Alibaba Founder: US Spent $14T on the Wrong Thing

'You're supposed to spend money on your own people,' not war, Jack Ma said
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 19, 2017 7:07 AM CST
Alibaba Founder: US Spent Trillions on War, Not on Itself
China's Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, speaks during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.   (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)

Tempted to blame China for your economic woes, America? Take a look in the mirror instead. That was the message of Alibaba founder Jack Ma Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he wagged a finger at the US for blowing $14 trillion on war efforts over the past three decades while letting US infrastructure languish, CNBC reports. "It's not that other countries steal jobs from you guys," Ma said, instead citing an error in US strategy, per the South China Morning Post (which is owned by Alibaba). While globalization has enriched us, the country ends up funneling money to Wall Street and Silicon Valley instead of to Main Street USA and people "not good at schooling," he said, adding "not everybody can pass Harvard like me."

He also asked where billions of dollars made by major multinational corporations like Microsoft and IBM has gone, which Investopedia sees as a reference to the cash they've squirreled way abroad. Ma's comments come in the wake of campaign warnings from Donald Trump that the US could hit China with tariffs on its exports here, though Ma says he's met with Trump sees him as "open minded and … listening," per SCMP. In other big Alibaba news, an Olympic-sized announcement: CNN reports the Chinese e-commerce company has made a deal to supply technology and other services for the next six Olympic Games. (Here's what else Ma and Trump talked about.)

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