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On Buying Chinese Goods M. Northrup Buechner In response to the recent post about how hard it is to avoid buying products made in China: There are several significant differences in the circumstances under which we refused to buy anything made in the Soviet Union and the circumstances surrounding China today. 1. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian communist dictatorship, explicitly committed to the proposition that "man exists to serve the state" and that communism must sweep the world. Private businesses were limited to individual or family businesses by the communist dogma that an employer/employee relationship was inherently exploitive. (Even so, such businesses in the Soviet Union were the source of something like 30-40% of all agricultural output.) But outside of agriculture, all production and employment were in the hands of the state with the consequence that there was no chance at life for those who wanted to live. Today, communism is dead in China, as it is dead everywhere in the world outside of American universities. In fact, the Chinese leadership evidently abandoned the communist ideology about 20 years ago, well before the Soviet Union abandoned it. There are still many state-run enterprises, but their share of the economy must be shrinking rapidly. There seem to be very few limitations on establishing private enterprises, and certainly no limitations on private employment. 2. The Soviet Union had 30,000 nuclear missiles pointed at us and had promised to bury us. Buying products from the Soviet Union under those conditions was literally supporting your own destroyer. China has nothing like that power, and we certainly should not be helping them to get it. But when you buy Chinese goods, you are not giving financial support to a country whose ruling ideology says it must destroy you and which has the means to do it. 3. It was easy to avoid buying goods from the Soviet Union. As the consequence of their centrally planned and crippled economy, there were *no* goods from the Soviet Union available to buy. In fact, there are still no goods "Made in Russia" in the United States, a clear sign that the substantive changes in the Russian economy have been very small, that production in Russia is still primarily by the state. On the other hand, there is virtual flood of goods "Made in China." It is literally impossible to avoid buying them. But there is a sense in which that flood of goods is its own sanction. It is first-hand evidence that there is some significant element of economic freedom in China, that many people there now have a chance at life, and they are grabbing that chance with both hands. Of course, China is still a dictatorship, and whatever degree of freedom has been introduced into its economy over the last 20 years is precarious. Conceivably, it could be eliminated very fast. On the other hand, China's economic success has to be a major part of the reason that China has avoided the revolutions that ended the communist tyrannies of Europe and Russia. The Chinese rulers intend to remain in power, and part of what was necessary for them to remain in power was to end total control over the economy. "What is a freedom loving individual to do?" I'll tell you what I do: (1) I condemn the Chinese dictatorship, but on the grounds of individual rights, not because they oppose democracy for their country. (2) I oppose helping China to acquire the military means to threaten us. (3) I avoid buying goods made in China. However, this last is not an absolute for me now, as it was with regard to the Soviet Union. If I can find a substitute that is not made in China, I will buy the substitute instead. If there is no substitute, and the good is a marginal value to me, I will not buy it. But I will not make a sacrifice. If the good is something I really want, and there is no substitute, I will buy a good made in China. |
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© 2008 M. Northrup Buechner. All rights reserved. Photo Credit - Mark Da Cunha |
