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A point which seems to be missed (and which is, thankfully, made in the podcast) is that these terrible conditions are better than the alternative. The situati

A point which seems to be missed (and which is, thankfully, made in the podcast) is that these terrible conditions are better than the alternative. The situation China, in many ways, better than it was in the Western world when we were going through our Industrial Revolution. It made me think back to a TED talk from Hans Rosling on Population Growth, and the relation to economic status: http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth.html http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_g... Although it seems bad to us now, globilization is, over all, a net positive.

decode 15y ago
> A point which seems to be missed (and which is, thankfully, made in the podcast) is that these terrible conditions are better than the alternative. This is often brought up, but strangely "the alternative" is defined as "the way things were before" instead of "better working conditions." The fact is that there is no one "alternative" to these kinds of business situations; there are many different alternatives, some of them better and some of them worse. Conditions can be improved, if people want it. Otherwise, there would still be 12-year-olds working 80 hour weeks in factories in the US and Europe.
brudgers 15y ago
>"these terrible conditions are better than the alternative." That was the argument made against divestiture in South Africa during apartheid. History has shown that it was wrong, at the time. At the time, moral reasoning showed that it was wrong, as well.