Wrong. Money is not wealth. Goods and services are wealth. Money is the medium of exchange. If money were wealth we could just print up as much as we want and everyone could be rich, but it doesn't work that way. That would only make the goods and services more expensive.
When we send money to China to buy goods it's because we are getting them cheaper than any other source. Getting them cheaper makes us richer. People talk about trade as if the actual goods were static things and there's no economic benefit to us from buying them from China. But there is. Making Chinese goods more expensive makes US poorer.
Making China trade their currency on open markets should be a requirement for any access to world markets for them. Otherwise their behavior is predatory.
If you think it is smart for us to fully fund China’s military through your desire for low priced items at Wal Mart, then you do not know much about China.
” Goods and services are wealth.”
Flat screen TV’s are not wealth.
Factories that make them are, (means of production), and we’ve lost almost all of them to China and Mexico.
IIRC, ‘wealth’ is more properly measured with utility. That is, what we DO with the money and the goods. Or more accurately, what CAN be done.
If you were talking about simply the free exchange of goods, that’s one thing, but add in jobs and that’s another thing entirely.