Chris,
The point is that the more productive and profitable a business is the more
that its profits become vulnerable to breakdowns, hold-ups, etc and the
more it pays the employers to treat workers better (though sometimes,
common sense has to be forced on them by unions). Even the Germans
discovered this in their slave labour factories in WWII. In the normal
course of events, low wages in a generally prospering country rise upwards
quite quickly to match those in previously high wage countries. But even in
countries in which employers still have high recruitment power (with an
excess pool of available workers) -- as in England in the early part of the
19th century, or China and India today -- the exploitation of cheap (and
child) labour is the only way to go, unfortunate though this might be.
Keith
. At 14:31 19/04/2010 +0200, you wrote:
Harry wrote:
> You are not against free trade, you seem to be against all trade. Yet,
trade
> multiplies production and enables and enables billions of people to enjoy a
> better life.
Keith added:
> trade is a natural activity of man
...
> Even trans-oceanic Chinese traders
> from about 1500BC to 1450AD, occasionally visiting the West coast of the
> Americas didn't equal the enterprise of the Minoans!
Well, if I point out the evils of junk food, Harry will assert that I'm
against all food, and Keith will add that already the cave-men ate food...
I had mentioned that FAIR trade according to the rules of "comparative
advantage" is okay. Which happens to be what the cave-men did, btw. ;-9
Harry continued:
> Of course accidents happen whenever anybody does anything.
Accidents happen especially when cutting corners, like in this case in the
Australian reef. The extreme "savings" in "Free" Trade logically lead
to cutting corners and thus accidents. You even want to abolish safety
measures, as in the Chinese sweatshops, just so you can get even cheaper
stuff. To be consistent, you should also demand the abolition of traffic
rules and traffic lights as "hurdles to freedom". And you should drive a
car without safety belts and airbags, since these make the car more expensive.
Chris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword
"igve".
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
