Bill Whittle: We’re Number Two

Recently, China overtook the United States as the largest Economy in the World — at least when measured by the PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) metric. In Bill Whittle’s latest Firewall, he shows why this is not just a crying shame — it’s a crime — and he tells us what we can do about it. See the video and transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everybody. I’m Bill Whittle and this is the Firewall.

A few days ago, we rather quietly passed a milestone – a big one. For the first time since the 1870’s – that would be during the administration of President Ulysses S Grant – The United States is no longer the worlds largest economy.
“Hold on to your hats, America,” reports Brett Arends of MarketWatch in his online article, “And throw away that big fat Styrofoam finger while you’re at it.”
Now I don’t know anything about Brett Arends politics, but throwing away that big fat Styrofoam finger – the red, white and blue one that says “we’re number one!” is a long held-wish of the progressive left. It’s so gauche, so unspeakably vulgar, this Phillistine business of having pride in yourself.

This news about us taking second place, economically, to China is not a bug for the left – it’s a feature. They hate this country. Collectivists – like our President, let’s say — have always hated capitalism, always hated individuality, always hated the idea that more work leads to more rewards… in other words, always hated everything that America has stood for.

Just before he was elected, Barack Obama famously bragged that he and the progressive movement would “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” Is that something you would want to do to something or someone you loved – fundamentally transform it? Would the first promise you made to a new bride you claimed to adore be that you could not wait to fundamentally transform her? Progressives are happy we’ve fallen to second. It reduces global inequality.They’ll be happier yet when we’ve fallen to third, or tenth, or twentieth – the way our education system did when they got their hands on it.

Now China, needless to say, has a little more than four times the population of the United States. Surely we should be satisfied with that, right? That one-quarter of China’s population – America – produces just slightly less than they do?
No, dammit, we should not be satisfied. First place is not a statistic. First place is an attitude. First place is an identity. First place is destiny, and the instant you become willing to come in second at anything you will find second place is a sliding slope to nowhere. not where you will remain.

That China is growing at an incredible pace is self-evident. A lot of that is not something we can do anything about – but a lot of it is something we can do something about, but won’t. A significant portion of China’s tech industry is – how should I put this delicately – STOLEN from western research and development. We don’t retaliate because we can’t add; our deficit spending makes us their slaves.
And another significant portion – everything from pirated movie disks to “Adidos” running shoes to “Boreos” cookies to “Arm and Hatchet” baking soda are just flagrant theft worth trillions. But put all that aside. That’s just bitching about a bad call. Or two. Or three. Million.

The reason China has surpassed the US economy is pretty simple, really. The Socialist Chinese leadership has kept the dictatorial essence of socialism while allowing the Chinese people to embrace a capitalist ethic of hard work and reward for effort. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean the American Progressives are trying, and succeeding, in foisting laziness, envy, irresponsibility, government dependency and sloth – in other words, socialism — on the American people.

Record numbers of Americans are on food stamps, unemployment, and other forms of taxpayer support – in other words government forced redistribution of income, at the cost of long-term growth and prosperity. But it’s much worse than that.
The Progressive left has throttled what might have been the most booming economic recovery in American history through irresponsible fiscal policy, higher taxes, and absurd regulations – mostly regulations advocated by environmental hysterics. And none of them make the slightest lick of sense: While doing everything he can to prevent America from cleanly burning the plentiful, inexpensive fossil fuels right beneath our feet, he then sells coal and oil to China – where it’s burned, and not very cleanly, in the same atmosphere we inhabit.

World dominant militaries depend on world dominant economies. World dominant research and innovation depends on the incentive of financial reward and freedom from ridiculous levels of regulation. When guys like Steve Jobs, the founder of the most cash-rich company in the world, says he could never start Apple in America today, that’s not because we’ve run out of garages, or capital, or people willing to risk that capital. Virtually all of the great ideas still come from right here. But the Progressive left, which is significantly too stupid and infinitely to lazy to go out and make their own wealth, taxes and regulates new start-ups to death to feed a government that costs about four thousand billion dollars a year… then you know these shackles are self-imposed, and what we could do if we would just release ourselves from these self-imposed chains would not just astonish the Chinese and the rest of the world – it would astonish us ourselves.

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  • http://gerardjackson.com/ gerard jackson

    Steve Jobs said he “could never start Apple in America today” and yet he fully supported Obama and the Democratic Party.

    • Carlos_Perera

      That, of course, exemplifies the concept of _cognitive dissonance_.

    • CensoredSpeech

      I guess he couldn’t recognize a contradiction in terms. Also called an
      Oxymoron.

  • Gamal

    We feel behind China a lot longer ago than the Purchasing Power Metric indicates. We are purchasing with borrowed and printed money.

  • Bill_H2

    Defund and reform the federal government

  • Bellerophons_Revenge

    Unfortunately, Bill is utterly and completely wrong. It isn’t Obama or the EPA that’s destroying America, it’s Americans themselves. Lazy, worthless trash that vote for more and bigger handouts. I’m not talking about food stamp recipients, I’m talking about big business.

    Why are there so few start up companies? Because every big business from Boeing to Bank of America to General Motors to Apple want no competition and consistently support anti-competitive policies and candidates. “I’ve got mine, screw you!” is the battle cry of the rich and famous.

    Until the Chamber of Commerce is seen as the corporatist monstrosity that they are this will continue.

    Progressives have always been the bane of competition as has their biggest supporter, big business. Teaching children to “cooperate, not compete” may be opposed by conservatives and libertarians but is loved by an establishment that intends to remain established.

    It isn’t just big business either. Cab drivers panicked at the potential loss of their municipal monopolies contribute big bucks to politicians who would destroy Uber. Hotels and motels can’t handle the competition of Airbnb so they want local governments to destroy their competitors with ridiculous laws.

    The American culture is no longer what Whittle believes – one that embraces hard work and success. That’s part of a past that, in truth, only partially existed. America today is the land of Obama, Romney and the Chamber of Commerce. It’s past its prime and won’t remain 2nd for long. It’s ready for 20th or 50th place in a world that will cheer its passing.

  • Douglas Mayfield

    In order for America not only to become #1 again but also simply to survive long term as a free country, Americans need to embrace facts and discard, with prejudice, the malevolent fantasy based, ‘something for nothing’ appeal of the politicians for whom they vote.

    If the government hands you something good as your ‘right’, there are several vicious lies involved.

    Firstly, somebody worked hard for that good, whether food or health care or whatever, and you do not have a right to that person’s life.

    Secondly, what the government does is not ‘charity’ but is a perversion of that word to suit the goals of the Left wing. If you’re going to be charitable, the first thing you do is earn the money. You don’t grab the goods, services, and/or money at gun point and call that ‘charity’ unless you are a lying hunk of Left wing scum.

    The goal of the Left is a socialist police state in America. Unless American voters alter their approach, we will not only be #2 and sinking fast but also be on a fast track to that socialist police state.

  • david dorian

    ONE Problem: AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY??

    That is the crime. It is white Genocide. IT is state violence.
    Politicians past and present must be held accountable. ;Just obeying
    orders’ is not an excuse.

    Do you wish to spend the rest of your life supporting swarms of
    non-citizens streaming across our borders and voting for you to give
    them more of your earnings?

  • ReformSchool

    When we lose Number Two, we’ll know it. We all know how badly it stinks!.