When someone else (read: China) gets good at the game, change the rules.
Having lots of people who will work for next-to-nothing is a cheat code of sorts in the current world economic order.
It's put the old guard, mainly the West, at a disadvantage. It's caused great economic hardship in the US for people who didn't have the connections or resources to get out of working more basic manufacturing jobs. The political and shareholder classes saw those people as expendable in the move towards a purely capitalist America, one where it was okay to move lots of manufacturing to a geopolitical rival because it made number go up. Trump's not wrong about that.
The problem is that he's a creature of that purely capitalist America, who likely has a severe personality disorder, and he's just harnessing the discontent of the affected to build up his own power and wealth.
The thing about being the de-facto trade and security hegemony is that it's a pain in the ass. No one's survived being that. Not the British, Romans, or anyone else.
There's also the fact that the rest of the West will of course trade out adherence to the more democratic and progressive values when it comes to benefit them. Nordstream 2 was announced after Russia invaded Georgia and it became obvious that Putin was a tyrant. Europeans were more than happy to watch World Cup matches in Russia and Qatar, which were placed there purely as a result of graft at a major European institution, FIFA. Italy joined the Chinese Belt and Road initiative and only dropped out in 2023. There are other examples but those three stick out immediately in my mind.
Trump, and the illiberal forces of the world in general, just want to adapt this reality as the status quo while making money for themselves off of it. Alliances and values are secondary to what earns money at the moment in question.
If you are a country like the US, with a lot of resources, you can outcompete people in that dog-eat-dog world.
> It's caused great economic hardship in the US for people who didn't have the connections or resources to get out of working more basic manufacturing jobs
No, the hardships in the us are caused by the 1% hoarding wealth. Don’t blame anyone else in the world
You are absolutely correct, though it is interesting how your framing almost makes it sound like the Chinese workers are to blame instead of the 1% who are paying them
Having lots of people who will work for next-to-nothing is a cheat code of sorts in the current world economic order.
It's put the old guard, mainly the West, at a disadvantage. It's caused great economic hardship in the US for people who didn't have the connections or resources to get out of working more basic manufacturing jobs. The political and shareholder classes saw those people as expendable in the move towards a purely capitalist America, one where it was okay to move lots of manufacturing to a geopolitical rival because it made number go up. Trump's not wrong about that.
The problem is that he's a creature of that purely capitalist America, who likely has a severe personality disorder, and he's just harnessing the discontent of the affected to build up his own power and wealth.
The thing about being the de-facto trade and security hegemony is that it's a pain in the ass. No one's survived being that. Not the British, Romans, or anyone else.
There's also the fact that the rest of the West will of course trade out adherence to the more democratic and progressive values when it comes to benefit them. Nordstream 2 was announced after Russia invaded Georgia and it became obvious that Putin was a tyrant. Europeans were more than happy to watch World Cup matches in Russia and Qatar, which were placed there purely as a result of graft at a major European institution, FIFA. Italy joined the Chinese Belt and Road initiative and only dropped out in 2023. There are other examples but those three stick out immediately in my mind.
Trump, and the illiberal forces of the world in general, just want to adapt this reality as the status quo while making money for themselves off of it. Alliances and values are secondary to what earns money at the moment in question.
If you are a country like the US, with a lot of resources, you can outcompete people in that dog-eat-dog world.