As I see it Trump is like a walking contradiction.American politics in general have always been an advocate of u2018free marketu2019.In a u2018free marketu2024 per definition the prices are only set by the law of price and demand of all the participants. American multinationals of course figured out if they outsourced most of the production to foreign countries (for instance China), they could cut on production cost (especially labor cost), while increasing their profit margin. The downside was many American laborers and even part of the middle class lost their jobs and saw their income reduced or are now doing jobs for lower wages with less social security. For China, who had manual laborers a plenty it was a golden opportunity: suddenly all these foreign multinationals came in who offered low wages, but still something was better than nothing.By the way: also Trump produced his Trump apparel line in China. Produced at low cost in China, sold with a high mark up in Trump Towers.Ironically, with Trump now being in the role of a politician, under pressure of large part of the population who are tons in debt,now wants to restrict u2018free marketu2024 by imposing all kinds of taxes on import, thus essentially restricting u2018free marketu2019.All though Trump likes to act like an American patriot, American multinationals are far from u2018patriotsu2019: they are business people, not politicians. And in the business world basically only the law how much something costs to produce versus the profit of sale is of importance. So, if American multinationals can produce cheaper in China, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, u2024 or any other part of the world they will do so. After all, USA-politics was all about u2018free marketu2019.But now the USA is becoming a victim of itu2019s own policies, with American multinationals cashing in big which is good for the stock market and the shareholders, somewhere along the line this policy was ignorant for the fact many American laborers and even part of the middle class in the USA lost their jobs and are now in tons of debt or are working in jobs in which they have little to none security, like driving for Uber or delivering pizzas. And those higher up the scale with better education are mostly tons in debt by the time they graduate.Can one u2018blameu2024 any of these foreign countries who were happy to see foreign business come in or should one u2018blameu2024 the American politics who acted more in favor of these multinationals than the general American public? After all, those who are tons in debt have no equity in the stock market, so rising stock market prices only favor those who have equity in the stock market. This is beyond any doubt the major concern of Trump: stock prices need to go up, so especially the establishment who owns most of the stock gets even richer.The result being that wealth distribution continues to decrease between the haveu2019s and the have nots.Will American manual laborers be prepared to work at the cost of Chinese manual laborers to return business production to the USA? Or should one rather question the huge markups multinationals had, producing dirt cheap abroad but still selling their production with huge markups.Take Apple for an example: the price it costs to produce an I-Phone (mostly produced in China by the way) versus the price it is being sold is simply stupefying. Or rather consumers are stupid to pay such an elevated price for something which costs not even half to produce.China has come a long way and increased their wealth, with a stronger middle class by now and what most people donu2019t know China also is a creditor to the USA, meaning: China holds partially the debt of the USA. The USA is tons in debt, mostly caused by waging wars around the world, a huge spending on the military and the weapons industry, while their own multinationals mostly produced abroad and parked a large sum of their profits in tax havens.Only the shareholders of these companies profited from this way of doing business, but not average American Joe. Take Detroit for instance, once a busy haven of car production, which is now a wasteland and even in the top 100 list of most dangerous in the world to live in when it comes to murder per capita.China is of course still dependent on foreign business coming in to feed their huge workforce of manual laborers, but they have come a long way already, with a middle class who has by now the means of actually buying the products they produce for foreign multinationals. China also has a high quality and very demanding educational system excelling at math, science and business. And their students compared to the US are in general NOT tons in debt by the time they graduate.Trump is desperately trying to avoid China will become the new and biggest economy in the world. And Europeans in general who disliked the arrogant style of Trump to begin with are more open for talks with China than Trump. There might be a shift of power balance in which Europe forms an alliance with China, rather than with Trump. Chinese migrants have spread in many countries of Europe and in general Europeans get along well with the Chinese. Unlike with some muslim migrants and religious quarrels being the result, Europeans in general never had any trouble with the Chinese, so Europeans in general favor more the Chinese than the arrogance of Americans like Trump. A man who by the way even had to bribe a pornstar to not endanger his chance for election.And letu2019s face it: Trump his wealth is mostly the result of inheriting tons of money from his father (estimated at more than $ 400 million in a recent article of the New York Times) , so itu2019s mostly not his own merit (although of course he likes to portray himself as some kind of self-made genius, while in fact he was near bankrupt in the late eighties due to to some shady casino deals in Atlantic City, had his father not saved him).If anything, and having a formal education in psychology myself, I would rather describe him as a narcissist, who per definition are all grandeur delusional. The dangerous part is: a narcissist believes his own delusions and can indeed come across as very convincing and manipulative. Even a large part of Trumpu2019s own administration walked out or is fired by now.In short: Trump and American politics in general who always favored u2018free marketu2024 are basically the ones to blame for the predicament they are in now. American multinationals were able to produce dirt cheap abroad, sell with huge markups, increase their stock prices because more profit was coming in, but somewhere along the line American politicians forgot if you outsource your means of production, suddenly your work force and middle class will get poorer and will start to generate huge amounts of debt. The USA is now a nation of debt, and being in debt means you owe someone else and are being owned by someone else. China in fact holds a large amount of the debt created by the USA. It was also not China which started a financial crisis in 2024. when American banks greedy as they were took all kinds of ridiculous bets, eventually