Pridger

Thanks to the transfer of our military hardware, secrets, and militarily useful electronics and rocket technology to China (both directly and by "friendly" proxies), China has both "the bomb" and the rocketry to deliver. In other words, nuclear blackmail is no longer the sole prerogative of the United States and Russia. Pridger

It's okay to trade with China now because the profit and market potential for American corporations is so tremendous. Pridger

Ninety short miles from the Florida keys is big, bad, Fidel Castro's communist Cuba. A little over forty years ago, we helped Castro come to power in Cuba, stabbing our old dictator friend, Batista (who had happily permitted American multi-national corporations, and the Mafia dominate the Cuban economy for decades), in the back. Castro was whooped up as a great popular liberator, and several flashy pro-Castro magazines appeared on American news stands. Then (surprise!), our brilliant  "intelligence" services, and astute politicians, found out Castro was an evil Marxist-Leninist! Pridger

In our official posturing, we apparently consider Castro much, much, badder than Mao and the Peoples' Republic of China, though Castro is probably a saint compared to Mao-Tse-Tung. Here it is 2003, and we still can't even legally purchase Cuban Havana Cigars — the ones that are reputed to be the best in the world. Americans can't even legally travel to Cuba. But we can get all the Chinese goods we want. Finally, I could safely dig up my abacus and of Mao's Little Red Book of quotations. This is a most peculiar circumstance. Pridger

We became "friends" with China long before Chairman Mao died — while he was still supporting Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Cong in their struggle against the evil imperialists (us), in Vietnam. We decided to trade with Mao because of China's vast market potential. Cuba wasn't so lucky. We can forgo its puny market for some time yet. Pridger

I just dug up my Little Red Book of Mao's quotations. Here are a few samples which make appropriate reading, and provide a warning, for today's world:

"WORKER OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!"
The page at right says, "Study Chairman Mao's writings, follow his teachings and act according to his instructions," Lin Piao

Quotes from Mao Tse Tung's "Little Red Book"

"...U.S. imperialism has not yet been overthrown and it has the atom bomb. I believe it also will be overthrown. It, too, is a paper tiger... The United States has set up hundreds of bases in many countries all over the world. China's territory of Taiwan, Lebanon and all military bases of the United States on foreign soil are so many nooses round the neck of U.S. imperialism. The nooses have been fashioned by the Americans themselves and by nobody else, and it is they themselves who have put these nooses round their own necks, handing the ends of the ropes to the Chinese people, the peoples of the Arab countries and all the peoples of the world who love peace and oppose aggression. The longer the U.S. aggressors remain in those places, the tighter the nooses round their necks will become.
    "Riding roughshod everywhere, U.S. imperialism has made itself the enemy of the people of the world and has increasingly isolated itself. Those who refuse to be enslaved will never be cowed by the atom bombs and hydrogen bombs in the hands of the U.S. imperialists. The raging tide of the people of the world against the U.S. aggressors is irresistible. Their struggle will assuredly win still greater victories.
    "If the U.S. monopoly capitalist groups persist in pushing their policies of aggression and war, the day is bound to come when they will be hanged by the people of the whole world. The same fate awaits the accomplices of the United States.
    "...There is a Chinese saying, 'Either the East Wind prevails over the West Wind or the West Wind prevails over the East Wind...

"...It is the spirit of internationalism, the spirit of communism, from which every Chinese Communist must learn. ...We must unite with the proletariat of Japan, Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy and all other  capitalist countries, before it is possible to overthrow imperialism, to liberate our nation and people and to liberate the other nations and peoples of the world. This is our internationalism, the internationalism with which we oppose both narrow nationalism and narrow patriotism.

   ...In another forty-five years, that is, in the year 2001, or the beginning of the 21st century, China will have undergone an even greater change. (than in the previous forty-five years) She will have become a powerful socialist industrial country. And that is as it should be. China is a land with and area of 9,600,000 square kilometres and a population of 600 million people, and she ought to have made a greater contribution to humanity. Her contribution over a long period has been far too small. For this we are regretful.
    "But we must be modest — not only now, but forty-five years hence as well. We should always be modest. In our international relations, we Chinese people should get rid of great-power chauvinism resolutely, thoroughly, wholly and completely." Chairman Mao Tse Tung's Little Red Book of Quotations (1967 edition, Foreign Language Press, Peking).

