美国马克思经济学家:中国是美国大资本的替罪羊
Summary
TLDRThis transcript discusses the impact of neoliberalism and globalization on the American working class. It highlights how policies from the 1970s to 2015 benefited Western corporations but devastated American manufacturing, leading to economic decline in cities like Detroit. The discussion explores how both major political parties use immigrants and China as scapegoats to divert blame from the true causes of economic hardship. The piece concludes by pondering the future of global power dynamics, questioning whether China will pursue a multipolar world or follow the path of previous empires.
Takeaways
- 🇺🇸 The key issue in the United States is whether a political force will emerge to explain the working class's problems or if it will continue being governed by parties that scapegoat immigrants and China.
- 📈 Neoliberalism, roughly from the 1970s to 2015, was a policy of global free trade and minimal government intervention, benefiting Western corporations but harming the working class.
- 💼 Western corporations moved to countries like China, India, and Brazil for lower wages and growing markets, leading to increased profits but causing economic decline in the U.S.
- 🏭 The decline of American manufacturing led to the collapse of cities like Detroit, where the population dropped from 2 million in 1970 to 700,000 today.
- 🤔 Neoliberalism was profitable for the top 10% of Americans, who own 80% of the stock market, but detrimental to the majority, causing job losses and economic trauma.
- 🏢 Corporations and political leaders in the U.S. use immigrants and China as scapegoats to divert blame from neoliberalism's failures and to avoid being held responsible.
- 🌎 Despite public nationalist rhetoric, the corporate sector remains invested in neoliberalism and globalization due to significant investments in countries like China.
- 💰 The American working class faces challenges like high inflation, unaffordable higher education, and limited job opportunities, leading to a turn away from neoliberalism.
- 🇨🇳 China is often blamed for economic issues in the U.S., with politicians using anti-China rhetoric to gain support, despite the reality of corporate decisions to move production there.
- 🛠️ The political future of the U.S. hinges on whether it can develop a force to address the true causes of economic decline or continue blaming external entities like immigrants and China.
Q & A
What is the primary issue discussed in the transcript regarding American politics?
-The primary issue is whether a political force will emerge that can effectively explain the problems of the American working class, or if the U.S. will continue to be governed by parties that use immigrants and China as scapegoats.
What is neoliberalism, and what time period does it refer to in the transcript?
-Neoliberalism, referred to in the transcript as globalization, is a policy of global free trade, minimal government intervention in the economy, and support for corporations relocating their business internationally. It roughly spans from the 1970s to around 2015.
Why did Western corporations support neoliberalism according to the transcript?
-Western corporations supported neoliberalism because it allowed them to take advantage of lower wages and growing markets in countries like China, India, and Brazil, leading to huge profits.
What impact did neoliberalism have on the American working class?
-Neoliberalism led to the disappearance of millions of manufacturing jobs, economic collapse in entire states, decline of unions, and a shift to low-wage service economies, causing significant hardship for the American working class.
How did Detroit exemplify the effects of neoliberalism?
-Detroit's population dropped from 2 million in 1970 to 700,000 today, with large parts of the city abandoned and economically devastated, reflecting the severe impact of deindustrialization and job loss.
How did neoliberalism benefit the wealthiest Americans?
-Neoliberalism led to a boom in the stock market, benefiting the richest 10% of Americans who own 80% of the shares, but not the masses.
What political opportunities arose from the discontent caused by neoliberalism?
-Politicians like Donald Trump capitalized on the discontent by addressing the grievances of those hurt by neoliberalism, leading to a rise in nationalism and opposition to free trade policies.
How have political leaders in the U.S. used scapegoats to address economic discontent?
-Political leaders have blamed immigrants and China for the economic problems faced by the American working class, diverting blame from corporations and the political establishment.
Why is the narrative that immigrants are to blame for economic issues considered flawed in the transcript?
-The transcript argues that blaming immigrants is flawed because the total number of undocumented immigrants is small relative to the U.S. population, and they are among the poorest people, unable to significantly impact the economy.
What is the underlying reason for hostility towards China, according to the transcript?
-Hostility towards China stems from economic competition and the political convenience of blaming a foreign power, rather than acknowledging the role of American corporations in relocating jobs for profit.
How do tariffs imposed on China impact Americans, as explained in the transcript?