dragging the global financial system in a deep crisis. European institutions have not forgotten this, so if anything they will be more willing to deal with the Chinese than with the USA. Not even one of these CEOu2019s of American financial institutions was even sent to prison for gross negligence and misconduct, so that is far more than proof who is really in charge of the USA: itu2019s Wall Street and not Main Street.Even Trump in the latest year of his presidency increased debt in the USA by 6,7 % to GDP. No country who keeps on increasing itu2019s debt, while the wealth distributing goes mainly to the establishment can survive in the long run. Class wars will be the result of those left with nothing but debt, versus those who reeked in most of the profits.To some extent this is already happening right now in the USA. Four cities in the USA (Detroit, New Orleans, St-Louis and Baltimore) are in the top 50 of most dangerous cities in the world to live in when it comes to murder per capita.The USA favors the profits of the weapons and gun industry, causing massive casualties each year on their own soil, rather than the safety of their own public.Statistically the number of Americans killed abroad is next to nothing compared to all gun related casualties on their own soil.The American Dream is so nice to many, thereu2019s even a drug epidemic of both legally prescribed painkillers, opioids, antidepressants and illegal drugs like cocau00efne, crack and heroin.Wealth distribution keeps on increasing between the haveu2019s and have notu2019s. Trump even signed out of environmental protection, while in general the world is becoming more and more aware profit in the long run means NOTHING if you live in a totally polluted environment.And although Trump likes to parade with stock prices going up, how many American citizens actually benefit from this: more than half of the population of the USA doesnu2019t even own stocks, not because they want to, but if you are already in tons of debt buying stocks isnu2019t an option. And even further increasing debt like Trump does, surely ainu2019t the way to go for a country which is already knee deep in debt. The USA has already lost the trade war, but denial prevails.And they lost these trade wars, not because China is to u2018blameu2024 or some other foreign countryu2024 the irony is they lost it because American politicians favored American multinationals with the credo u2018free marketu2024 allowing them to produce practically anywhere they wanted, pay as less tax as possible, produce dirt cheap abroad, fire American workers on their own soil and still sell with a huge mark up. Think of that, next time you buy for instance an Apple folks.The American elections are sponsored mainly by American multinationals and the establishment. American presidents need tons of money for their election campaigns and companies are eager to prthis both to Republicans and Democrats. So, letu2019s think for a second here: once these Presidents are elected whose interests do you think they will serve: the need of someone on the bottom of the ladder who contributed nothing to a Presidential election campaign OR the interests of the companies who sponsored these elections. Think twice, you do not need to be so smart to figure this one out. But of course any Presidential candidate at least needs to give the impression getting elected will be good for the general public, while in fact it will be mostly to the benefit of those who provided the sponsor money.Iu2019m a European by the way and I bought a Huawei. Iu2019m just as happy with it, paid far less than for an Apple and why would I be so stupid to buy an Apple of which most of it is not being produced in the USA anyway, but still being sold over twice the price of what it actually costs to produce it.Thatu2019s why the stock price of Apple is so high: not because the amount of units being sold has increased so much, but because they have a huge mark up between the cost of producing (mostly in China) and the price of sale. Apple CEO Tim Cook is laughing all his way to the bank at the expense of American laborers. Thatu2019s why of course Apple was the first to complain on these u2018importu2024 taxes: they wanna keep that high mark-up, producing dirt cheap abroad.Huawei is very popular in Europe, it has beaten Apple already in terms of sales.And besides, in general Europeans prefer Asian food instead of American food. One gets less obese by eating proper Asian than American food.The real reason why so many Americans are obese isnu2019t of course because they are so rich they can afford to eat all day, the reason why so many Americans are obese is because many can only afford junk food with a Coke, rich in fat and sugar so it would be filling but with little or no nutrition.Those applauding the tariffs of Trump also fail to think ahead: if a multinational is faced with higher taxes for import from some countries (in this case China), they can easily either relocate their production facilities (for instance switch from China to another country with cheap production means where there arenu2019t any import tariffs) OR simply elevate the prices for consumers of their products.So, what Iu2019m saying is: in the end itu2019s the American consumer of these imported goods who will be faced with higher prices (thus eventually average American Joe who buys for instance a laptop or a jeans which are mostly produced in Asian countries will now be paying more (as multinationals will elevate the prices to keep their profits).Itu2019s more than clear Trump has a beef specifically with China, but all the while ignoring the simple fact American politics facilitated American multinationals to produce anywhere, pay as less taxes as possible, fire American workers for cheaper ones abroad and clearly Trump is not willing to do anything about this otherwise he would simply raise import taxes on anything which is produced abroad.He is a businessman after all, but wants to make it u2018look goodu2024 or u2018patrioticu2024 for those who elected him. Itu2019s a common strategy: all through history when America didnu2019t look all that u2018greatu2019, they needed a foreign scapegoat: now itu2019s China and whou2019s next? And the more u2018foreignu2024 scapegoats you have, the more Trump can justify spending ridiculous amounts on the military and weapons industry and keep on increasing debt. The military complex applaud each time an American politician, instead of facing and addressing the serious internal structural problems of the USA, point the finger towards a foreign u2018enemyu2019.Somewhere, the USA never escaped this psychology of the cowboys vs the indians. Only later in history as you grow up you learn the cowboys were the invaders and not the indians. The cowboys mostly slaughtered the indians and finally put them in u2018reservationsu2019. Of course some people never learn the cowboys were actually the invaders, they prefer to think they are the u2018good guysu2024 and the foreigner is the u2018bad guyu2019.Go China ! I prefer a decent Chinese meal with lots of veggies to Mc Donaldu2019s or a u2018hot dogu2024 any day.
