Monday, August 22, 2011

Two way street...kind-of

Here is a state-by-state break down on how much each state exports to China according to the US-China Business Council:
https://www.uschina.org/public/exports/2000_2010/

The second link covers how much the US imports from China.  Table 8 clearly shows we are number 1 among top export destinations.

https://www.uschina.org/statistics/tradetable.html


So to get a little political here (and putting all other moral issues aside), is all this importing from China hurting or helping our economy?  The math looks easy to me, hopefully some one can explain why importing so much from China is good for the US economy in the long run.

I notice Canada or Mexico is not on the list...I wonder if we just pass along merchandise to them under NAFTA? Or they simply do not have as much materials and merchandise from China.  Can someone make a run to Canada or Mexico this weekend and do some research for me?

2 comments:

  1. The answer to the question 'Is it hurting or helping our economy' doesn't really have one answer.

    economy 101:
    It helps us because we can get products from China much cheaper then could be produced in the USA and because of that we spend more.

    That of course means we lose jobs in America because we can't compete price-wise, which hurts the economy.

    We could produce cheaper products if people would accept lower pay and benefits.

    But then they couldn't afford to buy products.

    This is something that could be discussed until the sun dies out!

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  2. At least on the American end...Yes I agree that this discussion will never end. It sounds like a tie breaker win in some categories but lose in others but shouldn't we consider on how workers are being treated when buying a product?
    Can a person really enjoy a product if they know that the product was made with many civil rights laws violated? Not only American laws but foreign as well.
    And I did not even bring the Faith-Based reasons into this...yet.

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