Not really. It's even the contrary. 'Mericans like to spend a lot on cheap stuff, it's because we need to support countaries that produce a lot, and it is a consumerist society (you should've see the amount of bullet I unloaded with Laura, my trusted .22 calibre rifle!) but at the same time, if 'Merica would stop buying all those cheap stuff, Chinese labour would go down and the countary would inevitably face total chaos as the majority of the population would lose their job.

'Merica, on the other side, would start to buy moar from Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Mexico.

americans dont have any other option .. they are getting poor since the last 20 years but the cheap products from china are helping them to maintain the same status .

China would be sad. They already don't dance much, so imagine if they all lost their job. no moar high fives, no moar pelvic thrusts, no moar happy times. We 'Mericans and Westerner must continue and encourage the countary by continuing to buy made in China stuff and tell our friends back home to buy imported stuff. Except for guns... I surely wouldn't want Larry to lose an eye due to faulty parts!

Poutine, it's CALIBER. Any REAL American would know that and not spell it the wussified Euro way.

Calm down MrTibbles, he's of French origin (complicated story) so of course is more inclined to spell it the European way.

With regards to the question, I think Gaahl has hit the nail on the head. We rely on cheap labour and a carefree attitude to pollution from China, but they need us to keep buying the stuff they make.

It's not entirely equal, but for the time being the supply-demand is balanced.

Once it falls out of whack though - *BAM!* World War Three. Then you'll really need Laura, Poutine!

The West CANT stop buying from China... come on be real...... its the West that will suffer. China has enough to survive a while without supplying the West...

The governement can survive a while without supplying the West but the people won't be able to to. Imagine if ll the production stopped one day and everybody would be sent home, that would be a disaster! They'd have nothing to do, can't pay electricity or rent, they'll won't even be able to buy condoms. Herpes outburst anyone?

China is not only the lifeline to the West but it also the banker to the world. Chinese money keeps the United States and its debt-laded government afloat.  Chinese money keeps most of Africa afloat these days.  The European Union has repeatedly turned to China to bail itself out of the problems that have been created by less-hard working countries such as Greece, Portugal, perhaps even Spain and Italy.  It was China that called in to cushion the blow after the Irish economy totally collapsed.  I admit that all of this assistance is done because it is good for business, undoubtedly and it keeps the Chinese economy growing.  It is truly amazing how the world has changed in a mere 50 years.  50 years ago China was a third world country and Britain barked orders at the world, etc., etc.  America dominated the world order.  Things have so completely changed.

What an ASININE and INSULTING QUESTION! STFU!!!!!!!!!! The answer is NO!!!!!!!!!! :( The United States is slowly making the corrections and improvements that have been LONG overdue. There are still rough areas like the housing market,unemployment,etc. It's just going to take a long time for the U.S. economy to really get rolling.

The Western world is losing economy now no doubt about it and the money is going to Asia including China, the richest bank of the world is Bank of China.China's approach to economic development has turned the country into a lopsided giant, an export juggernaut with one huge financial arm. Chinese businesses use cheap labor and cheap capital with low operation costs to compete on the world market, with ever-increasing effectiveness. Beijing continues to subsidize exports heavily. It does so directly, through favorable loans to businesses and favorable exchange rates to foreign buyers of Chinese goods. And it does so indirectly, through what economists call "financial repression," whereby the government imposes controls on the investment of Chinese citizens that allow it to funnel capital into Chinese businesses.
The People's Bank of China has gathered a good portion of the enormous trade profits and cash inflows. At the end of 2009, it held $2.4 trillion worth of foreign exchange. This is the largest amount of foreign exchange owned by any central bank in the world -- and it does not even reflect the reserves held by China's major commercial banks. What is more, the figure is likely to grow by another $300 billion in 2010.
Corruption, rising inequality, restricted freedoms, and environmental damage are challenges to the Chinese Communist Party, but their hold on power is likely to remain secure so long as it can continue to develop China's economy and create jobs.

So it is time to take back our investment in china, huh ? all these trilions of usd and technology we put here, are also going back with the way of buying the stuff from china. Some conspracy may talk about that all of this have been managed by the rulling elite. If china buying the greece papers and similar "worthy" things, i see it as a payback. and the leaders as Merkel, Obama or even Hu know where the truth is . Subsidizing the chinese exports is the way, how to spend those accumulated trilions of USD in chinese banks. Because, we all know, there is no way for china or chinese milionaires to buy many properties in other countries. And also not easy to change it back to RMB. if there will be the summ exchanged to RMB, the market will be full of money with lower value, than it have now. and so on and on ... 

other way around.