Are we losing the world to communism?

No, we're losing the world to our own stupidity and ignorance of basic economics. When discussing free trade and its pros and cons, economists talk about the concept of comparative advantage. This concept means just what it says, that certain places and peoples have advantages over others when it comes to producing certain goods and services. Maybe that advantage is that they can produce a higher quality of good or that they can produce comparable quality at a lower cost. Hell, maybe it’s just that people prefer a good from one place over another regardless of cost or quality. The significant fact is that some places have advantages over others.

By way of example, I'm from Pittsburgh. Let's say that I saw that the citrus fruit industry was booming and decided that I wanted to get in on it. If I offered an IPO on a company I intended to start to grow oranges in the Pittsburgh area, would anybody invest in it? I'm guessing not because they'd probably realize that I'd have to spend so much money to artificially create the climate that farmers in places like California and Florida get for free that I'd never be able to compete with them based on price.

The question we should be considering is what are the advantages some nations might have over the US? Let’s consider China as they are a major competitor and first look at the things we can’t change. An obvious one is that they have cheaper labor but that’s not all it’s cracked up to be. In the manufacturing sector, the average yearly per worker productivity is about $3,500. In the US, it’s over $300,000. While you can probably employee Chinese workers on less than a 100:1 ratio, you’re simply not getting as much advantage out of cheap labor as is made out. Another advantage we cannot control is currency manipulation. Long story short, the Chinese have been artificially holding down the value of their currency which has the effect of making Chinese goods artificially cheaper abroad and foreign goods artificially more expensive.

Then there are the advantages the Chinese have that we can control. First, China’s corporate income, dividend, and capital gains tax rates are far lower than ours. Our top corporate tax rate is 40%; in China, it’s 25%. Much can be made about the effective tax rate, ie the taxes paid as a total percentage of revenue after deductions etc. but effective rates work in China too. In other words, we’ve made it less profitable to do business here than in China. Second, our regulatory system is completely out of control. It is estimated that regulatory compliance costs the American economy $1.75 TRILLION/year. In other words, we’ve made it much more expensive to do business here. Finally, our lack of a ‘loser pays’ civil tort system makes it pay for lawyers to harass businesses with lawsuits just to get them to shell out.

The purpose of business is to make money but we’ve made it less profitable to do business here. Business makes money by offering goods and services to consumers and we’ve made those goods and services more expensive. Reforming our taxation, regulatory, and tort systems to be more in line with the rest of the world would make us more competitive and turn free trade into a benefit for this nation rather than a detriment.

The headline question is fairly simple, and the answer of whether or not we are losing the world to communism is no. The narrative following the initial question is rather confusing, and does not lend any background to the initial question.

On the point of it being impossible for United States to compete in an industrial market with a country which allows something similar to slave labor there is a very good point there. The problem is that this is not a victory of communism, but a victory of United States consumerism. The reason there is any wealth in China is because of the United States economy and our ability to purchase goods, and our desire to purchase items at the cheapest possible price. This dynamic which allows Americans to purchase goods at an extremely deflated price has created the American quality of life we all enjoy. We could all decide to purchase only American-made products, and we could cut off our trading ties to China which would lead to a reduction in American quality of life. Though it would lead to an increase in American manufacturing. The question the people should be asking is and whether or not we would do better by eliminating the minimum wage, or reducing living standards in the United States finding another option, because a race to the bottom with China is not going to be effective.

As far as the remarks about Sec. Clinton, and healthcare is incorrect to a large extent, unless you’re confusing her with President Nixon. The first health maintenance organizations (HMO) appeared in the 1970s, this was the first time that you see the situation of certain healthcare providers not accepting certain insurances. I think it’s also important because the first time that Americans become separated from the actual cost of their health care, and what it allowed is the actual care itself to become extremely costly for those who don’t have insurance, while costing a mere fraction of that due to a prearranged discount with the insurance provider. This creates a situation where an individual who has insurance does not realize the devastating situation being experienced by another individual who does not have insurance.

I think it's safe to say that communism imploded the Soviet Union and China (as well as the few remaining nations mimicking communism are either greatly modifying their economic model or joining the Soviets in the near future. However, the ideology on which it was based is alive and well, especially on American campuses. If we're going to combat it successfully, we must come to understand its true nature. Allow me to recommend reading The Devil's Pleasure Palace. That's a very good place to begin...

http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Pleasure-Palace-Critical-Subversion-ebook/dp/B00PSSEIXE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid= [login to see] &sr=1-1&keywords=the+devil%27s+pleasure+palace

Leftism is, of course, an internal threat. For the most significant external threat, keep an eye on Islam