It is quite refreshing to read the discusion about world economy on my fav hobby forums. I still consider myself young and my backgroud is mathematics. About 10 yrs ago i learned more about economics and started to see the shift from manufracturing industry to services industry. The Western countries are driven by large corporations which only look at profits without the social impact of their decisions. I then learned about creation of money and realized the flaws. Money as we know it is actually created by debt. Our goverments have no control of money creation mechanism. The socalled Federal Reserve is actually a private entity created by private bankers. The "federal" in its name is as good as "Federal Express".

So what this has anything to do with cheap parts from China. The corporations moved productions to China then turned first world countries to consumers market. Bankers are actually the largest shareholders of all corporations thanks to Wallstreet. The same Bankers lobbied the goverments to impose more cost to corporations that manufractures domestically (through free trade and taxations). It's very scary as it sounds insane but just follow the money and see why it is the tool to control everything.