The True Cost Of Globalisation

http://home.clara.net/heureka/gaia/global02.htm

this is the reality

 

Thanks for the post. I get a little tired of the free traders constantly telling us going offshore or outsourcing is the only way businesses can continue to do business. Well I for one don't buy Nikes or other products produced at the expense of the workers. The worker is constantly told they have to make sacrifices in benefits and protections, but it seems the business owners never do.

 

I don't see the point you're trying to make.

 

It's about the Golden Rule. He who has the gold makes the rules.

 

Comparing nominal wages is a waste of time.

 

I could't agree with you more. When in Cambodia a couple weeks ago I talked to quite a few of the locals. Many of them stated that the big factories were the best thing that happend to their community. It really pisses me off when people say they are going to boycott certain items or companies because they use overseas "sweat shops". Many of these so-called sweat shops are the best jobs available to people with limited education. They pay more than most people can make at other jobs - if any other jobs are even available. In a family with 4 people making $60 a month in the factory they are actually doing pretty good. Please don't boycott these companies as you would only be taking jobs away from people that like and depend on it. dc

 

If those employers are so generous to workers in third world countries by providing them low scale employment Then why don't they share their cost savings by reducing the price of their goods. Since Nike and like employers can shave such a huge percentage off their manufacturing costs by going offshore, why not pass those savings on or voluntarily raise the living standards of the countries of whose labor force they are taking advantage.

Levi Straus, Stanley tools and many other manufactures have gone multinational, has anyone noticed a reduction in the price of these goods?

 

Because the market for jeans, tools, running shoes are competitive enough that they don't make economic profit.

And at any rate, they're companies designed to make profit, not charities.

 

They are raising the living standards. That was my whole point. Many people think that just because they are only paying $60 a month that they are taking advantage of the people - but that is just not true. Most of the people are happy with their jobs because they involve less physical labor and more pay than they could have otherwise. dc

 

Raising the living standards by giving people pointless (and like said, hazardous) menial tasks? How heroic! I doubt that these people are happy.

 

I think the talented people are the ones who benefit in the unequal distribution of wealth. some people have more because they know a lot more. there's nothing wrong with being talented, the problem starts when these talents are used to step on other people's rights... Big time companies are willing to pay decent wages in exchange of quality output.. If the chinese people are not getting a decent wage, then the labor policies in that country should be the one to blame because they allow such injustice to continue. Companies like Nike are just taking advantage of the opportunities these lousy labor policies offer them...

wow...I enjoy answering the posts here! thank God this Riad in Marrakech where I'm staying in has really fast internet connection.

 

Perhaps, but it doesn't help when you have multi-national corporations in bed with the lawmakers of the countries they move their factories to.

 

Buford You are one Kerazi Sonuvabitch oh yeah git down an boogay mr ironnie
I Ronnie get your ironnie

Buford you could write a song and post it and if its good some other shitkicking rednecks can join in

 

Its funny to see the left rallying together to keep China poor. They tried collectivism once already, it didn't work.

 

Nice to see a fascist that cares that much - hey if you care so much you should go and live in china it would do you good, may even make you see that you know nothing about china

 

You're the one who drools over violent people running around in masks, so who are you calling fascist?

And I've already lived in China. Have you?

 

The pattern has far broader implications than just providing the world with running shoes.
Profit margins increase by decreasing labor costs.
If chimps could be used and literally paid peanuts, well then, they'd employ them!
The broader picture includes the theft of farmland, so that subsitance farming is not longer possible - it all goes to cash crops....and none of that cash goes to the displaced people.
Instead of owning the control over the production of their own food, they must become wage slaves, instead (the lucky ones)
Ask yourself - why does the sex trade indsutry flourish the way it does in Thailand?
Why so many daughters sold by so many northern peasants?
It is not some weird tradition in their culture - rather, they are forced by circumstances that surfaced back in the Vietnam war.

If you look at profit margins that have climbed to 75-85%, then you must question the ethics of that margin. It serves the stockholders, that's all.
People who do nothing at all to earn these dividends, drive the market, and this has far-reaching effects all over the planet.

If you ever attempt a holiday in Rio, and wander anywhere beyond the limited scope of that narrow band of "tourist-safe" barricaded and protected rich man's playground, you'll see what I mean. A lot of desperately poor and really pissed-off people have a strong resentment, and who can blame them?

Globalists want us to believe what they do is good for people. It isn't.
Their plan serves a tiny fraction of the planet's population. There is no equitable sharing of wealth at all. They have consistently kept raising the bar, and will continue to do so, as long as they can get away with it.

If you read the entire history of Levi Strauss, from the beginning to the present, that history offers a remarkable insight into what has happened in the past 30 years.
Measuring the difference - can tell us a lot about what we've lost, and why.

 

Almost nothing you said is true. Why is it that being a socialist means you can basically make up economics as you go along?

That's one way, but not the only way. Wages are rising in the developing countries attracting the most investments, like China. Globalisation is driving wages up.

No country can develop through subsistence agriculture. That is a recipe for perpetual poverty.

Agricultural societies are poor societies. Stop romanticising rural poverty. All nations that have prospered have done so through urbanisation and industrialisation.

Who has an 85% profit margin?

China is booming. This is not a tiny fraction of the world population, this is a billion people.

Seriously, its obvious you are just making things up as you go along - assuming reality fits your prejudices and ideological biases.

 

When you boycott "sweatshop labor" you are actually really boycotting labor from poor countries, and spending your money in rich countries.

In those countries, the workers don't have much choice. And a textile mill job might be a far better option than anything else that's available, if anything.

 

No what I am doing is voting with my wallet for more compassionate laws and protections.

Buying into the bull that corporations outsourcing jobs developed and made profitable for them in developed countries under labor laws and protections, does not serve the downtrodden of the world for pennies an hour, with no laws or protections . It does nothing but continue the disparity between the classes.