Kat: Perhaps you don't know this, but New Zealand in the past few
years just went through a massive round of privitization and slashing
of social benefits. So perhaps it is not exactly the socialist
paradise you imagine it to be.
There are about 4 or 5 billion third world people out there, and most
of them are uneducated, many have no skills other than subsistence
farming. The fact is that these people can be paid wages orders of
magnitude lower than western workers. So, if you have the same range
of skills as an impoverished third world worker, you are liable to find
your wages dropping.
The only answer to this is to cut off trade with third world countries.
But is this a good answer? A hundred years ago western countries were
in the same situation. Industrialization created enough wealth that
the children of industrial workers were able to become educated, and
were able to get the skills to demand higher wage jobs.
Should the policy of the US government be to block industrial
development outside of the US? Should we stop trade with other
countries? Is this going to A) Help people in the US and B) Help
people in third world countries? It seems to me that protectionism is
going to hurt the US economy while at the same time hurting third world
economies, a lose-lose.
It does not matter that manufacturers move to third world countries
because of greed. Of course they do, they want to make more money.
Why is that a bad thing? The net result is cheaper products for the US
and higher wages in the third world country. If you think that
manufacturing doesn't raise wages, companies are now looking around for
NEW third world countries to move to, because the wages in the first
wave of countries are now much higher. Simple economics.
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Darryl
Think Galactically -- Act Terrestrially
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