China has overtaken the US as Japan's biggest trading partner for the first time since World War II.For decades Americans could boast of buying more Japanese goods then anybody else. But instead of buying high quality Japanese products, our great nation has binged on cheap Chinese knock-offs. This has allowed China to buy high quality Japanese products. The real winner? Lucky Japan.
But that's not the only way we became number 2. Toyota overtakes GM in global vehicle sales. The auto giant has fallen and it doesn't look like it will be getting back up any time soon.
Toyota has been widely expected to challenge 99-year-old GM this year for the top spot in global sales -- a position the Detroit behemoth has held for 76 years -- but the milestone came surprisingly early, industry watchers said.
But America IS car culture. We epitomize it. Drive in's, drive up's, drive through's, drive by's, those are all distinctly American things. We even have more people reduced to living in their cars than any other country. How can GM lose the home team advantage? Oh, right, shitty cars.We blew it. It's over. There is no surprise come-back. This sole super-power is done and over with, going the way of the Ottomans, the Romans, and the British. It was fun while it lasted. There is no one country that is stepping up to replace us. It doesn't happen that way. We are a dieing world patriarch that everybody will send a card to on holidays.
At least we still have the largest, most over-extended military on the planet. And the world's largest budget deficit. We may be full of number 2's, but we still have some number 1 to spread around.
2 comments:
According to the article it looks like the Japanese like cheap Chinese goods too.
"The trade is being driven in part by Japanese firms shifting manufacturing work to China to take advantage of cheap labour costs there."
Our biggest number one may be arrogance. We always expect to be number one. Like it's a god given right!
Post a Comment