Quote:
Originally Posted by oilyfan
So we should only buy products from countries with average incomes? And how exactly are these incomes going to rise without them selling products?
China was in the same spot a decade ago and now in some major cities the minimum wage is higher than in some southern US states. That didn't happen because China stopped selling goods.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
To add to this a little.
What OP is proposing is essentially a boycott of all goods manufactured in low income countries. The problem is pulling out all that industry is just going to tank those lower end economies even further and result in even worse living conditions.
As for your point that the sweat shops aren't increasing the standard of living, well that's just not true. There are hundreds of millions of people in India and China who were living below the poverty line 20 years ago, who aren't now. Both countries initially based their economies on manufacturing and agriculture.
Maybe the solution is finding companies that do use forieng labour but provide good working conditions....not really sure how you would monitor that. Perhaps cameras broadcasting feeds over the internet.
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Just to respond to this a little. China and India to an extent are success stories. But I don't know if enough time has gone by to prove if they are outliers or not. Because they are very special cases.
China was going to be advancing anyway. They have a very strong government and a plan to get into the 21st century. We were hearing for about 30 years how China was an up and coming superpower.
And actually, I'm pretty sure the biggest thing for China's increase in wealth, both personal and the country, has been internal spending. Not increase in foreign investment and international corporations. But public works, the mega cities they've built, etc.
Don't get me wrong, international trade is a large block of it, but to single it out as the reason it turned China around would be incorrect.
Also, they have a huge population, which increases their international power and appeal. And that brings us to India, which also has a monstrous population. India also has a democratic (if pretty corrupt) government.
A lot of the advantages that China and India have, most of these other developing countries don't have. I don't know if we can really say globalization has been a positive influence on a lot of these countries yet. Bangladesh has been poor and in the news for aid for longer than I have been alive. It's hard to see any real improvement there.
Again, don't get me wrong, globalization can be a force for good, and having cheap labour is a good thing for both sides. It just needs to be done better than it is now.