Who really owns America? (not China)

[Grouse]

Some interesting facts about American mad vs imports.

China isn't what you think.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/02/13/3-economic-misconceptions-that-need-to-die/?ncid=webmail22

[tughillhunter]

what i found shocking was the federal govt owning our own debt........ crazy. good info, thanks for sharing

[Mike G]

Very enlightening. Thanx for posting.

[Deerthug]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting.

[WNYBuckHunter]

I would do some major research into what "The Mötley Fool" blogs on AOL before you swallow too much of it. Just because a product is assembled here, doesn't mean it was made of components made here or the majority of the profits made by that product (including the profits on the components) stayed here. You see, you can twist the numbers pretty easily, and trying to make a point, in just a few paragraphs by leaving out the details, is not that hard.

His oil argument leaves out the fact that we export most of the oil we pump out of the ground, and then import the refined products that we consume. Why? Because we don't have the refining capacity and it's less "expensive" to do what we currently do than to cut through the red tape and build more refineries. Again, "The Mötley Fool" left out the details.

Do some Google searches and see for yourself. Oh, and look around your home, it's probably full of Made in China labels, plus it's probably built with a lot of Chinese products that you don't see. It was just assembled here, so it must be American made. Right?

[nyslowhand]

Very misleading and biased info provided by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Don't think any of us believe it for a minute!!!

[G-Man]

Well i just bought a "foreign" car for the gas milage. problem is the sticker shows it as made in illonois. i sure hate to tell the factory workers there that i'm not buying the car cause is foreign.... Face it yes the government has debt and most of it we owe to ourselves... just do what all the other countries do that we lend money too. say sorry not paying it back. we've lent out trillions to foreign countries and they don't pay us back. As for oil, the factor that regulates price is refining, we have such high enviromental standards that there hasn't been a refinery built in the us since the 80's!!! They cannot handle the amount of crude oil coming in, this is a fact! So we buy it from foreign sources again most in the western hemisphere, this shift started after opec did their gas rationing in the 1970's. face it we get along with canada, mexico, and other western countries better than we will ever get along with the middle east.

[ELMER J. FUDD]

http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2011/el2011-25.html

Found this.

[nyslowhand]

Some of our founding fathers had the right idea; Thomas Paine, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc.

Isolationism or being concerned with the US more than other countries affairs.

Getting more appropriate in today's world with situations in Iraq, Afganistan, Iran, Pakistan, Somolia, Mid-East countries in general and of course Asia.

[Fantail]

[Fletch]

I do need to comment. The article is titled "Misconception No. 1: Most of what Americans spend their money on is made in China" Well since we spend 70% of our money on services like housing, food, insurance..... of course that is domestic expenditures. It is the other 30% the 399 billion imported that is alrming. I would hazaard a guess that all the items we buy between $.01 and $300 bucks would make up a far larger than 50% margin would be made in China. That is why you can walk around a store looking for items we buy more frequently and can not find a made in America. We do not import pricy items from China like Cars and Jewelry.

Just my thoughts.

The other parts of the article agree with what I have read before that we owe our own country the most, which is our future Social Security we will never see when I get there, then China and Japan over a trillion each. It just astounds me why we owe anyone that kind of money. If I ran my household finances like that I would be in jail. Politicians have kneecapped this country, stupid wars, lawyers and lawsuits for everything and wholesale grouth of the welfare country policies.