Volume 6, Issue 23
Why?
It is because the United States governs the only true free enterprise economic market as a component of sovereign cultural purpose. Free enterprise is proven, beyond question or doubt, to be the most efficient system for economic output. Every country in the world is dependent, to some degree, upon the United States for support of their own cultural economy. In this equation, there is no alternative or replacement for the United States.
Cultural Economy
There are four basic descriptions of the relationship between sovereigns and their citizens as it relates to economics.
One, China is a communist system. The government decides what will be produced and what jobs will be created. The people are compliant. Citizens do what they are told and expect the government to provide services. As long as the citizens feel that services are equally provided, they are content. Liberty and democracy are not their priorities or concern.
Two, in Europe, the relationship between government and those governed is symbiotic. This apposite affinity stems from the historical landlord-tenant relationship. The lord of the land paid the tenant workers from the produce of their labors. Throughout European history, rebellions rose on demands for higher pay. At times, opportunity, religion, and representation were issues. Yet seldom did the average citizen seek to be a noble themselves.
Three, emerging countries find themselves today struggling to establish a foothold in a world dominated by the United States, Europe, and China. Their great nemesis is corruption. Many of these countries have not escaped the sovereign sentence that birth is destiny. Citizens are dependent upon the government for survival. In a few examples, they are the remnant structure of colonialism.
Four, only the United States of America was established on the eternal truth that God is sovereign over man, and man is sovereign over government. The government exists to serve the citizens in and through their consent. There is no other ulterior purpose. U.S. citizens are culturally independent of government. We tell government what to do. This then is full circle of the history of government-citizen relationships and, therein, the opposite of China.
How are these relationships fundamental in trade negotiations?
The farm sector of Europe evolved from a redistribution of land following the decline of monarchies. The system is integral to European society. This resulted in the average size of a farm in Europe being 40 hectares. This is approximately 100 acres. In the United States, corporate farms can be thousands of acres. The efficiency and amount of food production per acre in the U.S. is the envy of the world. The 40-hectare European farm is inefficient. The collective farms of China do not match our per acre production. Free enterprise supplies the motivation, the innovation, and the integration to maximize return on investment and labor.
When Europe and China negotiate with the United States on tariffs and quotas involving agricultural products, they do so from a position of historical cultural economics reflective of the government’s demands to maintain a prescribed relationship with their citizens. Price and efficiency are only part of the consideration.
This example can be realized throughout the divisions of the entire global economic system. Why don’t Europe and China simply run their own business pursuant to their parochial cultural demands? Because their systems don’t work. Particularly in globalization, socialism and communism do not work economically.
They need the free enterprise system of the United States to sell goods and services to produce revenue to underwrite and subsidize their cultural systems.
A Brief History
Up to and through World War II, globalization of the world’s economy was limited. China was not part of the world system. Many products, including food, were locally produced and consumed. The world had gone through a great depression. WWII had destroyed 80% of the world’s manufacturing capacity. The United States, not having been invaded, stood intact in industrial capacity. America became a partner in supplying critical products to Europe. A grand plan was designed to rebuild Europe and stabilize the world economy. This architecture was part and parcel of the Marshall Plan to finance the rebuilding of Europe. The Soviet Union literally hid behind the Iron Curtain. They were determined to implement communism economically, without engagement with the rest of the world, for the purpose of dominating the world. The great world cultural economic experiment began.
Trade treaties between the United States and Europe favored Europe in an effort to reestablish their manufacturing industrial complex. This benefitted the United States then because of the massive advantage the U.S. realized in manufacturing capacity from 1945 to 1964. As Europe got back on its feet, trade treaties were amended to account for fairness in competition. Many of those advantages still exist today based upon the initial trade genesis.
The Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight economically. The Chinese are determined not to replicate that example. They are expanding their economy to the rest of the world by underwriting trade deals and infrastructure projects with emerging nations. It is not their primary intent to dominate the world as was so for the Soviet Union. Their primary intent is to survive. Providing services to their citizens is part of its survival strategy.
When China appeared on the world scene following the Tiananmen Square massacre, the West made a decision to accommodate their inclusion into the world trading order, even though the communist system under which they operated was incompatible to free trade. This strategy was implemented in the belief that future wars could be avoided and that the Chinese would reform their ways. The United States continued to be the primary market for goods and services with trade advantages for China. More so than Europe, China has become dependent upon these advantages to provide unnatural buoyancy for their economy.
Where We Are Today in Cultural Economic Relations
We have hit a wall as the result of The Culmination of the World’s Great Cultural Economic Experiment. The United States can no longer support the flawed and inefficient economic systems of socialism and communism for the sake of global economic stability. The citizens of the United States are now demanding jobs and government reform. This is not a selfish request.
Different cultures define happiness in different ways. This is why the Founding Fathers emphasized the principle of government unrestricted pursuit of happiness. They didn’t say pursuit of wealth, pursuit of ownership, or pursuit of dominance. They meant happiness as defined by the individual, not the government. This definition is different in China, Europe and the emerging world.
If the United States is so wealthy, why is President Trump’s demand for tariffs not self-serving? Because communism and socialism cannot ultimately coexist with capitalism. One must win over the others. This is an axiom of economic physics. This principle cannot be suspended any more than the principle of gravity can be suspended. The U.S. system of free enterprise must protect itself to protect the freedom of the world. America can help China and Europe reform, but we cannot support their bad economic habits indefinitely.
The Nuttle Report was delayed two days to take into account Tuesday’s national primaries and the upcoming G-7 summit in Canada. Democrats did well in the primary elections, but their success was basically measured by intensity of a higher turnout rather than an increased percent of the population supporting progressive policy. A recent national survey released by Pew Research found that, of all issues of national concern to U.S. citizens, trade negotiations ranked last. Terrorism was number one. We are blessed to live in a country where everyone else in the world has to worry about us and our policies while we pay little attention to other countries’ domestic concerns.
The U.S. economy is booming because it has been unleashed. Regulation is being reformed. Capital is being released through tax reform. When government takes its hands off free enterprise, it explodes. Communism and socialism require the constant hand of government to keep them from collapsing.
Free trade must respect freedom. The United States stands as the only culture defined by freedom.
We, as citizens of the United States, must never fail to support freedom. It is our obligation to the destiny of generations to defend freedom and hold it paramount as foundational for the opportunity to pursue happiness.
This imperative is comprehensive in all matters concerning government including free trade.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?