American productivity syndrome

Benjamin Franklin said it:" No nation was ever ruined by trade." But what the U.S economy is experiencing now is not trade. Trade means getting something and giving something instead. The Chinese sell manufactured things, but they get more greenbacks, because they produce many things more cheaply than the U.S does.

America itself prospered because of its huge amount of trade with European and Japanese partners. But that was a multilateral profit, which means all sides got richer because there was a tangible growth of productivity for all partners involved. Americans get richer because of their bright new ideas and Japanese get richer because of their more productive methods of production, and in West Europe there was a good balance of both. But here there is a Chinese syndrome or at least an American productivity syndrome.