-Tariffs are paid by American consumers as a tax on imports, contrary to claims that they punish Chinese misbehavior, effectively increasing costs for Americans.
What is the potential future of global leadership according to the transcript's perspective on China's role?
-The transcript suggests that China may lead the world towards a genuinely multipolar world, possibly avoiding the creation of a new empire and promoting a more balanced global order.
Outlines
🇺🇸 Political Challenges in the United States
The American political landscape is grappling with neoliberalism's impact and shifting blame onto immigrants and China. Neoliberalism, from the 1970s to 2015, promoted free trade and minimal government intervention, promising better living standards. However, it primarily benefited corporations that relocated to countries like China for cheaper labor, causing significant job losses and economic decline in American manufacturing regions. This led to a boom in corporate profits, benefitting the wealthiest 10%, while the broader working class faced economic hardships. Cities like Detroit saw massive population declines and economic collapse, exemplifying the trauma experienced by American workers.
🏙️ Economic Decline in American Cities
Cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Wilmington, and Buffalo have experienced severe economic decline due to neoliberal policies. The mass of people in these regions, who lost jobs and saw their communities deteriorate, became the losers of neoliberalism. This discontent paved the way for opportunistic politicians like Trump to exploit their grievances. Trump's rhetoric capitalizes on the anger towards neoliberal globalization, blaming China for economic woes and promising to end the theft of American jobs and wealth. The American working class faces rising costs, including unaffordable higher education, and sees a bleak future, fueling nationalistic sentiments and a rejection of globalization.
📉 The Blame Game: Immigrants and China
Immigrants and China are used as scapegoats to deflect blame from corporations and the political system for economic problems. Immigrants, particularly from Mexico, are unfairly blamed despite being a small, impoverished population that poses no real threat to the economy. Similarly, China is demonized due to its communist leadership and economic competition with the US. Misunderstandings about China's role in the global economy are prevalent, with many Americans believing in an evil plot by China to dominate the world. This narrative is perpetuated by politicians like Trump, who incorrectly claim that tariffs on Chinese goods are paid by China rather than American consumers.
🌐 Future of Global Power Dynamics
The future of global power dynamics is at a crossroads, with American capitalism no longer dominant. Both major US political parties scapegoat different targets—Republicans blame immigrants, Democrats blame China and Russia—to avoid addressing deeper economic issues. The decline of American dominance raises questions about China's potential role. Xi Jinping's vision of a multi-polar world suggests a departure from historical empire-building. There is hope that China might lead a genuinely multi-polar global order, unlike previous attempts by the West with the League of Nations and the United Nations, which failed to achieve lasting success.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Neoliberalism
💡Globalization
💡Free Trade
💡Corporations
💡Working Class
💡Tariffs
💡Scapegoats
💡Nationalism
💡Profits
💡Economic Disparity
Highlights
The political force needed to explain the real issues to the American working class.
Neoliberalism, from the 1970s to around 2015, involved policies like global free trade, minimal government intervention, and corporate support.
Governments claimed free trade would benefit living standards and job opportunities, but it largely favored corporate profits.
Western corporations moved to China, India, and Brazil to exploit low wages and growing markets.
Neoliberal policies resulted in huge profits for Western corporations but economic decline for the American working class.
The richest 10% in the US own 80% of the stock market shares, benefiting disproportionately from neoliberal policies.
Manufacturing jobs in the US disappeared, leading to economic collapse in states like Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo.
The decline in manufacturing turned many regions into low-wage service economies.
The rise of nationalistic sentiments among the American working class in response to economic hardships.
Both Republican and Democratic parties have used immigrants and China as scapegoats for economic problems.
The total number of undocumented immigrants in the US is about 10 million, which is not enough to cause nationwide economic issues.
China is often blamed due to its association with communism and competition with the US in various industries.
Trump's tariffs on China were claimed to punish China, but they were actually taxes paid by American consumers.
American corporations exchanged technology for cheap labor and market access in China, contrary to the narrative of theft.
The decline of the American empire and the potential rise of a multipolar world led by China.
