The REAL Price of Black Friday

Brady Forrest of O'Reilly Radar writes about a recent trip to China where he discovered a treasure trove of product knock-offs. iPhones, iPods etc.

Now that China is becoming the manufacturing center of the world (and some would say stealing American manufacturing jobs), they've also long been taking something arguably more precious.

Our intellectual property.

China is quickly becoming America's largest economic threat. And perhaps the world's as well. They are poised to become the world's largest consumer of oil and seem to have little regard for (or any interest in) developing and/or following responsible environmental policies.

Never mind our massive Chinese trade deficit.

Never mind China's human rights record.

Never mind the recent news filled with manufacturing horror stories from China - tainted pet food, lead painted toys, Plastic aqua dots made from the same chemical found in date rape drugs..

Because tomorrow, millions of us will line up outside Wal-Mart - China's single largest product distributor, to buy cheap stuff for Christmas.

In America, Black Friday celebrates the most profitable retail day of the year. We revel in all our cheap holiday purchases.

In China, they celebrate Black Friday for a different reason. Every Black Friday symbolizes another nail in the U.S. economic coffin.

It's tough to fight an economic war when your citizens are providing aid and comfort to "the enemy".

Believe it or not, I'm NOT a protectionist. I don't believe that we should necessarily impose restricted trade or tariffs on goods from China.

I do believe that we need a public discussion and debate about the price we're really paying for those $1100 50" LCD TVs.

"Have a great day and thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart."