[Aquinasfan]

They get the money, but we get all the stuff.

Milton Friedman opened my eyes on that one. Either they spend the money, in which case it returns to us, or they burn it, and we keep the stuff.

[elhombrelibre]

Ssh, don't tell Pat that. He thinks our money will never come back.

[Paul Ross]

Milton Friedman opened my eyes on that one. Either they spend the money, in which case it returns to us, or they burn it, and we keep the stuff.Ah, but the are getting stuff...without spending it. Instead they will just take our industry and technology. Which our companies are stampeding to get over there...and build the plants on our dime. Someone needs to open Milton's yes on this. So they aren't just "burning" it. By not buying our stuff..or just buying paper debt from our government...they hasten the demise of our industry. By strangulation and crowding out.

And if you noticed...they are very, very good at not buying our stuff. They now have $800 billion in currency reserves stockpiled...almost all dollars.

[Jack Black]

They are spending the money. On factories, machines, infrastructure, oil, other commodities and new buildings. Most of which are NOT in the USA.

How are we all going to be rich if we don't have high paying jobs? What high paying jobs will we have if everything of value is made elsewhere.

All the people saying "Pat is an idiot" are dodging the question completely. OK, we heard you!!! You don't like Pat! Great. He's not my top choice for a golf partner.

But I don't see real answers to the questions he poses. NAFTA was not passed with Al Gore aruguing "by passing this the Mexican economy will collapse, the south western USA will be overrun by illegals, and millions of high paying jobs will leave America never to return".

Did he? NO!

[looscnnn]

China does spend the money, but it is spent in other countries (not in the US). They spend it on subs, planes, missles, etc. from Russia so that they can reverse engineer it, tweak it and then sell it to other countries.

They used some of the money to buy a couple of unmanned helicopters with GPS from Yamaha (who is now in deep wasabi with the Japanese government), which they have used to create their own unmanned helicopters "to fight terrorism" that just happen to look a lot like the Yamaha ones.

They are also using the money to buy oil, the Panama canal, etc. Don't assume that just because they spend the money that they spend it on American products.

[jeremiah]

If the money we send them for goods, comes back to us, why is there a deficit, instead of an even trade? Of course the money has to go somewhere, but where?

[jb6]

And all we've had to do is also give them our factories (now in China), our R&D centers (now in India and Russia) and most of our patents. Wow, what a great trade for expensive but crappy made junk.