Usually, this column pits two individuals against each other in a sort of cage match of morality. On one side, we have the Loser. This is generally a person or a group that behaves like a Loser. They may, in fact, be winning!
Take Trump, for example, the Big King Shit of the Loser crowd. Despite his polling (which is really, really bad), he’s literally the President of the United States! In so many ways, he’s won. He’s able to extract billions of dollars from dupes, corporate titans, and taxpayers for his personal use. He flies around the world on our dime, protected by bodyguards we pay for. When someone asks him a question he doesn’t like, he calls them stupid or piggy.
He’s winning. But he’s a Loser.
And then we have the typical Winner, someone who might not literally be winning. The model of a Winner is someone who is fighting back, standing up, despite seemingly insurmountable odds.
The Winners I choose each week are people from whom we can draw inspiration.
Not this week. This week, my Winner is China, and they are winning literally, but that doesn’t make Xi a Winner. But their winning is tied so closely to our losing that I’m going to lay it all out in a single section — a first for this column!
China, Winner | United States, Loser
This isn’t a good thing. I’m not a China hawk by any means, and I very honestly don’t have overwhelming opinions on the global superpower race between China and the United States. The trade imbalance to me seems like a red herring. Yes, I realize we send more money to China than they send to us (or something like that).
But I also send more money to my grocery store than it sends to me. I don’t consider that a trade imbalance. China gets lots of our dollars, but in exchange, we get stuff. So. Much. Cheap. Stuff.
Is that great? Maybe not! A trade imbalance in this case feels like a weird, kinda made-up metric for judging who comes out ahead. Despite this trade imbalance, I would still rather live in the United States. Perhaps you agree. Or not.
I’m certain I’m oversimplifying this, and I apologize (see below).
