There are two approaches that politicians usually take in dealing with foreign trade.
The first is Feingold's fair trade approach: trading freely with only countries that have the same worker and other protections as we do in our country. The second is the free trade approach where you trade with foreign companies and hope that through the forces of the free market that foreign countries will somehow be lifted to the high standards of the United States.
Ron Johnson, following the lead of Newt Gingrich, is proposing a third approach: Instead of pushing morally bankrupt countries like China toward emulating the high standards of the U.S., we should emulate them.
When Ron Johnson says he wants to turn Wisconsin into a red state, he wasn't kidding!
Recently he told the Wisconsin Radio Network that we need to me more like China and that businesses were locating there because there was less regulation and less "uncertainty" than in the U.S. Specifically, when asked, how do we bring jobs back to Wisconsin, Johnson responded:
I've talked to corporations that don't even consider coming to Wisconsin because of the business climate. The same is true of America. I'd encourage people to go onto Youtube and type in 'Steve Wynn.' He's the one that creates resorts in Las Vegas. He's also creating resorts in Macau in communist China. His point is the climate for business investment is far more certain in communist China than it is in the U.S here.
Putting aside that China is run by a totalitarian regime and that any comparisons with a totalitarian regime and a democracy are inherently absurd, let's focus on Johnson's larger point that the business climate in China is better than in the U.S.
Ron Johhson is right: the business climate in China is a great climate for business-- but a horrible climate for workers, most of which, are paid under a dollar a day. In fact, except for the elite few, the vast majority of China lives below the poverty line, as Dr. Cheng Xiaonong points out:
If 80 percent to 90 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, the country’s development policy apparently has serious problems. That is, its development policy has not been created for the interests of the people, but for the interests of elite groups.
How does that sound Wisconsin? You can have a job in a factory with few safety standards, zero worker's rights, all kinds of environmental hazards and get paid under a dollar a day to do it... but, hey, we'll have a good business climate!