Chinese billionaire Jack Ma says the US wasted trillions on warfare

[AhsanAmin]

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma says the US wasted trillions on warfare instead of investing in infrastructure

Alibaba founder Jack Ma fired a shot at the United States in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Ma was asked by CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin about the U.S. economy in relation to China, since President-elect Donald Trump has been talking about imposing new tariffs on Chinese imports.


Ma says blaming China for any economic issues in the U.S. is misguided. If America is looking to blame anyone, Ma said, it should blame itself.


"It's not that other countries steal jobs from you guys," Ma said. "It's your strategy. Distribute the money and things in a proper way."

He said the U.S. has wasted over $14 trillion in fighting wars over the past 30 years rather than investing in infrastructure at home.

To be sure, Ma is not the only critic of the costly U.S. policies of waging war against terrorism and other enemies outside the homeland. Still, Ma said this was the reason America's economic growth had weakened, not China's supposed theft of jobs.

In fact, Ma called outsourcing a "wonderful" and "perfect" strategy.

"The American multinational companies made millions and millions of dollars from globalization," Ma said. "The past 30 years, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, they've made tens of millions — the profits they've made are much more than the four Chinese banks put together. ... But where did the money go?"

He said the U.S. is not distributing, or investing, its money properly, and that's why many people in the country feel wracked with economic anxiety. He said too much money flows to Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Instead, the country should be helping the Midwest, and Americans "not good in schooling," too.

"You're supposed to spend money on your own people," Ma said. "Not everybody can pass Harvard, like me." In a previous interview, Ma said he had been rejected by Harvard 10 times.

Along those lines, Ma stressed that globalization is a good thing, but it, too, "should be inclusive," with the spoils not just going to the wealthy few.

"The world needs new leadership, but the new leadership is about working together," Ma said. "As a business person, I want the world to share the prosperity together."

— CNBC's Anita Balakrishnan contributed to this report.

 

[AhsanAmin]

I have been saying the same thing for several years that if people of united states had invested in the future with great vision, the average GDP of United States would be more than hundred of thousand dollars. Here is what I wrote five years ago. https://forum.wilmott.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=82539 When foreigners say these things, intelligent people of united states should not right away dismiss these ideas saying that these foreigners have a harmful intent. Many of us wish good of the people of the United States when we make such comments


America's Military Expenditure, Its Economic Competence, And Children of Wisconsin

Grand American military expenditures contribute towards eroding competitiveness of American economy and cause suffering in nations abroad. We have seen this happen in Iraq where war fuelled by hype of Pentagon bosses to destroy "imaginary" weapons of mass destruction resulted in half a million "real" human casualties. Czars at Pentagon who have a taste for wars and are directly or indirectly responsible for half a million human deaths in Iraq still walk with impunity. What is surprising that even after the carnage caused by actions of Pentagon, American military budget continues to increase and Pentagon bosses continue to clamor that any defence cuts will seriously jeoperdize American security.

To put it in perspective, Americs's battle fleet is larger than the next 13 navies combined and 11 of those 13 navies are U.S. allies or partners. The largest military budget of any country after America is that of China which is seven times smaller than American military budget. No nation on this world has anywhere remotely close capability to strike America or compare with it in terms of military even when there are several nations who have already undermined any economic superiority America ever had. I would want to ask Americans the question if they are preparing for an attack from some alien world. The way Americans prioritize their public expenditure, It seems that it is more important for America to keep policing the world than to keep its economy competitive and make its citizens affluent. It seems more important for American government to keep its atomic submarines patrolling depths of remote oceans than to increase salaries of poor people protesting in Wisconsin who can barely make their ends meet. Does it make sense to Americans to reward egos of Pentagon bosses by opening vaults of national treasury for them than to reward teachers of Wisconsin who educate children of the nation and build future of America?

In 2009, the US Department of Defense's annual report to Congress on China's military strength offered several estimates of actual 2008 Chinese military spending. In terms of the prevailing exchange rate, Pentagon estimates range between US$105 and US$150 billion, the second highest in the world after the US.

