Thursday, January 05, 2006
The War Against The Poor
It is a war fought without firing one shot. No tanks, no mortar fire are required. No need for intercontinental ballistic missiles or helmets. It is all done economically.
The most important weapon in the war is money. Who has it. Who wants more of it. Who can get it, and who can't. This war is World War III. We all thought growing up that WWIII would be nuclear. No, this is just as devastating. It's totally monetary.
What put the bee up my bonnet this time? Two things - one was a blurb I caught a couple weeks ago about young Chinese men holed up in sweat shops playing online games for rich people and getting paid $250 per month for the privilege - every day, 12 hours a day. The other part was watching "The High Price of Low Prices", an interesting film on the WalMart company's practices here and overseas. Again, young Chinese workers working 7 days a week making stuff to export to the US and get sold to Americans for Low Prices. The film explores how the WalMart company can wreck a town, a person, a family, has no regard for its associates or its customers, or the factory workers that build the stuff we are supposed to buy. It shows workers in China, Bangladesh, and South America all under really bad conditions and not paid well at all.
You can find out about the video game sweatshops from the New York Times online - it was published December 9, 2005 article titled "Ogre to Slay? Outsource it to Chinese" by David Barboza. (Google search young chinese workers games new york times).
The WalMart movie info can be found here.
Companies in general are not known for having hearts. Only people have those. And I am sure that the US is not alone in hurting workers - (of course, WalMart has ASDA stores in England, same story, different country).
I can't help wondering though, how long you can push people down before they PUSH BACK? And who will get caught in the crossfire when that happens. How wise could it be to tick off many young Chinese people? MANY Chinese people. Why do they work in these conditions? Is there truly no choice, no option? How long can that go on before THEY push back?
There were times in history that were not healthy for the rich - and those times were when the poor pushed back. I wonder how close we are to that......? ¶ 12:36 AM
The most important weapon in the war is money. Who has it. Who wants more of it. Who can get it, and who can't. This war is World War III. We all thought growing up that WWIII would be nuclear. No, this is just as devastating. It's totally monetary.
What put the bee up my bonnet this time? Two things - one was a blurb I caught a couple weeks ago about young Chinese men holed up in sweat shops playing online games for rich people and getting paid $250 per month for the privilege - every day, 12 hours a day. The other part was watching "The High Price of Low Prices", an interesting film on the WalMart company's practices here and overseas. Again, young Chinese workers working 7 days a week making stuff to export to the US and get sold to Americans for Low Prices. The film explores how the WalMart company can wreck a town, a person, a family, has no regard for its associates or its customers, or the factory workers that build the stuff we are supposed to buy. It shows workers in China, Bangladesh, and South America all under really bad conditions and not paid well at all.
You can find out about the video game sweatshops from the New York Times online - it was published December 9, 2005 article titled "Ogre to Slay? Outsource it to Chinese" by David Barboza. (Google search young chinese workers games new york times).
The WalMart movie info can be found here.
Companies in general are not known for having hearts. Only people have those. And I am sure that the US is not alone in hurting workers - (of course, WalMart has ASDA stores in England, same story, different country).
I can't help wondering though, how long you can push people down before they PUSH BACK? And who will get caught in the crossfire when that happens. How wise could it be to tick off many young Chinese people? MANY Chinese people. Why do they work in these conditions? Is there truly no choice, no option? How long can that go on before THEY push back?
There were times in history that were not healthy for the rich - and those times were when the poor pushed back. I wonder how close we are to that......? ¶ 12:36 AM
