Journal BarbaraHudson's Journal: Free Trade starting to unravel. 20
If you read the story about Obama proposes one-time tax on 2 trillion US companies hold overseas, you may have missed that this is the proverbial shot across the bow of international free trade agreements.
Free trade hasn't worked, in part because it isn't really free trade, but mostly because it encouraged the flight of jobs and investment to the economies that were most able to provide the least protection for their workers - the "rush to the bottom."
More civilized countries can't compete with countries that protect employers who keep their workers working in unsafe conditions. You can't compete against companies and countries that profit from illegal working conditions due to non-existent enforcement. Not much has changed since the 1,127 dead in one garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, because businesses can say "if we have to leave any meat on the bone we'll move the jobs elsewhere".
Working conditions in the $20 billion industry are grim, a result of government corruption, desperation for jobs, and industry indifference. Minimum wages for garment workers are among the lowest in the world at 3,000 takas ($38) a month.
Bangladeshâ(TM)s government has in recent years cracked down on unions attempting to organize garment workers. In 2010 the government launched an Industrial Police force to crush street protests by thousands of workers demanding better pay and working conditions.
This 2 trillion tax is just the latest form of a "non-tariff barrier", but even the EU is insisting that tax avoidance schemes come to an end. Reality is finally setting in.
Starting to unravel? It never was raveled. (Score:1)
The whole intent is to subjugate the state to the whims of business (which built the state to begin with). And read up on the 'charter cities' being built in Honduras. This is what we get when we go along to 'get along'.
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Or are you saying, like damn_registrars might, that "This is a job for Super Union!"
Possibly a good first step is to stipulate that "There is no One True Answer", and move toward seeking a least-worst operating point.
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Absolutely not. The one thing we don't need is yet more bureaucrats and politicians.
Just bring back tariffs on imports from countries that compete unfairly by not having decent regulation. See my reply here [slashdot.org]. It worked before. It can work again. But you're right - looking at the stats since NAFTA, it was never raveled in the first place. And of course, it's kind of ironic that the country with the least open economy (China) is going to pass the US soon.
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On a side note, I never believed the NAFTA hype. I read the actual Free Trade agreement and it stunk. I brought a copy of it to Ottawa and spent a week trying to explain why it was bad. I couldn't find a single politician who had read it, but they were all so certain that it was a good thing. Ignorance really is bliss, I guess, even when it's willful ignorance.
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The problem is a global one and only extends as far as people let it. Don't blame the politicians for using what works. That's like punishing your dog for obeying your commands.
That would be true if people tried to voted them out and they didn't leave peaceably. The voters have to perform better background checks on the people they hire on election day.
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So what if they lie? That's only a problem when they win reelection like they so often do. The liars have to be voted out at the first opportunity, not 40 years later when they are near death. We cannot blame them for winning. We simply have to vote somebody else in and give them only one chance. Otherwise the complainers are talking out their ass, and it discredits all discontent the same way the tea party in the US makes anybody with a reasonable complaint look like a kook. In truth the entire process onl
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So, what's your remedy?
Respect!
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That is your opinion, sir, filtered through the finest American culture.
*He never has two cups at home*
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I'm sure they shall carry on all your finest traditions, spitting images of what we have today, propagandizing opinion as fact. Or maybe not. The world is full of surprises. I hope you won't love them less for it. And who is the fool? In the mirror you find your answer to that question, but feel free to keep speculating(projecting). I'm easily entertained, and you wear it well.
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So, what's your remedy?
Respect!
Find out what it means to me.
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Judy Carne was best... sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me...
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Judy Carne was best... sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me...
We need a sampled and mixed Milhouse Nixon on that line.