Not really. Sending jobs out of the country had something to do with this entitlement spending. Likewise, the loss of tax paying workers has something to do with our deficits.
Besides, the entitlement vote is big enough that we're stuck with it, at least until we can win some of them over to Conservative values. We can start by bringing jobs back here.
On the other hand, putting money into the Chinese space program (and economy, and military), is a CHOICE we make by choosing to save $.25 on a note pad over buying American.
Having said all of this, I won't fault anyone for refusing to buy a UAW built car, or products from companies that push the leftist agenda.
Not talking about consumer spending preferences, which is what corporations do to achieve the lowest competitive price.
NASA and DOD are funded by the Gov, which in turn choses - by political will - where to spend it. The Gov choses to spend money on Entitlements, not space exploration.
Entitlement programs only create more Entitlement programs, unlike space exploration which has brought a list of more things than can be enumerated here. Those new things have created our modern society and all the industries and jobs which go with them.
People cannot easily be persuaded to lower spending on Entitlements when there is no reasonable and easily understandable argument why. The same can be said for paying a bit more for some product.
Winning more people over to one side or another is a slow process, subject to reversal at one moment or another and; as such, that method cannot be relied on as a successful strategy.
Sending jobs to China is more a Gov regulatory and political will choice - cf. the Clinton and Obama administrations.
I have argued for some time, in one way or another, that American conservative are trying the wrong tactics: they are too focused on trying to bring back the past and the conservative values they believe rested there, too focused - as a political movement - in the status quo of the Republican Party.
Liberals are focused on heidoism and debauchery, conservatives on sniffing their socks. Which one is more appealing to the public?
The only way, in my opinion, to bring back jobs is to create a compelling reason to do so. That task can only be accomplished through inspiration and hope - two things American conservatism does not offer and, in fact, seems to go out of its way to avoid.
Twice in our country’s history we have created inspiration and hope, not just here, but worldwide: the American Revolution and all that went with it, and the Apollo Program and the lunar landings.
The American Revolution created a unique system of Governance - failure of political will is undoing it.
The Apollo Program and the lunar landings created the modern techno-centric age - failure of political will has undone the US manned space exploration program.
To create a new jobs, generate NEW money, and meaning-filled work, the US conservative movement can either bring the Second American Revolution (and all the bloodshed that entails), go back into space in a big way, or some third unknown thing.
To do any of those, there must be a clear set of goals (both real and political) laid out which, by their very nature, generate inspiration and hope.
The Chinese are looking to the future in the long term, while the US is mired in the past, with short term fixes for mistakes (which should not have been made in the first place), and thereby creating new mistakes for future generations to fix, if the can.
For me, you can keep a Second American Revolution. I prefer going onward to a renewed manned space program - private and government. That alone would demand more industry and jobs, while supplying the tax base with NEW money, allowing current Entitlements to remain. It would also demand a better educational system with far higher standards that exist presently - all those dreaming kids - can you remember or imagine?
We could still be there to greet the first Chinese when they land, you know, if there was a political will.