Oh... where should I begin?? So much to talk about, so little time.
First of, this story is similar to the baloney that was being fed us about 8 - 10 years ago that the american worker will soon be making nanobots and super computers to make up for the high paying jobs that have been lost to china and india. Sure, that put us in nice happy-place with rainbows and unicorns, but that was simply not the reality.
These kinds of stories try assuage any concerns that people have about their future being washed away.
Before I am accused of "protectionist" thinking, because that is what happens when you contradict these misleading stories, if we truly had "free trade" with countries like china and india, we would be in a more level playing field than what we have now.
What we have now is that they get all the benefits of the american market, american technology, american industry, while the average american gets nothing. They have not opened up their markets to us or done much to help this country. I would like someone to quantify what Americans have gained from this "free trade"? No fantasy stories, wishful thinking, or propaganda, but hard numbers on how the average middle class and lower americans have benefited from China. How many jobs have been created? How many people have their standard of living raised?
Free trade is not a one way street. Free trade is meaningless if the rules are unfair, corrupt, and one sided. Free trade has been used as a cover for all kinds of funny business.
Now moving on this particular story, the biggest strengths that China has are its human resources. Now thanks to us, they have technology and capital. If they don't have enough qualified doctors, they will quickly ramp up and get up to speed. To suggest that American doctors will be busy treating chinese patients over the internet, based on a couple of incidents is a bit wishful.
Good post! I agree there is no “FAIR” trade. How can there be fair trade when US is running hundreds of Billions in trade deficits every year? Our country is being sold down the river and most do not even realize it.
But.......if we force a “balanced” trade with China and others, our standard of living will take dive, because we have “unions”. Consumers in US are able to bypass union wages by buying cheap foreign goods. Therefore before we can have a fair trade, we must have free markets without artificial wage fixings demanded by unions.