“We sell them soy beans and they sell us manufactured *goods*.”
Somehow that just doesn’t sound right “goods”. More like “bads”, or better still, “crap”.
In the days of colonialism the colonies would provide raw materials to their colonial masters who would then manufacture goods to sell back to them. We are now providing the raw materials and investments to enable China to become the economic engine of the world.
I have visited China and seen some of their factories, many of them funded by the West. They have the latest technology and trained workers who work for far less than Americans. It is hard to compete.
Yup, they sell us toys and crap with hazardous materials in it.
If they were “bads”, then people wouldn’t buy them, but even in a free market inferior goods can be sold if the consumer wants them.