US-China Inter-imperialist Rivalry Amidst Economic Crisis here ♦ Questions about Political Economy here ♦
US-China Inter-imperialist Rivalry Amidst Economic Crisis
Capitalism depends on profit. Profit is the surplus value of workers’ labor not paid to the workers. Imperialism is capitalism extended to exploit another country’s working class and material resources. US profits have declined since the 1970’s due to increased automation. That means fewer workers to exploit for profits. And increasing global competition.
US manufacturing is 10.2% of the economy and 8% of the employment. It has contracted for the past six months. In 1960, US manufacturing accounted for roughly 25% of the US nominal GDP and approximately 28% of US employment.
The seven industries that are slowing down significantly are paper products, machinery, electrical equipment, appliances, computers, and electronics. Construction is down 6.7%. There was a net loss of a million jobs so far in 2025. One million more unemployed workers. Only 22,000 new jobs were created in August, while more than 150,000 workers enter the market every month.
The effective US unemployment rate is over 22% of the workforce. More than 60% of the US workforce lives paycheck to paycheck. Twenty-five percent live in severe poverty.
The US government is increasing debt by printing money and borrowing. It is selling high-interest treasury bonds to raise funds. Many economists say that the US is in a recession, facing a potential full-blown depression worse than 1929.
Bankruptcy filings have increased 12% since 2024, continuing a two-year trend. An estimated fifteen thousand retail stores will close in 2025, doubled from 2024. Car dealers are refusing new car deliveries with an increasing stock that can’t be sold. Hundreds of showrooms have been closed. Public credit card debt has significantly increased since 2024 to $1.21 trillion. Food pantries are experiencing critical shortages.
Some predict a huge recession before the end of 2025.
Geopolitics of Imperialist Rivalries
During the 1980s and 1990s, US capitalists sent many industries to China, Vietnam, Mexico, Costa Rica, and elsewhere to make up for lost profits in the US. Today General Electric has announced plans to close factories in the US and move them offshore. Now China is doing the same thing. It’s sending production to other countries to extract profit from cheap labor and to extract material resources like agriculture and oil.
US manufacturing is one third of what it was during the 1960s. It is a service economy which pays much less, is less predictable, and typically nonunion. Global economic hegemony through exploitation and war is the imperialist route to boost profits from the exploitation of foreign workers with lower wages. The reason workers migrate to the US is because the US and China destroyed the economic and political vitality of the nations they’re leaving.
Capitalism is showing that it is incapable of meeting workers’ needs!
Only communism will abolish unemployment along with wage slavery! In communism, workers will be needed everywhere. There will be work for all to meet the masses’ needs. Without bosses or supervisors, work will be a joy, with workers planning and producing everything collectively.
No borders! No imperialism! We are all workers of one class! Let’s fight together for communism.
—Comrade
Questions about Political Economy
I have been thinking about the questions I have about political economy. Here are some things I don’t feel that I understand well enough to explain it to a friend:
Why can’t machines create profits for the capitalists?
If they could replace every factory worker with a machine to do the job and sell those items, would they make no profit?
Why do capitalists invest in unproductive capital?
Why does capitalism need to grow in order to continue existing?
I hope other comrades can help provide clear answers and share other questions that have come up in their work.
—Experienced comrade who is still learning