Hi Austin,
You must be a little young. In the middle 80s, I was heading up the automobile group for a major investment bank. There was a time that everything you wrote about could have been said about the Japanese. When I was a kid, if it was Made in Japan it was junk. Amazing what was done in two decades. And what was even more remarkable was what Korea did in one decade with quality.
You sited some examples and I have heard them too but they are isolated, otherwise the trade deficit wouldn't be so f---ing big. The math tells all and little anecdotes don't add up to anything on world trade. The US imports a great deal from China and it grows. And when they wanted planes from Boeing, which is our largest exporter, they made them build them there. And Boeing agreed.
So you can pretend that your universe is real but I will bet you that your reality will burst within two years.
Ren
