Using Our Strategy Against US

To understand China, we must look back over the learning of almost 60 years.  

This is where it comes from:

When I was barely old enough to see over the kitchen counter, my mother and I were having a discussion.  While I can't recall the discussion, I do recall this: 

"Robert, stop using my words against me."  [It's a gift.]

No more than a scant few years later, my Dad was chiding me for some minor infraction.  I offered my defense.  The conversation went like this:




To understand China, we must look back over the learning of almost 60 years.  

This is where it comes from:

When I was barely old enough to see over the kitchen counter, my mother and I were having a discussion.  While I can't recall the discussion, I do recall this: 

"Robert, stop using my words against me."  [It's a gift.]


No more than a scant few years later, my Dad was chiding me for some minor infraction.  I offered my defense.  The conversation went like this:

"Robert, do you know what you are?"

"No."

"Did you ever hear the expression, A Philadelphia Lawyer?"

"No."

"Well, that's what you are. You're a Philadelphia Lawyer."  
[I was so proud.]


This brings us to China:

It is not unpatriotic to say, 

"China will succeed because China will do as we did, not as we say."  ~ Slim Fairview.

The Quotations of Slim Fairview. Copyright © 2019.


Then and Now.

Then
**********************
Santayana said, 
"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."

Slim said, 
"Those who never learned history are doomed--Period!

Now
**********************
Santayana said,
"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."

Slim says,
"Those who remember history are able to repeat it.

**********************

China saw:  The Transcontinental Railroad
China said,  Belt and Road

China saw:  Manifest Destiny
China said,  South China Sea

China saw:  The Hoover Dam
China said,  Three Gorges Dam Project

China saw:  The Monroe Doctrine
China said,  TPP


"If you want to know where China is going, look at where America has been."  Slim Fairview
The Quotations of Slim Fairview Copyright © 2019.


Years before I heard the Chinese saying, 

"Face is more important than life."

My Mother taught me,  "Always give someone an out."

My Dad taught me, "No one agrees with someone else's opinion. Only his own opinion expressed by somebody else."


My Mom had a saying:  "I say yeah, but....."

Since then I've heard experts say that the Chinese are too polite to say no.  They simply smile and nod and when the deal does not go through, we don't know why.

They smile and nod, but....

I've already written  "The Media Doesn't Understand China"  

We see things through Western Eyes.

Here are some examples of how the Chinese see things.

The Chinese say,

"In the West, when you want privacy, you go into a locked room.  In China, when we want privacy, we go into an open field."

"A white horse is not a horse."

"Never underestimate the power of a symbolic gesture."

(Slim says, "Never forget, the power of a symbolic gesture resides with the person making the gesture." Slim Fairview.
The Quotations of Slim Fairview. Copyright © 2019.

Confucius said, "Life is simple. We make it hard."
Slim says, "Management is simple. We make it hard."

China is using our own strategy against us.

Henry Ford doubled his employees salaries from $2.50 a day to $5.00 a day.  He made it possible for his workers to buy Fords.  And after they bought a Ford, they could buy a washing machine, an ice-box, a radio, or save up for one of those Sears Roebuck houses. 


"The Middle Class took off 100 Years Ago--
Thanks to Henry Ford?" 
27 January 2014  NPR  All Things Considered.


When China elevated 500 Million people from Poverty to the Middle Class, China:

Created a consumer class
Created an investor class.
Gave the Chinese people a vested interest in the success of China's economy.

Today, in the US, we outsource to cut costs.

In plain English, you aren't going to sell a lot of Oldsmobiles in a country where people make $5.00 a day.

By outsourcing, we've destroyed 
The Consumer Class
The Investor Class
&
The Working Class is now the notoriously underpaid 
"Service Sector Class"

One reason we have less and less manufacturing, is because those working in the manufacturing industry can no longer afford to buy what they make so we make what they can afford to buy overseas.

Tax Policy to Increase Wages $5.00 an Hour. Now!


And there are more economic travails approaching.

Soon the G 20 will meet.  But that meeting is analogous to putting tires only on the front wheels of your car. Yes, they will drag your car down the road.  But your car will more faster and more efficiently if you have tires on all four wheels.  What does that mean?  You must invite the E 20 to the meeting.

Forming an E 20 Group of Nations

Solving the Emerging Nation Economic Crisis

The Future of the G 20 in Good Times & Bad

And for those looking to do business globally

Global Management: A shift in the paradigm of corporate America

Best of luck.

Sincerest regards,

Slim.

If you find anything here to be helpful, please don't hesitate to send me a really tricked out Mac Book and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note.
Slim.

Bob Asken
Box 33
Pen Argyl, PA 18072

Copyright © 2019.  Robert Asken
All rights reserved.