[quote]gladiatorsteer wrote:
when organizations like the WTO, IMF, and World Bank forcibly implement their free market policies they demand little to no government intervention so the justice system is rendered powerless against the big corporations, thus environmental laws cannot be inforced.
as to your question: Are those corporations providing slave labor jobs or are they leaving unemployment behind? my answer would be look at what happened in Argentina and to different degrees in every other latin american country. argentina’s economy was crippled by free market policies in 2001.
in jamaica sweat shops pay their workers slave wages and sometimes delay their payments for weeks and when the workers organize for better pay and better work conditions the corporations bring in labor from asia or they pack up and move to mexico where there is cheaper labor. after that the corporations pack up and move to china where the labor is cheaper still. this is not to mention the banana farmers in jamaica that cannot compete with the big corporations and are forced into poverty.
what about the fishermen in mexico whose families have been fishing for centuries but then are driven out by the big corporations.
globalization and free market policies are making the rich richer and the poor poorer. even here in America the destribution of wealth has become increasingly unequal. 30 years ago one person working 40 hours a week could support a family and now it takes two people working 40 hours a week.[/quote]
The WTO, IMF, etc have nothing to do with capitalism and a lot with merkantilism. For free trade you need less rules and less bureaucrates and also less import restrictions in rich countries.
The way rich countries use those institutions is very often a disgrace, but the very disgrace is GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION that PREVENTS POOR COUNTRIES from competing on equal terms.
This is not capitalism but the lack of it.
Argentine was economically crippled by linking their currency to the $ and through socialised money.
That mean it was hurt by too much government intervention, not the lack of it.
Fishermen cannot compete wth big companies, banana farmers not with cheap fruit.
Well, though luck.
Explain to me why thousands of poor people with poor diets and children to feed should not have cheap fish and fruit just so that a few dozens can keep a job others can do way better.
Once there were 80% farmers in Europe, now it is 2-3%.
This inrease in productivity was rather unpleasant for those farmers but an enormous benefit for all the rest and their descendents, because it led us out of the Dark Ages.
When medieval craftsmen were replaced by manufacturers that sucked for them.
When dose were replaced by factories that sucked for the manufacturers.
When they started to use better machines, robots, computers that also sucked for some people.
All in all though this constant progress has made us the richest, best educated, healthiest societies ever.
Things change and that`s a good thing.
To the drop in real wages.
How dare you blame capitalism when the government takes away more than 50% of what you produce and squanders it on war on drugs, war on poverty and high tech fighters to wipe out al Quaedas mighty airforce?
The rich get richer and the poor poorer?
No way. Millions of Chinese and Indians have escaped poverty, hundreds of millions are on their way of achieving the same.