On the other hand, according to Wikipedia.
Quote
For the 2010 fiscal year, the president's base budget of the Department of Defense rose to $533.8 billion. Adding spending on "overseas contingency operations" brings the sum to $663.8 billion.When the budget was signed into law on October 28, 2009, the final size of the Department of Defense's budget was $680 billion, $16 billion more than President Obama had requested.[3] An additional $37 billion supplemental bill to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was expected to pass in the spring of 2010, but has been delayed by the House of Representatives after passing the Senate.Defense-related expenditures outside of the Department of Defense constitute between $319 billion and $654 billion in additional spending, bringing the total for defense spending to between $1.01 and $1.35 trillion in fiscal year 2010.

End Quote

If we have a look at the economic picture, many US states are on the verge of bankruptcy. Jobless rate is close to record highs. We can easily see other large Asian nations as very strong economic rivals to America which will continue to erode any remaining economic competitiveness. American deficit has ballooned and there could be a possibility of PIIGS style crisis in next ten years especially if another recession hits American economy. I cannot fathom the reason that Despite all economic woes suffered by American public, American military expenditure continues to rise. Economists are always keen to explain that defence spending is least productive part in any economy.

To cite others prominent Americans on this topic, Democratic Congressman Barney Frank called for a significant reduction in the defense budget during February 2009: "The math is compelling: if we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget starting fairly soon, it will be impossible to continue to fund an adequate level of domestic activity even with a repeal of Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy. I am working with a variety of thoughtful analysts to show how we can make very substantial cuts in the military budget without in any way diminishing the security we need...[American] well-being is far more endangered by a proposal for substantial reductions in Medicare, Social Security or other important domestic areas than it would be by canceling weapons systems that have no justification from any threat we are likely to face."

According to Wikipedia.
Quote
Based on the 2010 U.S. budget, total national debt will nearly double in dollar terms between 2008 and 2015 and will grow to nearly 100% of GDP, versus a level of approximately 80% in early 2009. Multiple government sources including the current and previous presidents, the GAO, Treasury Department, and CBO have said the U.S. is on an unsustainable fiscal path. As the debt ratio increases, the exchange value of the dollar may fall. Paying back debt with cheaper currency could cause investors (including other governments) to demand higher interest rates if they anticipated further dollar depreciation. Paying higher interest rates could slow domestic U.S. growth. Further, a high public debt to GDP ratio may also slow economic growth. Economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff calculated that countries with public debt above 90 percent of GDP grow by an average of 1.3 percentage points per year slower than less debt-ridden countries.
End Quote

The public debt-to-GDP ratio in March 2010 is about 60 percent of GDP; CBO projects it will reach 90 percent around 2020 under policies in place in 2010. If growth slows, all of the economic challenges the U.S. faces will worsen.
Americans usually are impervious to incidents of violence and human suffering of innocent people caused by Pentagon and fail to see that in the same light as they see suffering caused by terrorists in their own country and this helps Pentagon bosses fuel emotions of hatred towards other nations and keep American public prepared for wars whenever they deem fit to start one. In this way they keep their grandiose military infrastructure intact. The Iraq war is a perfect example of how Pentagon paved way for a war and how gullible American public bought their concocted argument. I am sure a decreased military spending is good for all of the world including Americans since other countries will be not at a threat of aggresssion from Pentagon bosses as seen in Iraq and Americans will be more affluent and prosperous due to greater economic competence caused by diverting resources from military towards economic revival. And of course, children trained in well funded schools of Wisconsin and taught by financially secure teachers will ensure brighter future of America.

Last edited by Amin on February 20th, 2011, 11:00 pm

When I wrote the above lines, I was in London where American secret services had spent hundreds of millions of dollars in drugging London city. At the same time teachers in Wisconsin had gone on strike asking for a better pay and a more financially secure future. I am very sure that if half of the money American agencies spent on drugging London city, they could have doubled the pay of the teachers asking for a pay rise in Wisconsin for at least a year.

