A Virginia Liberal

The E.U., China, and Why Neither of Them Matter
Right after Bush was re-elected, European airplane giant Airbus surpassed American-based Boeing by a few hundred million dollars, in an industry where hundreds of billions of dollars are circulated every year.
Now, I know I’m making this sound like an insignificant occurrence, which it isn’t, because this was the first time in a long time that something non-American surpassed America in an industry this large. So while it is worthwhile to note the Boeing-Airbus thing, it’s not the huge big deal the media made it out to be.
As far as I can tell, looking at Airbus beating Boeing by a couple of hundred dollars as being a harbinger for Europe overtaking the U.S. and becoming number 1 is like seeing K-Mart stock go up by a dollar for one day and then predicting that K-Mart will overtake Wal-Mart in every market by next quarter.
More important than Boeing-Airbus is the euro becoming more valuable than the dollar. Article after article has been written by actual economists, not reporters, who have said the euro is no big threat to the dollar. One point made by economist Jane Bryant Quinn in Newsweek was that in the stock market when something became really hot and reported as such by the media, it soon after failed. (Think the dot-com bust.)
In addition to that, no one country in the E.U. can really match the U.S. at much of anything. The European Union, several of the richest and most powerful countries in the world, put together, can come near us in several respects and, put together, have a currency worth more than the dollar.
But the E.U. is a lot of countries put together. I’m not going to whine about unfairness or anything, because the world economy isn’t fair and the E.U. has become one force, not four or five.
But in their alliance is the E.U.’s weakness. The E.U. is only as strong as their weakest member. As soon as one country leaves the union or collapses, as countries often do, the whole row of dominoes topples.
Further proving that Airbus is not the entire world is the media’s sudden shift to China. Try as I might, I couldn’t find any area in which China is surpassing the U.S.
Here’s my theory. Rupert Murdoch goes online and searches for the most outlandish conspiracy theories he can find involving more than one country, not caring about evidence or even logic. Those of you who have read the Hitler diaries know that ol’ Rupert got his ideas from the best.
Story found, Rupert puts this idea in the media and watches it grow into a monster, like Rick Moranis in Honey, I BLEW UP the Kids. (Note: This is a crude comparison since the Airbus isn’t the world’s economy. On the other hand, I think we can all agree that a nuclear-produced giant baby akin to that in Honey, I BLEW UP the Kids is a real threat, and not something to be taken lightly.)
E.U. Airbus dead in the air, something had to be done. Thinking quickly, well-trained conspiracy theorists decided that China would be next in line to take a swing at the U.S.
The thing was, China hadn’t actually done much of anything other than become less impoverished since become a People’s Republic. Have you ever noticed that if Republic or Democracy is in a country’s name, it’s because the country is neither?
Let’s face it-China has over a billion people, so most of them are poor. The Chinese yen is worth less than a penny. A gamecube controller in the U.S. in 20 dollars, or two thousand pennies. On the other hand, in China a gamecube controller is 35 THOUSAND yen.
Yes, China is second to the U.S. in a number of important ways. Prostitution, for example. But because China is a communist nation, everyone shares their prostitutes. Better yet-because China is red, hookers are always the same price-free! (Note to Arnold Schwarzanegger: just kidding.)
But let’s take a look at some numbers: 69. 2. 666. Now let’s remember that the United States has a bigger defense budget than the next twenty defense-spending nations combined.
This is relevant because some of the more shrieky talking heads have proposed that there could be another cold war on the horizon, this time between the U.S. and China.
Those of us old enough to remember the cold war remember mostly having the shit scared out of us by nukes. Once again, I’d like to reiterate the fact that the U.S. spends more on defense than the next twenty top defense-spending nations combined. China’s got a long way to go before it can match, much less beat, us at defense.
On the other hand, there was the space race, a war of who could develop technology the fastest. There, China’s got something going for it. Let’s take a look at the argument of China versus the U.S.

China: has many new enterprises and ideas regarding business. On the other hand; one word-Bill. China: is Commi, and its laws are incredibly easy for businesses to exploit. On the other hand, laws don’t apply to Microsoft.
You might not think that Bill Gates and the Microsoft corporation aren’t smart enough to top China’s entire economy. I think you’re underestimating Bill. Do you think Bill Gates would watch his billions in Microsoft stock dwindle away while China’s economy boomed? Or do you think he would purchase rival companies in China, or perhaps take their ideas and add them to Windows first?
Pretty much anything China can think of will be taken or bought by Windows or Dell. So while I don’t support Microsoft or Dell making shoddy products and putting everyone who makes better stuff out of business, I do know they’re tied to the U.S. and can beat out any technology China can put out.
This leads me to my next post topic-Microsoft and Dell. Next time.