Transcripts
that's the issue here in the United
States will we develop a political force
that can
successfully explain to the American
working class what their problem
is or will we continue to be
governed by a Republican party that
blames immigrants more than Chinese and
a Democratic party that blames Chinese
more than immigrants
neoliberalism roughly from the
1970s to perhaps 2015 or some rough time
like that 30 40 45 years that policy
neoliberalism often referred to as
globalization was a policy in which the
governments of West Europe and North
America and
Japan eagerly supported a global free
trade no tariffs minimum government
intervention in the
economy support for corporations that
relocated their business out of the
country
internationalization governments told
the people you will be better off with
free trade your standard of living will
rise your job opportunities will
improve this was incorrect it was bad
economics then but it was a very good
rationale for what corporations in the
west wanted to do they wanted to go to
China India Brazil and so on to take
advantage of the low wages and the
growth
market and in order to do that they had
to
overcome the
nationalism that was still a strong
tendency in the uh in these countries so
what happened was the neoliberal
promise turned out to be half true half
false the true part is it made huge
profits it was a success
program for increasing the profits of
Western
corporations they could pay much lower
wages in China and India than they paid
where they came from and they had the
growing Chinese market and the growing
Asian market and so they had tremendous
profits that's why you saw a boom in the
stock market in the west because it was
the only Institution
where you could see the profits
producing Rising wealth but I I like to
remind people that in the United States
the richest 10% of our people own
80% of the shares on the stock market so
successful
profiteering is only good for the top
10% not for the masses meanwhile for the
masses it was very bad
millions of jobs working in
manufacturing disappeared in the United
States whole states out of the 50 states
in the United stat whole states
basically collapsed economically their
Industries disappeared their jobs
disappeared their unions lost membership
they were forced to become low wage
service economies that they had not been
before it has been a trauma a a
political ideological trauma and over
those 40 years I'll give you one example
in
1970 presidents from around the world if
they visited the United States were
taken to the city of
Detroit the city of Detroit was the
center of the automobile industry in
this country Ford General Motors all of
that and it was a booming City it had 2
million which was very big then 2
million people a very successful labor
union the United Auto Workers and all of
that today Detroit is a disaster its
population has dropped from 2 million in
1970 to
700,000 today that means that more more
than half the people in that powerful
successful City are gone it is now a
city onethird of abandoned housing no
one lives there no one can afford to
live there because there are no jobs so
that's an extreme example but other
large cities in the United States
Cleveland uh Wilmington
Delaware uh parts of Chicago have
similar Buffalo New York have similar
histories and it is for the mass of
people it has been a
very difficult time and so they are The
Losers of
neoliberalism but they are also the vast
majority and it was only a matter of
time before an
opportunistic politician would begin to
see
opportunity in in speaking to the
millions of people who had been
hurt by neoliberalism because it was a
boom for the profiteers but not for the
mass of people that's our politics today
Mr Trump simply rides on the wave of
hostility to what has happened to the
United States we are now making it clear
to
China that after years of targeting our
Industries and stealing our intellectual
property the theft of American jobs and
wealth has come to an end they don't
understand because very few people teach
it here how to understand the world
economy shifting what they know is that
their position in large parts of the
United States are gone the future for
their children is not looking good uh
the prices we've had an inflation here
the cost of higher education is Out Of
Reach you cannot get a college education
without taking on huge amounts of
personal debt you or your parents or
your family uh it's a whole new world
here and for the mass of the working
class not a good one so what we have is
a massive turning away from
neoliberalism and
globalization except at the level of big
business our corporate sector remains
interested in neoliberalism and
globalization because they have invested
huge amounts of money in China for
example in India in Brazil they they
don't want to lose those
Investments that's very important to
them so they support the Democratic
party and Mr Biden hoping to keep that
but the mass of the working class is not
supportive of this kind of program and
they are turning more and more
nationalistic even Mr Biden has had to
impose tariffs for example Mr Trump
began it between 2016 and 2020 Mr Biden
who wanted to get rid of it could not he
had to to stay in power he had to become
at least publicly
nationalistic put heavy tariffs against
above all China millions of Americans
who have been The Losers of neoliberal
globalization for
decades they are very
unhappy and the the political leaders in
the United
States desperate not to be blamed for
all of
this have needed to come up with
scapegoats they have needed to come up
with an explanation for the mass of
