China- US Relations

The relationship between China and the United States affects all parts of our nation, but ordinary Americans should be most concerned with the economic relations, as that is what directly impacts them. As it is now, the Chinese government does not provide its people with decent working conditions, and has one of the world’s lowest minimum wages, lower than 32 African countries. This situation makes our economic relationship with China a double-edged sword. For example, the average American benefits because they are able to enjoy a very high standard of living, but at the same time we are losing jobs. On the other hand, China is able to provide a lot of jobs for its people, but the Chinese have a very low standard of living. This is because the Chinese are able to provide extremely cheap labor, resulting in cheap products, which become available for Americans to purchase. During growing economic times, the average American would prefer to have a devalued Chinese currency, but that situation cannot last forever, as displayed by our current economic crisis. With an unemployment rate above 9%, more and more Americans would like to see the Chinese currency be revalued so the labor overseas is not as cheap, leading to an increased sources of jobs here in the United States. On scale of 1 being expensive Chinese labor but an abundance of American jobs with a low standard of living and 10 being inexpensive Chinese labor to the point of the United States having tremendous unemployment but extremely cheap products, I would say that the most ideal economic relationship with china would be around a 6 or 6.5, allowing the US to have a higher than average standard of living, but not an unacceptable unemployment rate.

Source:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/30453/