When free trade is fully implemented we should see the same standard of living amongst all the people of the world. Each worker regardless of location or job will have one bowl of rice daily. The rich will own the rest. Then the rich will determine a way to give you half a bowl and make you feel gracious at the same time. You will also work longer hours for less of the pie.

I enjoyed the book titled "The Jungle", written around 1906, by Upton Sinclair. It has been over 30 years since I read it but it is vivid in my mind. Although it was written nearly 100 years ago, you can see the progress we have made! :)


>SNIP
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>>>BUT I am decidedly NOT for 'globalization' that includes outsourcing and manufacturing moved off-shore just to exploit some poor souls who essentially have NO CHOICE in the matters of work environment and pay scales.
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>>The only way I see to stop outsourcing is for the government to step in and require that companies within their borders only hire citizens of that country. That, in my opinion, is a bad idea.
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>>As far as the poor souls with no choice, I too would like to see their living standards improve. But that certainly isn't going to happen if companies outside their borders can't hire them. A bad job is often better than no job.
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>I am all for poor souls improving their living standards too. trouble is, it doesn't happen in China or Viet Nam, and it is China where ALL this stuff is going to end up. India is just a small detour along the way, for a small segment of business that China can't handle right now.
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>China, you see, has ABSOLUTE CONTROL of all the workers. The government dictates where they will work, how they will work, how much they will be paid, etc.
>A very few mandarins have ALL the control and they are getting VERY VERY RICH on the backs of the peasants. All that a company has to do is to get local agreements with a mandarin or two and then their control is exerted as the company needs. This might include 12 hour days, unsafe working conditions, dangerous chemicals in their air/water, etc. And don't be fooled by their declared wages of around $1. per day or so. That is the amount BEFORE they've paid their room and board, which usually amounts to half their daily wage for the privilege of sleeping in a bunkhouse and using a communal washroom and getting 2 bowls of rice a day.
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>I recently commented (within the last 3 months) on an article that talked about outsourcing to India and how things are really getting "better" over here now. The writer described how India's costs were now rising while at the same time service that costed over $100 per hour in the U.S. were now available here for $50 per hour, making India almost non-competitive NOW (considering other indirect costs and such). This guy was saying that it was great that U.S. wages were now down by over 50%!!! How is that good for you and me??? Sure, the folks in India have a higher standard of living now, but is it right that OUR standard of living has to go way way down at the same time???
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>some things to consider.
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>cheers
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>>>As regards the Whil thing, it was not Whil's costs that went up. It was people who had experiences like mine ASKING Whil to try other routes and Whil bending over backwards trying to do so but not succeeding.
>>>His customers were being forced to pay LARGE extra costs for no sensible reason given "free trade" and he tried hard to help us avoid them.
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>>Whil's costs did go up. He, or one of his employees, had to spend time trying to figure out how to ship the goods a different way. While this may not seem like much, it certainly added to his costs.