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Comment by qaq | Hacker News Reader

In particular case of China given the trade imbalance and the currency peg doesn't really look like US has a net gain from current setup. US position in most categories in China is very modest.

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Because China wants a piece of this amazing pie the US has cooked up. The US gave up the hard-to-automate, labor intensive industries while keeping a lot of the high-margin, highly-automated industries. So while Chinese companies compete for razor thin margins on smart phone components, American companies sell flavored sugar water all over the world for 500% markup (and gobble up any competition).

That's why the TPP is so important, it specifically excludes China because the goal is to further entrench US companies in SE Asia/Oceania. If the US backs out, then that gives China the opportunity to come in and sell the low-cost smart phones AND overpriced sugar water.

We are competing with China for trade partners and it seems backwards to me to forfeit.

US companies may sell the overpriced sugar water, but are the proceeds really flowing back to the US? Coca-Cola has done the whole tax haven and transfer pricing game for many years now.

Even if there were no corporate taxes, the US would benefit from companies basing their business here.

> but are the proceeds really flowing back to the US?

What do you think they are doing with that money in tax havens? They buy US bonds and invest that money in our markets.

What are you smoking? Of course we have a favorable trade with China, we give them paper dollars and get back real goods in exchange.

Yet somehow they have built up more infrastructure in a year then we did in decades while running a huge trade surplus. We get back disposable crap that does not create any lasting assets.

We already have infrastructure, China had next to none and still doesn't really. A lot easier to grow when you're starting from zero.

The Beijing subway system is already better than NY's: more lines, better quality, clean, safe...

That's just one example but I was impressed when I saw it. And they have been adding 1 new LINE per year in Beijing, wheras we don't even add 1 new station per year in most US cities.

Not exactly related, but being in Tokyo, I now see that Toronto's subway system is a joke. I think it hasn't really been updated since I was born. There's like, three lines in total.

They have 12,000 mi of high speed rail system, (more than the rest of the world combined) we have 0.

> "China ... still doesn't really"

Have you been to China recently?

> Yet somehow they have built up more infrastructure in a year then we did in decades

We spend most on military, social security and medicare. China doesn't.

I think our spending on social security and medicare is certainly a problem. Don't know much about military spending though.

US Government spending:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Rv5UHrNsvcucvflDwwz_pqEjjH...

Having dominant military is a key component is having USD as world's dominant currency which in turn drives about 30-40% of our GDP, so even aside from security aspect it's a very good investment.

It doesn't matter who eats the apples. It matter who owns the orchard.

The US is eating the apples but China owns the orchard.

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