4 ms·
Two part terribleness of globalization - we port manufacturing jobs overseas to cut costs. The cost savings are based on acceptable exploitation in another land
by jmm 17y ago
Two part terribleness of globalization - we port manufacturing jobs overseas to cut costs. The cost savings are based on acceptable exploitation in another land. Meanwhile the US transitions to an icky service economy and lose core middle class manufacturing jobs. (I'm ok paying more for transparent and/or domestic.)
- lionhearted 17y ago> The cost savings are based on acceptable exploitation in another land. I've spent time in poor countries. It's not that simple. Though I agree that it's a bad thing for Americans that manufacturing is happening less in the States.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- tcskeptic 17y agoThis is a very myopic view of exported manufacturing jobs. While I would not argue that manufacturing jobs exported overseas permit those workers to obtain and maintain a US middle class lifestyle, I know for a certain fact that these jobs allow them access to a standard of living they would otherwise have no access to. If you think the hard lives of the third world urban manufacturing workers are hard, remember that most of them fled the abject and overwhelming poverty of rural agricultural areas and see their new jobs and lifestyle as a substantial step up. Do you think western manufacturing workers have a right to their relatively luxurious lifestyle even if maintaining those jobs in the west doom countless millions in developing countries to a life of hard to imagine levels of deprivation, struggle and pain?
- ryanwaggoner 17y agoThe cost savings are based on acceptable exploitation in another land. Come on, this is ridiculous. The cost savings are based primarily on a dramatically lower cost of living, differences in exchange rates, etc. If I can hire someone in NYC for $125 / hr or hire someone in Arkansas for $50 / hr and the Arkansas guy has a higher standard of living in Arkansas, how am I exploiting him? It's no different on an international level.
- jmm 17y agoYeah, yeah, I know my comment was too off the cuff and sentimental. But the ethical evaluation of labor practices is not as simple evaluating an improvement in standard of living. There is a line that can be crossed - the line certainly isn't crossed in your NYC vs. Arkansas example, but it /can/ be crossed (min age, min wage, max hours, safety, etc.).