'You Don't Need a Tariff, You Need a Revolution'

By Thomas Neuburger

Back when I was a scamp, one of the jobs I held was in high tech. I labored at several small companies, each of which did their manufacturing in Asia. My colleagues employed in marketing and sales had to make occasional trips to visit the vendors — our factory associates — and before each of them left, they took orders for shoes. Slip the traveler five dollars and when she or he returned, a $100 pair of Nikes or Adidas was yours. Factory direct, new-made, unworn, untaxed, with logo attached but unburdened with the logo’s cost: $95.

To be plain: The shoe cost $5; the logo, $95. In some years the shoes cost even less: $2.50 bought you a pair, but not in the stores.

Fast forward to today: What was kept an unadvertised fact when we and our Asian suppliers were on friendlier terms, is now being trumpeted loudly by those same suppliers in retaliation for Trump’s disinterest in the mechanics of trade. In response to Trump’s queering the deal, they’re explaining the deal.

‘You Need a Revolution’

Thanks to U.S. tariff attacks on our trading partners, China and worldwide Chinese are starting to fight back, not just with tariffs, but “soft power,” information and educational videos that tell more than the truth.

Examples include this from a Chinese citizen (I think) who’s also a real estate agent in Vancouver BC. Nothing he says here is wrong.

“[Your oligarchs] told you to be proud while they sold your future for profit.”

“What did your oligarchs do? They bought yachts, private jets, mansions with golf course driveways.”

“For forty years, both China and the United States benefited from the trade, the manufacturing, but only one of us used that wealth to build. This isn’t China’s fault. It’s yours. … You let the oligarchs feed you lies while they made you fat, poor and addicted.”

All leading to this tough love admission: “America, you don’t need a tariff. You need a revolution.”

Who can disagree with this last assessment? Trump was elected, in fact, by people who thought it was true. They just thought he’d deliver, is all. Looks like he won’t.

The Product vs. the IP

The Chinese are also fighting with pieces like those below, attacks on “luxury brands” where the “luxury” is China-supplied and the “brand” is the label slapped on. (It’s been pointed out by many that Apple is not a manufacturer, but a branding company that mainly owns intellectual property — logos, labels and “looks.”)

The Chinese writ large, now that we’ve started a war, are happy to point out that the real value is the product itself, which they supply, while the label is just most of the price.

The above is a response to this (click through to watch):

China’s View of American Workers

I’ve also seen several flavors of AI satires like this, a riff, perhaps, on Commerce Secretary Lutnick’s “army of millions and millions of [American] people screwing in little, little screws” and doing similar menial factory deeds.

The video is cruel (remember the comment above, that they “feed you lies while they made you fat, poor and addicted”). Yet this is not totally false. The U.S. is 13th in obesity of 191 nations, with 42% of our people classed obese or worse. (Of the 12 nations heavier than us, seven are peopled with genetically Polynesian bodies.)

For contrast, consider that France is 149th (11% obesity) and China is 166th (8%).

Videos like this are painful for Americans to watch — I found it quite difficult — but an angry rest of the world is not too proud to smirk.

It's not us; our billionaires have ruined our food. It's swimming in sugar and “modified” (dangerous) starch, the “cheap shit” our billionaires give us while stealing our cash.

Righting the Ship

Our oligarchs have captured control of our government (thanks to Reagan); swollen the presidency fat with unwarranted power (thanks to Nixon and Ford); and turned the party of the people toward money instead (Clinton, Obama, and most other national Democrats); then stripped the country for parts and its natural wealth.

And all this for what? To add to already unnatural, unusable wealth. To quote the man from Vancouver: They bought yachts, private jets, mansions with golf course driveways. And swam in hubristic joy while the rest of us withered and died like unwatered lawns.

I suppose we could be angry at this; it’s hard not to be. But at whom? The man from Vancouver is right; we did it ourselves. So where to direct our response? At the Chinese? Or inward for once, by righting our own failing ship?