The Globalized Age

The recent debacles about American trade relations with China have made me kind of laugh at the real hypocrisy that the whole issue presents. After some isolated incidents regarding toys, pet food, toothpaste etc, there are now even some who are calling for the cessation of trade with China. My favorite critic of Sino-American relations by far is Lou Dobbs on CNN. He refuses to refer to China by just calling it "China." Instead, he makes a point to express that "Communist China" is poisoning average hard working Americans. The communist reference is obviously some ploy to try and engender feelings of resentment to China in America, one of the most capitalistic countries in the world. It seems some people would just love to turn this into Cold War II.
I do not wish to ameliorate the fact that companies in China did ship the U.S. some very tainted goods. However, I wonder if we can ever really expect anything more than the occasional tainted batch of toys. Isn't it the first rule of economics (and common sense) that you get what you pay for? There is no such thing as a free lunch. Let me recap a little bit of modern history here for a moment. During the mid 1970's China began to open up to foreign economic investment. By the 1990s, it was obvious that American companies had found a cheap manufcaturing home in parts of China. Today, there are thousands of sweatshops throughout China, most built by foreign capital, that pay workers ridiculously low wages and force them to work 12-14 hour days, 7 days a week. Is anyone really surprised that a person making a dollar a day and working 80-100 hours a week isnt the best quality control expert out there? American companies constantly pressure their manufacturing base in China to produce cheaper goods in order to be able to sell their product at a less expensive price on a Walmart shelf. Does this alleviate all blame from Chinese corporations and the Chinese government? No, of course not. But before everyone goes around pointing fingers and accusing "Communist China of trying to poison our kids," lets at least take a look at one of the main reasons we find ourselves in this predicament today. I'll give you one hint. "They hate us for our freedom."

-Kyle