🚀 go-pugleaf

In ed.general Steven Hill <news@waroffice.net> wrote:

> On Thu, 30 Jun 2005, Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

>> If Western companies offered Western levels of employee rights in the
>> third world, I would find your point a lot more compelling.  What they
>> actually do, in many cases, is exploit cheap labour.

> But if the cost of living and production is lower over there, then they
> can have a higher standard of living for less money in our terms. They
> will still get a good deal, be able to support their families, and we will
> get a good deal.

Indeed.

> This claptrap about evil capitalism exploiting the worker is wearing a
> little thin. There is nothing remotely like western employement rights
> there now, but that is not so say they will not be attained in time
> through development.

There are many lessons to be learned from the contrast between East and
West Germany, not least that Communism produced in a single generation,
Germans who wouldn't work. Another lesson is that when the merger of the
two currencies was made one-for-one, against sound economic advice, it
meant that East German workers had to be paid the same as their West
German counterparts.

Unfortunately the capital investment in plants in the East was much
inferior to that in the West, presumably as a result of the Communist
system. This meant that Eastern workers could not be as productive,
withe the best of effort, as West German workers. The inevitable result
was the East moving to quadruple the unemployment rate of the West.

Now we *could* try to do the same to India, Africa, et al by forcing
Western standards of worker protection and compensation on them, but the
one thing this signally would not to is to reduce global poverty.  The
inevitable result would be the very opposite of that intended - a result
that is very far from unknown in the field of Economics. 

I realise that it's a hard concept for some to wrap their brain around,
but sometimes we have to choose between scuppering successful western
companies and helping the poor out of poverty.

FoFP