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Jack Ma Accuses The US Of Spending $14 Trillion On War Instead Of Its People
zero hedge ^ | Jan 22, 2017 8:18 PM | Tyler Durden

Posted on 01/23/2017 1:26:44 AM PST by vannrox

In a CNBC clip, which slipped between the cracks last week,  Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who has been busy trying to get into Donald Trump's "circle of trust", spoke in Davos and blamed the problems of the United States on the United States itself, as a country which has spent trillions of dollars to wage war, instead of investing in infrastructure and its own people.

Asked by Andrew Ross Sorkin about Trump's decision to impose new tariffs on Chinese imports to protect domestic American manufacturers, Ma said 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."

According to Ma, the US wasted over $14 trillion in fighting wars over the past 30 years rather than investing in infrastructure at home. Ma named this as the main reason that the US economy is weakening.

Ma was not the only critic of the costly U.S. policies of waging war against terrorism and other enemies outside the homeland, however, the Alibaba founder 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?"

One answer: a couple of offshore bank accounts, or - now that Rothschild is managing Nevada tax havens - onshore.

He added that 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. Ma added that 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.

 At least in theory, much of this forms the basis of Trump's policies. 

"You're supposed to spend money on your own people," Ma said. "Not everybody can pass Harvard, like me." In a previous interview, CNBC said that 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."



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: china; economy; ma; trump
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To: vannrox

Top ten exports from the United States in 2015:

Machines, engines, pumps: US$205.8 billion (13.7% of total exports)
Electronic equipment: $169.8 billion (11.3%)
Aircraft, spacecraft: $131.1 billion (8.7%)
Vehicles: $127.1 billion (8.4%)
Oil: $106.1 billion (7.1%)
Medical, technical equipment: $83.4 billion (5.5%)
Plastics: $60.3 billion (4%)
Gems, precious metals, coins: $58.7 billion (3.9%)
Pharmaceuticals: $47.3 billion (3.1%)
Organic chemicals: $38.8 billion (2.6%)


21 posted on 01/23/2017 4:41:33 AM PST by SoCal Pubbie
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To: SoCal Pubbie

These are total exports to all countries by the way.


22 posted on 01/23/2017 4:42:34 AM PST by SoCal Pubbie
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To: vannrox

Additional note. The United States is the second leading export nation on Earth, behind only China. It’s exports in 2015 were estimated to be valued at $1,510,000,000,000.


23 posted on 01/23/2017 4:48:56 AM PST by SoCal Pubbie
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To: cba123
But China doesn’t import.

This is the "trade" part that is missing in "free trade." And without trade it is not "free trade." It's using your cheap labor to rot out the economies of those who believe they are practicing "free trade" when they are not.

24 posted on 01/23/2017 4:50:07 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: vannrox
Jack Ma Accuses The US Of Spending $14 Trillion On War Instead Of Its People

We have. Since Johnson ramped up our effort to prop up French colonialism against Vietnamese nationalists, who were communists as well. We have to stop getting ourselves on the losing side of geopolitical certainties.

25 posted on 01/23/2017 4:52:37 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: Timpanagos1

We spent at least that much in just the past decade. Remember there’s not only the formal defense budget but also additional war appropriations as well as warmaking activities in departments outside of DoD to account for.

So figure 50k per capita in basically in a decade; a decade in which the per capita income is not much more than half that number. In other words, the average American spent 20% of his productive efforts over the past decade to do absolutely nothing other than pay for war - we’re not even including food and clothing and housing before the war spend here.


26 posted on 01/23/2017 5:12:24 AM PST by thoughtomator (Purple: the color of sedition)
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To: cba123
Things have changed a bit since you were last there, if you're talking about the early days pf the country's opening (under Deng I assume). I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who's sold and exported medical goods to China. If you have a product they want and that they cannot economically copy ... yet ... with a trademark they can't easily forge they will import it. The PRC is Mercedes Benz's number one export market.

An even greater obstacle to entry than their tariffs or other barriers is the controlled exchange rate for the Yuan and the still extremely low wage rates that put foreign goods far out of the reach of all but a tiny minority of consumers. In terms of de jure import barriers India is far more closed and difficult but they aren't a Communist state and growing military threat to their neighbors and us, nor the manufacturing behemoth that China's become. So unless you're trying to sell something there few notice or care.

27 posted on 01/23/2017 5:17:05 AM PST by katana
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To: cba123

America’s biggest export product to the chinese (and other countries) is US Treasury notes & bonds.


28 posted on 01/23/2017 7:07:59 AM PST by thinden
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To: vannrox

You can buy DDT on Alibaba, all you need is a mailing address in a free country...


29 posted on 01/23/2017 8:33:06 AM PST by ganeemead
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To: vannrox

Excuse me, Jack Ma, but you are not helping your people, you are trying to get more people under your thumb. Is building Island’s helping the Chinese citizens? Are those islands going to house a Club Med? I highly doubt it.


30 posted on 01/23/2017 12:38:40 PM PST by Deplorable American1776 (Proud to be a DeplorableAmerican with a Deplorable Family...even the dog is DEPLORABLE :-))
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To: 9YearLurker

China exports to the USA represent less than 20% of their total exports. Please do not put words in my mouth that I did not say. China is a global manufacturer. It is the height of ignorance to assume that the vast bulk of Chinese exports targets America.

So while , to Americans, it might appear that China has overwhelmed American manufacturing capability. That is simply an illusion. The greatest percentage of exports out of China goes to Japan and Germany.

All those “high quality” Lecia (German) cameras, and high-end Hitachi (Japanese) electronics are all made in China, and have doing so for over ten years.

America needs a government that will look after the needs of its’ people. Global trade is good, but only if both parties benefit. Otherwise it is a zero sum game, and one nations wins while the other suffers losses.


31 posted on 01/23/2017 3:49:07 PM PST by vannrox (The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
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To: vannrox

But that wasn’t the issue.

Here are your words:

“Not too many things get exported out the USA, except for planes and food it seems. Why is this so...?”

I just don’t get that.


32 posted on 01/23/2017 3:52:47 PM PST by 9YearLurker
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