We might if the global companies paid livable wages, were held accountable for pollution of the world environment, complied with reasonable workplace health and safety laws, were taxed at a rate that supports modern municipal standards and recognized intellectual property rights. Sure we would be all on board with that.
i agree, and therefore we have to work with other countries instead of villify them. people call me an obama homer but i am disappointed that some of his trade agreement don't ask countries to raise their standards
9% unemployment should be unacceptable. If it is the new normal well this country has accepted failure. Why can south korea, taiwan, germany, canada etc do better than us?
Reminds me of the Industrial Revolution, where all the older jobs were replaced by technology with no new jobs being invented to replace them. Thus, an imbalance between classes.
The irony being forcing their standards to be raised lowers our standards of living. Whereas most third world economies spend 70%+ of all income on food and needs, Americans spend less than 15% and a much greater proportion on consumer discretions and luxury goods. We're afforded that because the cost of finished goods, food and all are so low due to cheaper labor abroad. If we force standards abroad, we will have inflated costs on our lives here and therefor lower discretionary spending ourselves. Its very American and arrogant to believe we have to force a company in India or China to work to our standards. If people lose their jobs here they have welfare, benefits and a great deal of social services....losing jobs in those countries means you can starve to death.
food is actually cheap because we make it cheap. forcing the to raise their standards will actually probably bring some jobs back here and make some of them richer, which is good because they will have more purchasing power. we aren't talking just third world countries, china isn't third world
That's too extreme. By comparison, the student-teacher, classroom facilities etc of public schools in this country fare much better than other countries of similar size. This means we are investing in schools, but probably not achieving the same goals as other countries. The problems manifested in the education system have to do more than just lack of government spending.
Yes, I don't think other countries spend as much as we do on education, but they are getting much better results. Part of the reason is culture, but there are other reasons as well.
Huh? Its cheap because of large scale production and technology. Both of which were driven by specialization, which is the focus of globalization. Having people regionally do something that is more cost effective elsewhere is a mis-allocation of resources. To have a high GDP/Capita and live the lifestyle we do here means we need innovation to create jobs and a specialized work force, not bring back steel jobs.
[MadMax's soapbox that no one really cares about and is only semi-related to the topic of the thread] so you wanna know what I find deeply offensive and broken about mankind? you don't? too bad, i'm gonna post it anyway: that we have this mother friggin miracle of sustenance/food actually growing from the ground and existing organically on land and in the sea...enough to feed the world...yet we limit its production to drive up profit and call it a commodity while parts of the world suffer in starvation. bobsled to hell. [/MadMax's soapbox that no one really cares about and is only semi-related to the topic of the thread]
We need some perspective- The U.S. is 25% of the global economy Eurozone and Great Britain is 34% of the global economy Japan and China have 17% Brazil, Italy, Canada, Russia, India, Spain and Australia account for 20% of the global economy That leaves 4% for the other 161 countries. Take away the high GDP per capita countries like Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Sweden and Switzerland and you have about 157 third world countries that combined make up 0.6% of the global economy. There are only 22 countries with a per capita GDP over $20,000 per year Of those only Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway and the U.S. have an average over $30,000 99 nations have per capita GDP less than $10,000 annually 41 nations have per captia GDP of less than $2000 annually http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/data_tables/ecn3_2005.pdf If you are living in a third world country the answer is probably no.
Then you should be the biggest fan in the world of Wal-mart. Through ultra aggressive cost savings they've lowered the cost of food and goods to all within their reach. Ironically, many people blame them for issues when all they are doing is providing extremely low-costs to those with the least amount to spend on goods. They push suppliers and manufacturers aggressively to continually push down prices and become more efficient. They also pay over a million employees annually a salary. You ask for God, but I give you entrepreneurial spirit as the most powerful moral tool ever in the history of this world.
You don't have to force them, but if you choose to benefit from the exploitation then you are complicit. ( I say from my $49 Iphone)
We've got it made in this country. 9% unemployment rate? The unemployment benefits are still more money than billions of people make in a year working 60 hours a week.
Well it depends on what you mean by the "economy is doing fine". What is the point of the economy? Profits for a few or corporations with 15% and growing of those who are increasingly poor? Ok economy for those on top I suppose. This is certainly not the type of economy that is the traditional American way. If we are talking about automation and therefore not needing so many workers than we need to redistribute money and income to folks who don't work. This is needed for simple morality (sorry libertarians who are outside of normal morality concepts) and "conservatives" who are overly influenced by immoral libertarian concepts.
There isn't one economy. There are multiple economies. The one that's advertised on TV is the rich-guy market economy.
America is already for practical purposes the richest nation of the third world (not talking about race or ethnicity) and it will continue the slide downard unless we become more like the Europeans. We had more a safety net and a bit of a welfare state, used to have more of a middle class, but the battle is on to see if we will continue to do so. At this point you have the GOP united to gut the safety net and speed up the distribution of wealth upward so we start looking like a banana republic. We have Obama essentially saying he will chip away with the safety net, but slower. Eventually the battle will be enjoined by the non-elite -- hopefully before we have to go through a fascist interlude like Germany needed to do before its present state.
