Blog Catalog

Friday, December 7, 2012

A thought for the season


Since you're going to buy those gifts anyway...


6 comments:

Sevesteen said...

Buy American--because an American's ability to eat at McDonalds and pay their cable bill is much more important than some foreigner feeding his family.

And you call me racist?

Mo Rage said...

Yes, buy American because we need good jobs and good paying jobs here. It has to do with economies and living wages and jobs. It has nothing, nothing to do with race or, as you challenge, shallowly, with racism.

The Bangladeshis who were killed recently in the factory fire were paid 18 cents per hour for their work. According to NPR, it translated to a 55 cent per day job here in the States. That's obscene. Those people should earn a true living wage whether there or here. I'd fight for that, no matter the race. I'd do it here or there. It's why I'm all for and we need unions.

Racism. Man, that's a desperate attempt on your part but kudos for the try, anyway.

Sevesteen said...

So according to you, it is better for a Bangladeshi to have NO job than an 18 cent per hour job? Because that's what we are talking about--eliminating the 18 cent job doesn't magically make $10/hour jobs appear.

I agree that 18 cents per hour is a bad situation--but I don't agree that eliminating even that meagre job is better. Look at Asia for an example--Japan used to be low-wage, making poor quality stuff sold cheaply. Both quality and wages improved. Many of those low-wage, low skill jobs moved to South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong. Now South Korea's standard of living has drastically improved, and they are exporting jobs to Indonesia...Hong Kong is hugely successful and prosperous, and Japan has factories in the US, Canada and Mexico to take advantage of lower costs.

I want to see a world where everyone and not just Americans has access to decent jobs--and where anyone who is mistreated or exploited by their employer can go find a different job. If you don't want that, if you want Americans to have priority over the best jobs, maybe Xenophobic fits better than racist--but it sure fits better than calling me a racist for using 'deport rich people' to illustrate a point.

Mo Rage said...

No, that's what you're talking about.

I'm talking about, no matter where the job, there, here or anywhere else, that the companies should pay and should have to pay a true "living wage." But then, that would require legislation and laws and that's something you're patently against, in spite of the fact that it's merely requiring morality in our world.

I agree with what you said here that "I want to see a world where everyone and not just Americans has access to decent jobs--and where anyone who is mistreated or exploited by their employer can go find a different job."

The big difference is, I see the reality that it must be required by law. You merely hope it happens, without legislation, out of the goodness of the business people's hearts or something. The fact is, it will never happen that way. It will never happen without it being required by law, all around the world.

Sevesteen said...

So if you have to pay a Bangladeshi similar wages as you would an American, why would anyone create jobs there, when there are so many advantages to so many other places?

The answer is 'they wouldn't'. When you say 'no jobs with inadequate pay' you are in many or most cases saying 'no jobs, period'. Legislation is likely to have the opposite of the intended effect.

Sevesteen said...

I ran across this article just after posting my last comment--says what I was trying to, except much better:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html?_r=0