Are we slowly becoming Great Britain? Options

[impala454]

Our debt to China is in the form of cash, they sell us goods, we owe them money. We don't sell debt to China (from what I've found)... I'd like to know where you got your info.

we import $200 billion in goods from china/year, china imports $50 billion in goods from us/year. I don't see why that's such a terrible issue. it's not going to be an even 50/50 with anyone. we're the United States for Christ's sake, we buy buy buy buy buy consume consume like nobody else.

[Hartmann]

we import $200 billion in goods from china/year, china imports $50 billion in goods from us/year. I don't see why that's such a terrible issue. it's not going to be an even 50/50 with anyone. we're the United States for Christ's sake, we buy buy buy buy buy consume consume like nobody else.

That leaves us with $150 billion trade deficit. Yes we buy, buy, buy but don't you see this to be a problem? I know the reason for choosing China as a supplier is cost but it seems as though we're headed down a bad path.

I'd like to know what the $50 billion exports are actually. I wonder if it's food.

[Hartmann]

we import $200 billion in goods from china/year, china imports $50 billion in goods from us/year. I don't see why that's such a terrible issue. it's not going to be an even 50/50 with anyone. we're the United States for Christ's sake, we buy buy buy buy buy consume consume like nobody else.

That leaves us with $150 billion trade deficit. Yes we buy, buy, buy but don't you see this to be a problem? I know the reason for choosing China as a supplier is cost but it seems as though we're headed down a bad path.

I'd like to know what the $50 billion exports are actually. I wonder if it's food.

[Hartmann]

we import $200 billion in goods from china/year, china imports $50 billion in goods from us/year. I don't see why that's such a terrible issue. it's not going to be an even 50/50 with anyone. we're the United States for Christ's sake, we buy buy buy buy buy consume consume like nobody else.

That leaves us with $150 billion trade deficit. Yes we buy, buy, buy but don't you see this to be a problem? I know the reason for choosing China as a supplier is cost but it seems as though we're headed down a bad path.

I'd like to know what the $50 billion exports are actually. I wonder if it's food.

[impala454]

no I don't see a problem with it. yes we are pretty much the biggest consumer country on the planet, but we also have the highest GDP by far. when you make the most you can spend the most.

don't quote me on this but I think a lot of the exports are stuff like steel

from wiki: (our total exports)

agricultural products (soybeans, fruit, corn) 9.2%
industrial supplies (organic chemicals) 26.8%
capital goods (transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, telecommunications equipment) 49.0%
consumer goods (automobiles, medicines) 15.0%

[James]

Here's what we export as of March 2005:

According to Commerce Department numbers, much of what the United States exports to China are machines and machine parts, especially computer components and integrated circuits. Chinese companies assemble the parts into computers, televisions, telephones, toys and other office machines and consumer electronics and ship those back to the United States as well as to third countries.

The United States also sells China land-intensive crops such as soybeans, capital-intensive technology such as commercial aircraft and materials such as scrap metal, the department says.

http://usinfo.state.gov/eap/Archive/2005/Mar/03-517799.html

[James]

After a little more reading, it seems that steel exports may not be as high as they were in the past due to Chinese subsidies on their own steel producers.