Chinese Trade War: Didn't Have To Affect Us!

We used to make things in America. We used to make things out of materials mined in American soil. Specifically, we used to make high energy-density motors and magnets here, with rare earth metals mined here. Most people would be astonished a all the products they use which contain rare earth elements.

Then the safety nazis got ahold of the mine and shut it down. Now our rare earths come from china. China ships it to Japan. Japan processes it. We buy it. Japan and China have been kicking sand at one another and calling ugly names recently, and Japan took a Chinese fisherman for fishing in disputed waters. China responded by cutting off the supply of unrefined rare earths to Japan. To say that this has potential to disrupt the world's economy is an understatement.

We'll see what happens, but it looks like China holds the cards here. They may be getting some relatively high-tech jobs in China, and we may be getting even more-dependent on that communist Most Favored Trading Partner of ours for materials we use in our warfighting and life-living activities.

Q: What happens when you don't make your own bullets and you end up in a war with the people who do?
A: Hint: it rhymes with "shoe ruse"

Now people are coming to their senses in America and trying to re-open the rare earths mining industry, but this time with subsidies from the Taxpayer because it's not profitable (otherwise it would still be in operation). Free trade got us into a mess here. We'll see how bad it ends up, and if we are able to get out of it.

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P.S. remember: everything you buy from China is funding their military. If you buy a $1.00 toy then you bought a handful of bullets for the Red Army. Of course, we are all very best good friends now, and we would never get in a war with China, so that is probably okay . . . right?