Every Politician Has Failed You
Remember at the start of COVID, when all the talk was about how our supply chain for antibiotics ran straight through China? And it wasn’t just antibiotics, but with a pandemic starting up, medicines were on the top of everyone’s list. It’s also electronics, certain foods, medical devices, cars, all manner of machinery, etc., etc. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find much of anything that, at least in some way, has a bit of Chinese manufacturing in it. And remember all the promises of changing that, or bringing manufacturing back home? What a joke.
Before we talk about the current problem, it’s important to know how we got to this point. Many of the very same politicians now expressing outrage over the fact that a huge percentage of our critical manufacturing capacity moved to China were in power at the time, and in favor of the rules and regulations that incentivized businesses to do just that. Those who came after them lived in a world where it was true, but not a pressing issue – the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs made for great ad copy in election campaigns, but doing anything about it, even if it would only stop the losses and not bring any jobs back, was not a priority.
This is both parties. They all grouse about outsourcing, they all claim to be fighting to bring factories back, but they all also know that doing literally nothing but talking about it will not change anything. A government-created hostile business environment doesn’t suddenly become friendly because someone ran a biting 30 second campaign spot declaring it a priority.
But the pandemic was different. Or at least they said it was.
It impacted everyone and everything. Whereas before it was something you didn’t notice or care about because everyone could easily get cheap things, now we risked not being able to get critical things that helped keep us or our loved ones alive.
Every politician, from then President Donald Trump on down to some backbench Member of Congress no one has ever heard of talked tough about China and promised to move Heaven and Earth to bring at least critical components of our supply chain back home.
And then people moved on, as we do. Attentions shifted to the more immediate again; the more personal. We adapted. And the political class reverted to doing what they do best: nothing.
China caused COVID. Whether it was on purpose or by accident doesn’t really matter – do you care if the person who burned down your house was vindictive or indifferent when you’re standing among the embers? There’s actually a decent chance that person would apologize in the moment, even if their sincerity would be doubtful. China won’t even consider it, because even if it was an accident (and they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt), they don’t give a damn.
Why won’t our elected officials stand up to that and incentivize as many businesses as humanly possible to come back? Sure, we can’t compete with the slave labor costs China has, but we sure as hell can cut red tape and regulations to compete at the bottom line. Shipping something halfway around the world ain’t free, making it here eliminates all costs involved in that.
But they don’t even try. China, according to the New York Times, is building skyscrapers to aid in livestock farming in a “push to reduce its dependence on agricultural imports.” Meanwhile, we’re allowing the sale of our farmland to China (and Bill Gates) because why? They’re making themselves more independent on what is most important – food – and making us more dependent on them for literally everything.
Trump didn’t stop it, Biden isn’t stopping it. Republicans didn’t do anything about it, neither are Democrats. The President is just sitting around thinking popping a balloon made the world a better place. Well, unless those balloons were edible or can be pulverized into pills that will heal the sick, that doesn’t begin to address the problem.
Instead, our government is mandating the use of electric cars, the manufacture of which will put untold trillions more dollars in the pockets of the very people those politicians were supposed to protect us from. Sex Pistols frontman and Punk Rock legend Johnny Rotten famously asked the crowd at their last show, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” When it comes to politics, China and the people we’ve elected, if your answer isn’t a resounding “yes,” you haven’t been paying attention.
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