China has never threatened to invade nor conquer the United States through force of arms. Nor did the former Soviet Union ever make such a threat. While the Soviet Union failed and collapsed, Red China learned, and thrives. Just what it has learned, and what it's long-term goals are, remains to be seen. Naturally, China has awakened to a new reality that it didn't foresee forty years ago. But it has adapted to it and will allow that new reality to fashion the future they plan for themselves. Unless Pridger is sorely mistaken, one thing is fairly certain. That is that China has Chinese interests at heart, not ours, nor the "Global Village" of international capital. It will use our own capitalists, with our eager and active assistance, to make us so economically dependent and strategically vulnerable that, by slow degrees, we will awaken to a new global reality, not in the least of our planning. Pridger

China will continue to be modest as it builds itself, with our help, into the world's largest superpower. We will continue to trade with the enemy until that enemy decides it is strong enough to bring Taiwan to heel. Then, we'll either have to knuckle to a new reality, or allow Wal Mart and many other American multi-national corporations to suffer a breakdown in their trade life-line and probable bankruptcy. The latter would cause a stock market crash, the likes of which we have never before seen. Pridger

China has already built a world class merchant marine that will become the world's largest in only a few short years. They are working at building a world class navy, capable of challenging our own. They have established strategic "commercial" outposts which encircle the United States. Their military intelligence network permeates our nation, invisibly imbedded among the millions of Chinese immigrants in our nation. While we fret (and correctly worry) about Mexican illegal immigration, Chinese illegal immigrants are arriving by the boat and container-loads. Chinese-Americans are among our most valuable citizens, but their increasing numbers provide cover for a large and growing Red Chinese intelligence presence. Pridger

Is China really the enemy? No, of course not. The real enemy is much closer to home. Perhaps the real enemy could be defined as a deadly combination of stupidity and avarice in high places — not in Beijing, but in New York, Washington, etc. Pridger

China was the paper tiger forty years ago, in international terms. It was also a sleeping giant, only beginning to awaken. We have gone out of our way, not only to wake it up more fully, but to turn it into a real tiger. Pridger

In the mean time we're spending our national capital (as if we'll never have to pay the piper), using the world's greatest military machine, to spar with a few scattered rabid Islamic Fundamentalists. Pridger

13 December, 2003


It is Pridger's firm belief that we of this degeneration will live to regret our present and growing dependence on China and the China trade, and more. Even now a few Washington politicians are beginning to express some concerns about China's economic and military growth. One wonders where they were forty years ago, or twenty years ago, or last year. The China threat did not grow up over night. It grew over forty years with our active assistance. It continues to do so, using American capital.

We lament that China is taking advantage of us in trade. We seem suprised and displeased that the Chinese government continues to act as if it has China's own progress at heart, and somehow dosen't seem to care that we are at a disadvantage. We demand that they "float" their currency or revalue it upwords. We want them to take the necessary steps to make themselves less competitive! We lament that the Chinese aren't playing by the rules. The Chinese however, have correctly pointed out that we should not blame our problems on others. They didn't make the rules, we did. Those rules gave China the leg up from the very beginnings of our New World Order game, and (quite understandably), they are taking full advantage of them. What is happening is something that we have done to ourselves -- or, more correctly, what our mis-representatives in Washington have done to us, the American people. Our government has sold us down the river and is now trying to blame it on China.

Our worthy leaders would lead us to believe that they never in a million years would have sold the American people down the river. If everything goes to pieces, it's because the world is taking advantage of us -- China, Mexico, and a hundred other countries. All our astute mis-representatives wanted was a "Wonderful New World" for everybody -- so everybody in the would could have the blessings of dining at McDonald's and shop at Wal-Mart.

Didn't our brain trust in Washington know that the Chinese outnumber us by four to one, and that in the end, economics is a numbers game? Didn't they know that the Chinese people are both smart and industrious, and perfectly willing and eager to take advantage of any and every opportunity we could push out in front of them? And don't they know that China is still a Communist nation sworn to destroy our brand of capitalistic imperialism -- even if they have to adopt it to get ahead (of us)?

Ask any free market capitalist and they will tell you that we are crating the best of all possible worlds, and if American labor isn't exactly getting its due right now, just wait a while. The gold at the end of the rainbow is the 95% of global markets that are still out there for "American" capital to tap into. What they don't bother to tell us is that American labor isn't going to benefit from this global economic model. The American consumer stands to benefit, of course, but not labor. American "productive" labor is slated for extinction -- unless it learns to live on something approximating Chinese wages.


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