TaiShang
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2014
- Messages
- 27,848
- Reaction score
- 70
- Country
- Location
Four Trillion Dollars -- A Tale of Two Countries
Dennis Etler
Four trillion dollars, $4,000,000,000,000. A lot of money by anyone's standard. But how do countries accumulate such a vast amount of money and what do they do with it? Well, four trillion dollars is the amount that China has accumulated in foreign exchange (forex) reserves and it's about the amount that the US has spent on wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and the rest of the world since 9/11.
So how did China accumulate such vast wealth? By sheer dint of hard labour and wise shepherding of its available human resources. In so doing it became the factory to the world and primary driver of the global economy in less than two decades. What has China done with the wealth it has accumulated? Domestically It has spent it on vast investments in physical infrastructure, i.e industrial capacity, transportation and communications and is now directing investment into social infrastructure, i.e. expansion of the social safety net, research and development of new technologies and basic science, including clean energy and environmental restoration. In terms of China's outreach to the rest of the world China has projected its wealth across the globe investing in the same sort of constructive activities in Asia, Africa and Latin America to the tune of 100s of billions of dollars. Yet with all that accomplished China still has a vast storehouse of wealth which it is now committing to a number of initiatives to raise emerging countries from low to middle income nations vastly expanding future markets for goods and services that China and other countries will be able to supply in a new global trading network that harkens back to the peaceable trade and commercial networks that dominated the non-Western world for a thousand years from the 700s to the 1700s.
But what of the United States of America, that exceptional and indispensable nation. That City on a Hill emblematic of truth, justice and the American way, the home of the free and the land of the brave, the purveyor of human rights, making the world safe for democracy? How has it accumulated its wealth and subsequently spent it? Well, the US really doesn't need forex reserves, which are a piddling 123 billion dollars, which is 3% of China's, because the US dollar, being the world's primary reserve currency, is what other countries trade in. So all the US has to do is print the money and then sell it via issuing bonds to the tune of 16 trillion dollars. The US therefore has 4 times the debt than China has assets in US dollars! And how has the US spent most of that trillions of dollars of debt? Nearly half of it, $7.6 trillion has been spent on the military and homeland security since 9/11. Has any of it been spent on investing in the US' failing infrastructure? No, its infrastructure is collapsing. Has any of it been spent on expanding and improving its social safety net? No, the safety net has been shredded. Has any of it been spent on improving education and making it more affordable. No. K-12 education is vastly underfunded and college costs are escalating. Has it been spent on clean, environmentally safe alternative energy? No. No. No. No. What has it been spent on? Wars, regime change, the support of genocidal neo-Nazis and jihardist regimes in Israel, Saudi Arabia (IS) and elsewhere resulting in the the destruction of one nation after another overseas. Domestically the money has been spent on the war on drugs and poor and marginalized people, resulting in the prison industrial complex, mass incarceration of people of color, the militarization of the police, and the massive NSA surveillance security state.
Tell me which country China or the USA is worthy of praise and emulation? And which is worthy of scorn and condemnation?
Dennis Etler
Four trillion dollars, $4,000,000,000,000. A lot of money by anyone's standard. But how do countries accumulate such a vast amount of money and what do they do with it? Well, four trillion dollars is the amount that China has accumulated in foreign exchange (forex) reserves and it's about the amount that the US has spent on wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and the rest of the world since 9/11.
So how did China accumulate such vast wealth? By sheer dint of hard labour and wise shepherding of its available human resources. In so doing it became the factory to the world and primary driver of the global economy in less than two decades. What has China done with the wealth it has accumulated? Domestically It has spent it on vast investments in physical infrastructure, i.e industrial capacity, transportation and communications and is now directing investment into social infrastructure, i.e. expansion of the social safety net, research and development of new technologies and basic science, including clean energy and environmental restoration. In terms of China's outreach to the rest of the world China has projected its wealth across the globe investing in the same sort of constructive activities in Asia, Africa and Latin America to the tune of 100s of billions of dollars. Yet with all that accomplished China still has a vast storehouse of wealth which it is now committing to a number of initiatives to raise emerging countries from low to middle income nations vastly expanding future markets for goods and services that China and other countries will be able to supply in a new global trading network that harkens back to the peaceable trade and commercial networks that dominated the non-Western world for a thousand years from the 700s to the 1700s.
But what of the United States of America, that exceptional and indispensable nation. That City on a Hill emblematic of truth, justice and the American way, the home of the free and the land of the brave, the purveyor of human rights, making the world safe for democracy? How has it accumulated its wealth and subsequently spent it? Well, the US really doesn't need forex reserves, which are a piddling 123 billion dollars, which is 3% of China's, because the US dollar, being the world's primary reserve currency, is what other countries trade in. So all the US has to do is print the money and then sell it via issuing bonds to the tune of 16 trillion dollars. The US therefore has 4 times the debt than China has assets in US dollars! And how has the US spent most of that trillions of dollars of debt? Nearly half of it, $7.6 trillion has been spent on the military and homeland security since 9/11. Has any of it been spent on investing in the US' failing infrastructure? No, its infrastructure is collapsing. Has any of it been spent on expanding and improving its social safety net? No, the safety net has been shredded. Has any of it been spent on improving education and making it more affordable. No. K-12 education is vastly underfunded and college costs are escalating. Has it been spent on clean, environmentally safe alternative energy? No. No. No. No. What has it been spent on? Wars, regime change, the support of genocidal neo-Nazis and jihardist regimes in Israel, Saudi Arabia (IS) and elsewhere resulting in the the destruction of one nation after another overseas. Domestically the money has been spent on the war on drugs and poor and marginalized people, resulting in the prison industrial complex, mass incarceration of people of color, the militarization of the police, and the massive NSA surveillance security state.
Tell me which country China or the USA is worthy of praise and emulation? And which is worthy of scorn and condemnation?
