Hi Darryl, I'm just back from a couple of months in China--including both the exploding East and the rather more sedate but still rapidly developing centre and South West...
The reality is much, much more complex than this... Hundreds of millions have moved out of rural (and urban) poverty into some semblance of middle income life... The "ancestral homes" were in many (most?) places mud-straw walled, mud floored dwellings with little or no services which most I gather were well rid of... The "economic slavery" is a living wage sufficient to give many of those millions a possibility of the kinds of consumer goods (and services) which we take for granted but which are an absolutely impossible dream for most of the world's (non-Chinese) poor. "Stress levels" are probably rather less now than before having lost their fear of mass starvation, devastating epidemics, natural disasters with little hope of public relief and so on and so on. Corruption and self-dealing is certainly a problem but so is increasing official attention (driven by public indignation) as a response. Compare all the above to the situation in the US (for example) where all these indicators seems to be going in the other direction. Mike -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of D and N Sent: Monday, December 13, 2010 11:53 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] Free Trade Doesn't Work Age-Old Problem China; because they turf people from ancestral homes and coerce them to factories for a life of economic slavery and eventual ill health due to pollution and an early death. Note, the workers do not necessarily have a 'better' life. I'm sure their stress levels are increasing dramatically as well. It is the management (usually relatives of the factory owners) that have the 'newfound' gains in wealth and buying power. Darryl On 12/13/2010 6:25 AM, Arthur Cordell wrote: > It's the continuing hollowing out of the economy. I wonder who is > buying this equipment and where it will be used. > > arthur > > ................... > While I'm here... > > For the last several years, the Saturday Globe& Mail's commercial > auction ads have run heavy to machine shops, tool& die makers, metal > fab shops, precision parts makers and the like. This category > represents the infrastructure that supports the rest of industry and > is the place where essential skills live and breed. I don't know if > Canada (chiefly Ontario) is losing several dozen shops of this kind > every year or if hope springs eternal among entrpreneurs who start and > then fail in these kinds of operations. > > - Mike > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
