US Economy - The Jobs Agenda: Step One Is China - by Scott Paul

US policies have led to a massive trade deficit, turbocharged outsourcing, and a dangerous codependency with China: we provide the rich consumers; China provides the cheap goods made possible by state control and massive subsidies, along with the financing.

Here's the cost:

• 2.4 million jobs lost to China, not only from the Industrial Heartland, but also from the hi-tech corridors of California, New England, and Texas.
  


• A reduction in industrial capacity: even during the Great Depression, the U.S. managed a slight increase in industrial production. Not this time.
  


• A rich and sad irony: many American consumers--concerned about quality and pride--unable to find American products on the shelves of stores.
  


• A quandary for America in the developing world noted by Harold Meyerson: instead of emulating the sometimes dysfunctional democracy of the U.S., more developing nations like what they see in China's mix of mercantilism and authoritarianism.

For more: Scott Paul: The Jobs Agenda: Step One Is China