You are making the point that Cubans, Chinese, and North Koreans have poor standards of living. That's true. I admit it. Hey, in my last post I described a Chinese guy with a low standard of living.
But that's not the point of this discussion, and you know it.
If you and I live on the same street, and if we do business together, we would have a level playing field. If we mutually agree on an exchange of goods and services, then we can both come out ahead.
If we live under different economic and political rules, then the playing field is not level. Manufacturing moves to China because the rules in China allow very cheap manufacturing. The rules in America make manufacturing very costly. Labor laws, environmental laws, tax laws, etc. We cannot compete and so some jobs that were in America go to other countries.
The end result may be that we can buy really cheap stuff from China. But where are we getting the money? Well, we have a $15T deficit because we've been living a standard of living that is not something we can pay for. We have an enormous debt because we think we're rich and we are not. We manufacture money out of nothing, creating a US deficit SO THAT we can continue to send money overseas and buy things. The trade deficit exists because we have magic money from nowhere. That's how we pay for stuff.
This is not making us rich.
How is that possible? They aren't sending their wealth to another country.
Well, we have a $15T deficit because we've been living a standard of living that is not something we can pay for.
Yeah, the government spends way too much. What does that have to do with my purchase of foreign coffee?
We manufacture money out of nothing, creating a US deficit
Huh? Now my foreign coffee causes Federal Reserve monetary policy?
This is not making us rich.
My original claim said nothing about making us rich, it was simply the observation that being able to buy from anywhere in the world improves our standard of living.
None of your posts since than have disproved that.