Our government was probably bought by foreign powers and the goal seems to be totalitarian rule with spouts of total anarchy.
Originally Posted by Strokey_McDingDong
You got to hand it to the ChiComs, they got a bargain basement deal from the Democrats... a world Super power for a pittance. Al; they had to do was buy off the politicians, some Universities and the entertainment conglomerates just by letting them sell shit to their citizens.
Cheapest (and most bloodless) nation conquering in the history of mankind.
Originally Posted by texassapper
Gentlemen, Please consider the bigger picture, in the context of this thread. Foreigners are buying America. Period. They're buying our government debt, private debt, corporations, infrastructure and real estate. As you suggest, we can pass legislation to protect American intellectual property. And to try to prevent foreigners from buying off U.S. politicians. Still, as long as massive government spending continues, foreigners will continue to buy up America.
Why? How are they able to do this? Because we consume more than we produce. We import more than we export. So they end up with excess dollars, and they use those to buy our stuff. This has kicked into overdrive since COVID started. Our trade deficit, and a broader measure, our current account deficit, have almost doubled since the start COVID. In fact the trade and current account deficits are currently the highest they've ever been, in terms of dollars (but not as % of GDP).
Why has there been a massive increase in our trade deficit since COVID started? I'd argue a large part of it is because of the massive amounts of money the government is spending. Here's an economic identity. Apologies to the economists, LustyLad and CaptainMidnight, if I get it wrong.
GDP - National Consumption - Government Spending - Investment = Trade Surplus
So think about what effect this spending is having on the variables. Government spending is way up, obviously. Now we're talking about investing $1 trillion on infrastructure. So investment will go up. And the government's been throwing around all kinds of free money, like COVID checks, that people spend on consumption. All the "minuses" on the left side of the equation are going up. So we're running bigger trade deficits. The foreigners are ending up with more of our dollars than we're ending up with Yen, Euros and Renminbi. And they use these dollars to buy our assets and debt.