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What I meant with my "creating something from nothing" comment was that many of the products and services we create and sell didn't even exist not too many years ago. A few examples are computers, software, CNC machines, pharmaceutical drugs, genetically modified plants, etc.

While there are certainly many fine, ethical people in China, there is also a significant band of thieves located there which their government either can't stop, won't stop, or even worse in in cahoots with. Know how the RIAA is screaming about bootleg music downloads eating their lunch? This is where our technical advantage is headed, courtesy of said band.

What we are talking about is War. It may be economic warfare but it is just as serious and might be more important than regular warfare.

Yes the Chinese certainly aren't playing fair. They bootleg not just music and movies, they steal and copy everything we send over. I know many people who are getting crushed by the competition from China. That is what happens if they are competing on commodities with a competitor who is being subsidized by their government.

Everything we purchase from China is being subsidized by at least 25-30%. That is because the Chinese government is artificially holding their currency value down. As the dollar declines it gets more expensive for them to peg to the dollar. The question is how long can they afford to sell at a loss?

Right now the American Economy is in a sweet spot. Our currency is cheap which makes it tough for the Europeans and Japanese to compete and yet we still have access to cheap goods from China.

The Countries that need to worry about becoming "Third world countries" are many of the European countries. They have no population growth, high taxes, entrenched bureaucracies, high currency valuations, in short no hope.

China is certainly an economic competitor and threat. But they will not be able to maintain the current subsidies. They are beggering themselves to try and get into the 20th century. When they give up, or get too expensive, we will just find some other countries to make cheap commodities for us : )