The Spinning Pinwheel
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Table of Contents
Part 10 appears in this issue. |
| part 11: Free Trade |
Wow, I have so much to say about this nonsense. I’ll try to just hit highlights and keep it brief.
As for the article, there was one part that claimed we give food to starving countries and it hurts them by undermining the local farmers in the donee’s country. That’s just plain crazy. Why aren’t those farmers increasing supply to meet demand? If the people are indeed poor,and we charge money for the goods, they will starve cuz they can’t afford it. My solution is more simple and is based on pure capitalism. Let them starve if they cannot afford food.
Outsourcing is an age-old concept. Michigan used to build almost all the autos. Then they started putting plants elsewhere... like Georgia... autoworkers in Michigan cried foul. Well it seemed that the autoworkers were making HUGE wages and the state was raping the auto companies with taxes. Once the prospect of “outsourcing” was introduced, the workers backed off and so did the state. Governements and Presidents don’t outsource jobs. Corporations do.
The American worker is now faced with competing against other workers in other countries that are willing to accept half the wages we demand. Why shouldn’t they get the job? Look at your own business(es) as an example. One prospective employee demands $30k/yr, while another competing for the same job demands $60k/yr. If they are each capable of doing the same job and all else is equal, would you hire the $60k guy?
To me, letting them do it cheaply in other countries accomplishes many wonderful things. It spreads the wealth. In lieu of giveaway programs we get cheap imports in return. It sharpens our sense of urgency and causes us to attempt to excel. The hot breath of competition is what keeps us trying so hard. Without it we lapse into lethargy and complacency.
On a final note here on a Sunday afternoon, I’ll relate a personal experience that enlightened me. I was an economics major in college and excelled to the point of tutoring other students.
I enrolled at Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia and schooled there for a year. I learned one of the most impoverished areas of the country was La Guajira. So I went to La Guajira and lived there with the natives for over 3 months and observed personally this “poverty” that resulted in what American economists would call “the lowest standard of living in the hemisphere.”
I lived with several guys that had individual incomes of about $60/year. Their only source of income was from coconuts. There were no cars, no roads, no police, no fire department, no libraries, no hospitals, no schools, no air conditioning, etc. You get the picture.
I had planned on staying about 2 weeks. The reason I stayed there for so long was because it was so wonderful. One could pick enough food to eat in about 20 minutes. I ate lobster almost every day that I caught with my bare hands each morning. Sometimes I’d kick a chicken and makea crab omelet for breakfast.
I lived in a very simple Gilligan’s-Island style hut (we built it in just a couple hours of cane and vines and palm leaves) that was quite comfortable with the ocean breezes wafting through. I slept in a hammock that cost about 25 cents. How much money had I spent thus far? About $2 bus fare and 25 cents for a hammock.
Once there, I quickly found that I had no need for money anymore. There was nothing that I needed to buy even if I could get to a place that sold things. I found out later that we could gather coconuts and take them town to trade for rice and rum. Then after a 3 day rum bender we’d lapse back into days of swimming and sunning and reading and fishing.
It was like living in the Garden of Eden. There were no taxes. There was no reason for police or fire hydrants and so forth. I learned the”standard of living” as Americans measure it is quite flawed. You cannot measure one’s quality of life with income-dollars. I long to return to Sr. Martinez’s finca and stay there forever... immersed insuch “poverty” of $60/yr incomes.
So when one talks about “poverty” in other places, one must keep in mind what poverty actually is. When I was young, Biafra was the poster child of impoverished countries. They kept showing pictures on tv of children with flies on their faces and distended bellies.
It was only later that I wondered why someone would have so many children if they couldn’t even feed themself!! It was much later that I discovered that some people will have as many children as possible, and if some die it’s okay. That’s the only way to know the limit.
We see them at the limit, so we give them more food. So they have more babies. Endless cycle until the food runs short. The limit was reached. I’m not talking about places where a earthquake or volcano or some other catastrophe has occurred, I’m talking about daily life.
We have a different way of contraception than they do. Ours is more “humane”, so we give them contraceptives and educate them. It seems to be working to an extent. But it seems that some people have a different way of looking at things that we simply don’t understand.
Other countries and religions accept death as part of life and don’t find it as repugnant as we do here. In La Guajira, if one of the guys got sick, he would either take a mule 150 km to the nearest medical facility, or maybe he’d die. They seemed to die quite young there generally (mid-late 50’s or so). But they died with a smile. I envied them for the most part.
It dawned on me that length of life is by no means a measure of quality of life or happiness during life. I see further evidence of this as I watch my 96-year old mother wither painfully, kept alive by laws made by Christians that know what’s best for EVERYBODY whether they like it or not.
So when we talk about fair trade, and poverty and such things, you need a reasonable, agreed-upon definition of the terms. I usually find that within such arguments are inherently flawed definitions and terms. And once a solid foundation is reached most poeple will generally agree on most of these things.
Fair trade is fair by its very definition. Duh. There will always be people starving somewhere and that’s okay with them even if we don’t like it.
I could make multiply examples to support my arguments, but I’ve worn out my typing finger for today.
Cheers,
The Economist
Liberal wrote:
Fat Toe has gone on and on about the wonders of laissez-faire “free trade” and how “a rising tide lifts all boats,” ignoring the overwhelming evidence that Adam Smith economics leads to increased income stratification. Here is an interesting report finding that “free trade” and the awesome powers of the WTO/IMF have only resulted in the greater accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few, while leaving the vast majority of the world in dire poverty: http://www.maketradefair.com/en/index.php?file=03042002121618.htm
Fat Toe would probably agree with the member of Iron Man’s administration who favors job outsourcing to other countries...
Liberal
“[W]hat can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.” — Christopher Hitchens
Copyright © 2007 by Luke Jackson
