12 Scary facts about globalisation

A blog called The Economic Collapse today posted a list of 22 frightening facts about the U.S. trade imbalance. We thought we'd share the 12 that scared us the most. But first, we're sharing a bit of a good rant from TEC:
Since 1975, the United States has bought more than 8 trillion dollars more stuff from the rest of the world than they have bought from us.  We are the only economy on earth that could have had 8 trillion dollars drained out of it and still be standing.  Instead of leaving the country, those 8 trillion dollars could have gone to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers.
Now the stats:
  1. In 2001, American consumers spent 102 billion dollars on products made in China.  In 2011, American consumers spent 399 billion dollars on products made in China.
  2. The Chinese undervalue their currency by about 40 percent in order to gain a critical advantage over foreign competitors.  This means that many Chinese companies are able to absolutely thrive while their competition in the United States goes out of business...
  3. A Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs, according to the New York Times.
  4. The U.S. trade deficit with China during 2011 was 295.4 billion dollars.  That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.
  5. Back in 1985, our trade deficit with China was only about 6 million dollars (million with an "m") for the entire year.
  6. U.S. consumers spend about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that Chinese consumers spend on goods and services from the United States.
  7. The United States has actually lost an average of about 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
  8. According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing about half a million jobs to China every single year.
  9. The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.
  10. During 2010 alone, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities closed their doors in America every single day.
  11. 95 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were middle class jobs.
  12. Due in part to the globalization of the labor pool, only about 24 percent of all jobs in the United States are "good jobs" at this point.
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