Let me repeat this(if blu hasn't said it already) Buy nothing is a day of protest, not an attempt at sabotaging the economy.It's a day of awareness, of communication. That's all. The retail industry will not suffer from buy nothing day anymore than it does with national holidays..
"While it seems almost inhuman to pay what seems like such low pay to us, this is simply a function of local economics. Paying these people $8 an hour would fuck up the local economy horribly. Local businessmen who cannot afford to compete against wages like that would be driven out of business.) "
That is not their employees problem and considering that the largest employers with the worse abuse records that produce goods for our consumption are western companies ( see GAP, Banana republic, Guess, NIKE, reebok, ADIDAS.)These are multy billion dollar corporations that get fined over and over for underpaying workers( even by Asian standards) and quite a variety of other abuses including physical abuse.
This is a 20 sec search on Google. There are better ways of maintaining the economy's "chain of dependance" buy the way, your argument is not new. It was said that if the suthern slaves were to be freed, the economy would collapse. "At least with sweatshop workers, they have the minimal power of refusing to work. Charity breeds contempt."
sure. please check out those links and do some research yourself. "I'm also not too certain what your main concern is. Is it the impact on the environment? The decadence of consumer culture? The fact that the Western world is richer than the third world? Simple aesthetic displeasure at inefficiency?"
all of the above contribute to our accelerated demise.
"I get the sense that you believe we should just give away money to these countries. That simply does not work. It only creates despots who use the money to solidify their power,(...)" Guess what? we are the ones who put those despots in power most of the time. we like them, they are not socialists and the less socialist they are, the more we like them. Our foreign policy is less than helpful to the poor. That's a whole other bag of shit though. as for giving them money. yup, that is exactly what we should do. If you know some history you know that we are the ones who put them it that shithole so we should certainly help them out.
what will all this result? redistribution of wealth taken from others, better management of our scarce natural resources. we don't have to "buy nothing" we can just buy less of what we don't need, such as SUV's in California. we decide as a race(IE humanity) not as a country. we north Americans think only of ourselves and nothing else. You are the perfect example of that and as long as people like you call the shots, nothing will change and this planet will go to shit even quicker.
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Date: 2002-12-04 10:23 am (UTC)Buy nothing is a day of protest, not an attempt at sabotaging the economy.It's a day of awareness, of communication. That's all.
The retail industry will not suffer from buy nothing day anymore than it does with national holidays..
"While it seems almost inhuman to pay what seems like such low pay to us, this is simply a function of local economics. Paying these people $8 an hour would fuck up the local economy horribly. Local businessmen who cannot afford to compete against wages like that would be driven out of business.) "
That is not their employees problem and considering that the largest employers with the worse abuse records that produce goods for our consumption are western companies ( see GAP, Banana republic, Guess, NIKE, reebok, ADIDAS.)These are multy billion dollar corporations that get fined over and over for underpaying workers( even by Asian standards) and quite a variety of other abuses including physical abuse.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/jan99/suit14.htm
http://www.sweatshops.org/buy/ladders_pants.html
http://www.angelfire.com/biz4/punkness7lacy/brand.html
This is a 20 sec search on Google.
There are better ways of maintaining the economy's "chain of dependance"
buy the way, your argument is not new. It was said that if the suthern slaves were to be freed, the economy would collapse.
"At least with sweatshop workers, they have the minimal power of refusing to work. Charity breeds contempt."
sure. please check out those links and do some research yourself.
"I'm also not too certain what your main concern is. Is it the impact on the environment? The decadence of consumer culture? The fact that the Western world is richer than the third world? Simple aesthetic displeasure at inefficiency?"
all of the above contribute to our accelerated demise.
"I get the sense that you believe we should just give away money to these countries. That simply does not work. It only creates despots who use the money to solidify their power,(...)"
Guess what? we are the ones who put those despots in power most of the time. we like them, they are not socialists and the less socialist they are, the more we like them. Our foreign policy is less than helpful to the poor. That's a whole other bag of shit though. as for giving them money. yup, that is exactly what we should do. If you know some history you know that we are the ones who put them it that shithole so we should certainly help them out.
what will all this result? redistribution of wealth taken from others, better management of our scarce natural resources.
we don't have to "buy nothing" we can just buy less of what we don't need, such as SUV's in California.
we decide as a race(IE humanity) not as a country. we north Americans think only of ourselves and nothing else. You are the perfect example of that and as long as people like you call the shots, nothing will change and this planet will go to shit even quicker.
Re:
Date: 2002-12-05 12:31 pm (UTC)Verra nice.