a sort of parasitical system where Asian countries essentially dump money into the US so that americans can continue to buy Asian commodoties.
It makes no sense long term for one group of people to work their asses off so that another group can live in style.
Unless I'm missing something, that is what is happening right now, not because it is mutually beneficial but rather because it is the easy thing to do, and does not involve a serious upending of the current world power structure. It makes sense only in so far as it makes sense that Americans should be able to have a standard of living ten times that of the average Chinese, or that the 4% of the world population living in the US should consume 50% of the world's oil supply.
China is giving the US what they want (money to shop tillthey drop) and the US is giving the Chinese what they want (a market for their products and transfer of industrial know-how).
The island example wrongly makes it sound like China is getting nothing out of this. The US economy is being hollowed out and the Chinese economy is booming. Maybe China is the parasite, and when they kill their host they will become an independent organism. guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
China does get industrial development, but a lot of it is export-oriented and (at least partly) foreign owned, and not so much of the value remains in China. It is beneficial, but it is artificial growth, and it is not clear if it will be sustainable without US demand.
The US get to live above their means, which is possible thanks to the status of the dollar as reserve currency - the trouble is that they have abused that privilege and are threatening to break the whole system.
As that Economist article we've discussed and which I have promised to review says, China is bringing an oversupply of labor into the world economy, putting downwards pressure on the price of labor, and giving a premium to the relatively rarer capital. But the USA are also flooding the market with money, making capital cheap - thus downwards pressure everywhere on the price of labor, and inflated asset prices.
Deflation form China and inflation from the USA. So long as they more or less balance, we're fine (doing very well if we own assets, not so well if one has a wage-paying job). As soon as the two bubbles diverge, we're all fucked. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The multinationals are squeezing the Chinese for labour and the Americans for cash
And I would add - they are mocking the Europeans mercilessly for not giving them any easy fat to burn. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
