The cheap Chinese crap industry
Another reason we need a new economy
13 OCT 2023
∙ PAID
Don’t worry. I have no charts or graphs or spread sheets on this.
Just the obvious. We’re talking little figurines that blink, little toy soldiers that buzz, envelopes, toy fire trucks, doll houses with tiny table settings, slippers that don’t fit, clocks—
Hundreds of thousands of types of items—millions—that simply MUST come all the way from China on huge ships.
Crap.
And all sorts of Americans work in this business, pick up paychecks for running this forever operation from our side.
A guy who got a PhD from Harvard finds out IBM isn’t looking for “doctors of sociology.” He lands a job with an import firm in Brooklyn.
Years later at a party, he’s chatting with a plastic surgeon who asks him what he does.
“Import business. Items from China.”
“Really. How does that work?”
“The guys and I sit around the office and plan what we’ll need for the fall, winter, spring, and summer. Sort of.”
“Good money?”
“No complaints. We’re doing well. Now we’re getting into refurbishing hotels for illegal immigrants.”
“What kind of refurbishing?”
“We import stuff from China and redecorate the rooms after the immigrants destroy them.”
“On government contracts?”
“Yeah. But we also raise private investment money.”
“Really. I might be interested.”
A conversation at one of the last stops on the long train from the ratification of the Constitution and the launching of a Republic to…