I don't want to avoid Chinese goods, as economic developement can only help the medium term situation overall (but can bring short-term issues). I'm not protesting the games, but I do want politicians to not attend and endorse the Govt's actions, they broke their promises made when given them and are in breach of the IOC charter.
Trade boycotts and sanctions are only ever good for short term effect or if linked to internal domestic opposition movements, otherwise free trade is better for the citizens.
How free? So free there aren't any environmental or human safety regulations?
"Buy American!!!" which is at least partly the subtext of the comic, which in itself is linked to some nasty jingoism, is, in fact, impossible in many industries. IIRC, it's impossible to get American-manufactured T-shirts anymore, because there are no factories left Stateside. It's cheaper to go overseas and overwork people in a developing nation, especially if you can dump your toxic byproducts with no oversight.
I'm extremely cynical about "free trade," because it always seems to boil down to "no checks on corporations."
If corps are going unchecked without proper oversight, legal recompense or open access to the market, it's not truly free. A lot of USians (and indeed idiots on my side of the pond) use "free" rhetoric when they mean "what I want not what you want".
I'm a Market Socialist of the JS Mill school, free trade is good as long as it's truly free, not controlled-by-the-oligopolist-corps "free".
But yeah, the jingoism is a bit palpable. But overall, imports do in fact make us all richer, and the more empowered the locals are, the better of they'll be, medium term, and studies increasingly show that export driven manufactures in countries like china drive environmental standards up. Anyway, gotta go...
American Apparel (http://www.americanapparel.net/contact/ourworkers.html) makes all its tee-shirts in factory in LA. I buy them because their small is actually a small rather than a medium.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-14 03:02 pm (UTC)oh jesus. how true.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-14 03:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-14 07:14 pm (UTC)Trade boycotts and sanctions are only ever good for short term effect or if linked to internal domestic opposition movements, otherwise free trade is better for the citizens.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-14 07:23 pm (UTC)"Buy American!!!" which is at least partly the subtext of the comic, which in itself is linked to some nasty jingoism, is, in fact, impossible in many industries. IIRC, it's impossible to get American-manufactured T-shirts anymore, because there are no factories left Stateside. It's cheaper to go overseas and overwork people in a developing nation, especially if you can dump your toxic byproducts with no oversight.
I'm extremely cynical about "free trade," because it always seems to boil down to "no checks on corporations."
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-14 07:39 pm (UTC)I'm a Market Socialist of the JS Mill school, free trade is good as long as it's truly free, not controlled-by-the-oligopolist-corps "free".
But yeah, the jingoism is a bit palpable. But overall, imports do in fact make us all richer, and the more empowered the locals are, the better of they'll be, medium term, and studies increasingly show that export driven manufactures in countries like china drive environmental standards up. Anyway, gotta go...
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 02:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-14 07:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-14 09:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-15 05:10 pm (UTC)