people that blames somebody other than
the corporations and the political
apparatus that they own in this country
so they've come up with two major
scapegoats one of them is
immigration they have gotten Americans
to believe that the immigrants
particularly those that come from the
south come up through Mexico into the
United States that they are the cause of
the problems of the American working
class they have spent enormous amounts
of time and energy and lots of money
trying to make that case and they've had
to spend money and time because the case
is ridiculous and silly the United
States is a an advanced economy of
330 million
people the total number of
undocumented immigrants in the United
States is maybe 10 million
okay 10 million immigrants 330 million
Americans there is no explanation of the
difficulty for the economy as a whole
that can be blamed on those 10 million
people especially when you remember they
are among the poorest people in the
world these immigrants they have they
come with nothing they are men women and
children with no money barely able to
put a a shirt on their
to keep warn okay so this is outrageous
but it's the number one scapegoat the
numbers two scapegoat is China and here
you should understand also American
political history there are still many
people who don't understand that the
cold war with the USSR is over they
still think of socialism and communism
as frightening foreign evil phenomena
they do and so because China is led by a
Communist party it's very easy
politically in the United States to say
that China is an
enemy uh the real issue is the
competition Americans are now dealing
with the fact that the Chinese produce
the highest quality electric vehicle at
the lowest price most most Americans
believe that the economic
competition coming from
China is intended to displace the
dominant position of the world so that
it's no longer American it becomes
Chinese it's an evil plot to rule the
world this is how it is
explained and all kinds of people includ
including significant numbers of
intellectuals believe this they actually
they don't know much about China they
don't know much about the history they
they barely understand what happened in
1949 and and the Civil War and the
defeat of Chun kek and all of the they
don't know much of that their
understanding is that China is the
evildoer so for examp example they like
to be told that the Chinese stole the
technology from the
West the idea that American corporations
exchange technology for cheap labor and
Market access which is what happened
they don't want that that because that
says that the corporations with the
support of the government went to China
which is what happened but they don't
want that story they want to be able to
blame the
Chinese you could see it with with
President
Trump for the four years of his
presidency he explained that the tariffs
were a punishment of the misbehavior of
the
Chinese and he told the American people
the
Chinese would have to pay those tariffs
but of course as a professor of
Economics I had to explain to my
students
that tariffs are not paid by the Chinese
they're paid by Americans when they
import it's a tax called a tariff put on
You by the American
government my students looked at me they
understood what I was telling them but
they had a really hard time because
their president was telling them that
the evil Bad Chinese are being punished
because this story
is very important so that the anger
built up by 40 Years of neoliberal
globalization is focused on the Chinese
and on
immigrants and the corporate leaders of
America like that because they don't
want to be the ones that get blamed they
don't and so it's very helpful to
them to blame immigrants and to blame
the Chinese even though
they don't want to lose the Chinese
connection that issue that's the issue
here in the United States will we
develop a political force that can
successfully explain to the American
working class what their problem
is or will we continue to be
governed by a Republican party that
blames immigrants more than
Chinese and a Democratic party that
blames Chinese more than immigrants but
both of them are perfectly happy to
scapegoat both of them and the Democrats
add Russia and the Republicans a little
less on Russia little more on China but
don't be fooled by the details and if
you understand that you won't be
confused by the bizarre statements our
politicians make or the political
theater that they put on display the
reality is American capitalism is no
longer the dominant capitalism in the
world it has to face that the whole rest
of the world is adjusting to that fact
China has to make a huge decision the
British Empire is over the American
Empire is declining will we now see a
Chinese Empire or
or will the Chinese be new and different
in world history and say no more
empires not Britain not Rome not you
know not Greece not United States and
not China when Xi Jinping says I want to
create a m multi-polar world
this opens a whole new possibility
remember in the 20th century the West
tried the League of
Nations after World War II the world
tried the United Nations but they did
not
succeed the question is might the
Chinese lead the world into a genuinely
multi-polar
world I personally I hope so
Voir Plus de Vidéos Connexes
¿Por qué FRANCIA está DESTRUYENDO su Economía? - VisualEconomik
News Breakdown Excerpt | Bangladesh scores a win for Western hegemony
How China Became So Powerful
Our New Global Economy
Ford, Carter, and the Economic Malaise: Crash Course US History #42
Is a new world economic order emerging? | Counting the Cost
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)