Hello comrades,I am working on compiling a lot of my notes on the growing crisis between the PRC and the U.S. into an actual essay, but I wanted to share a rough, summarized version of my central thesis with you to give you an understanding as to what's going on in real time.——-As we know, the development of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, through the principles of Marxism-Leninism as applied to the conditions of China and the committed vigilance of the CPC, has given the People’s Republic the ability to claim the position of world economic leader within the next 5 years. Most of the imperial core — and indeed, the world — have relocated their manufacturing bases to the PRC, taking advantage of Comrade Deng’s reforms. Now, China accounts for 30% of the world’s production, a figure that makes up 30% of their whole economy. Compare this to the US, which contributes roughly 16% to the world’s manufacturing, only 10% of that country’s economy. Additionally, China’s share of world GDP has increased from 2.32% in 1980 to around 19% in 2018 and is only growing rapidly.These numbers, coupled with China’s major advancements in poverty alleviation, technology, medicine, and military, spell a near-certain disaster for the imperial core. China has also begun to assist Africa in developing its productive forces in mutually-beneficial agreements, as well as cancelling debts to many countries. Tricked into parting with their manufacturing bases on the cheap and gaining large consumer groups in China, the West is now scrambling to “extricate” themselves from the PRC’s hold.Originally, the West assumed the CPC could be trained, “broken-in” like some ordinary housepet. Since Comrade Deng’s reforms, the goal of U.S. policy has been to subvert the will of the CPC in China through economic and propagandistic means. They have failed summarily; the popularity of the CPC within China is now close to 90%. With the extent of their failures now on full display thanks to COVID-19, the imperial core has begun to realize that neither Xi Jinping nor his predecessors were screwing around. They have not ceded an inch to their enemies. Now, with China’s growing support amongst the Third World, they are stuck with a major problem.THE PROBLEMTHE QUESTION OF THE MANUFACTURING BASE.In a recent article in the distasteful rag Newsweek, the author discusses some of the potential moves the U.S. could make to offset China's gains and reverse its sinking position [1]. In order to combat China, the author argues, countries would have to pull their manufacturing facilities out of China to "punish" the CPC and dump the Chinese consumer market. The author figures these maneuvers would be "very difficult". I would argue that they are simply an impossibility. Let's take a look why.What if they brought jobs back to the US?Many huge American companies, such as Caterpillar, are married to the Chinese economy. They have invested too much money and too much time into building their manufacturing facilities overseas. To dismantle them and attempt to move them back to the homeland would probably be an expenditure and undertaking too great for them to do without becoming insolvent or without great aid from the American government. With the dollar weakening on the global stage and the American economy in shambles thanks to the pandemic, this move is unthinkable for some.Some companies, however, will be able to do this without destroying themselves. What happens when they relocate the manufacturing lines to the US? The question of wages.Moving production back home would require more jobs. In 2018, according to Statista.com, the average job in the Chinese Manufacturing Sector made around 72,088 yuan, or $10,154 USD [2]. In May of 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average job in U.S. production made $33,830 USD [3]. The issue here should be plain as day. The average American production worker will not take a roughly 70% reduction in pay. American companies would have to take on unions, bypass labor laws, and deal with otherwise insurmountable obstacles to accomplish this. With a surfeit of work now required to keep up with demand, employers would have to pay at, or at least equal to, the lowest average salary. If this somewhere around minimum wage, however, production employers would have to compete with other minimum wage jobs to attract employees, many of whom would rather flip burgers than stand on a factory line.If the companies are forced to pay decent wages to production employees, their costs to operate would skyrocket. If they were to cut labor costs to minimum wage, they would face incredible backlash from unions and the public. Faced with soaring labor costs, no Chinese markets, and the additional costs to reengineer their manufacturing facilities, most companies would implode.What if they looked elsewhere?Alternatively, America could choose to attempt to exploit other global manufacturing centers in order to avoid the problem of wages.This, of course, would present major challenges. In India, for example, where Apple wants to move 20% of its production, there is a 42% tax imposed on foreign companies generating revenue from operations based in India, according to India Times. Though India has begun to offer tax easing under Modi for companies who move manufacturing to the country, there are still other issues.With any country, the expenditures created by having to rebuild their productive forces overseas would devastate their cash reserves and force them to take on ridiculous debts, even for large companies.It is my opinion that the challenges faced by the U.S. in winning the New Cold War would be impossible without either A. the complete destruction of the economy or B. the preservation of capitalism via fascism.I will elaborate on this further in my complete essay.https://ift.tt/3dVNlse via /r/communism https://ift.tt/2LJ6xxj
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