 

[SHAH820]

few thing to remember US economy is in downfall even tho they are super power their budget deficit is about 2.5% loan is about 19 trillion dollars (their economy is about 16 trillion dollars) they need the war to keep their factories running and continue to generate revenue from it
second most of the people in this forum don't know about USA's first world order and operation north wood go check it out then scenario of this world will no longer a mystery

 

[shhh]

few thing to remember US economy is in downfall even tho they are super power their budget deficit is about 2.5% loan is about 19 trillion dollars (their economy is about 16 trillion dollars) they need the war to keep their factories running and continue to generate revenue from it
second most of the people in this forum don't know about USA's first world order and operation north wood go check it out then scenario of this world will no longer a mystery

Explain?

 

[Kamikaze Pilot]

So what should USA do now? Outsource the work of building Afghanistan to Chinese?

@AhsanAmin

 

[Tiger Genie]

Everybody knows that if we didn't have to spend trillions on wars, that money would help us internally a lot. Not exactly an earthshaking discovery.

Ma obviously is a smart guy and needs to be in the good books of Xi Jinping as the latter consolidates his iron grip over China even as they all try to figure out what Trump and gang will do. So this probably Ma hedging. And what better way to do that than state the obvious, which by the way, Trump has himself said a few times!

 

[SHAH820]

Explain?

operation north wood was proposed by CIA that bombs will be planted in major cities and kill their own people then blame it on cuba and named it as terrorist state and attack cuba to stop russian influence and make it puppet state

in new world order (correct it) it was first propose in 1970 that arab countries would conquered by israel and countries russia and half china by europe pakistan india and other south asian state by japan and rest by USA but few arab countries which were named to be destroy first to place the order were iraq ,iran ,syria ,Lebanon,(i dont remember rest 3) now look at those states now look at world right now american forces in syria and afghanistan and japan surronding russia china
american ABM in japan close to china ABM in europe us navy influnce in indian ocean which they have nothing to do with controlling major sea routes if i find real new world order document i would share

and also one thing ISIS commander is an american trained by state department

 

[shhh]

half china by europe pakistan india and other south asian state by japan

You mean half of China would be occupied by Europe.

And Pakistan, India and rest of South Asia will be occupied by Japan (as proposed).

Current situation does not reflect that.

If anything we see USA being a boogeyman and failing at that.

 

[SHAH820]

You mean half of China would be occupied by Europe.

And Pakistan, India and rest of South Asia will be occupied by Japan (as proposed).

Current situation does not reflect that.

If anything we see USA being a boogeyman and failing at that.

well it was supposed to happens this way but it was proposed in 1970 but after saudi-israel war and after nuclear test by pakistan it became very hard to implement it

 

[newb3e]

So what should USA do now? Outsource the work of building Afghanistan to Chinese?

@AhsanAmin

Nope to her new pet dog India!

 

[shhh]

well it was supposed to happens this way but it was proposed in 1970 but after saudi-israel war and after nuclear test by pakistan it became very hard to implement it

Hmmm.

Okay

 

[Tiger Genie]

Nope to her new pet dog India!

you are mixed up. It was Pakistan that was the pet and to to continue your analogy, once it turned rabid on the US, was cast aside - which then got picked up by China. India is too big and in spite of poverty, has tried to make it on its own.

 

[egodoc222]

If they don't invest it in the military and lose the world's super power status....then other countries will force it to pay the trillions of dollars debt....

 

[somebozo]

He said the U.S. has wasted over $14 trillion in fighting wars over the past 30 years rather than investing in infrastructure at home.

US bet on the fact of playing a grand geo-political strategy hoping that it would usher a new era of economic dominance and dollar trade which has been in significant decline since cold war..however, the move back fired..and lead to tectonic shift in global economics reducing US clout and propelling Chinese Reminbi as the new reserve..

 

[艹艹艹]