Dennis,
<<But your characterization of the benevolence of "exploitive" (your quote) >>
Actually I said "exploitative", spelling it correctly <G>
I don't work for any company actually, but several at once, as I am an independent consultant. Many of the companies I have as clients are relatively small and employ no folks in Asia. But I am immersed in local society. I am married to a local. I live in a neighborhood where I am the only westerner, as far as I know, for miles. My son attends a local private school as international school is too far away. So my perspective is as objective or subjective as that allows. I have had the opportunity to live in Asia now for four years. I have traveled steadily here for almost twenty. Here is how I feel:
While there is, of course, abusive and exploitative companies here (like everywhere) the use of low cost labour in Asia has significantly contributed to a tremendous rise in standards of living in those countries that have embraced foreign investment, stable political landscapes, and free market tenets. That there have been abuses seems not a surprise to me. I would also point to the robber baron era of our own history as analogous (as someone else has mentioned). Those abuses, by the way, are almost always by locally held companies. It is a well known belief here that the best jobs (pay, benefits, fair treatment)are with the foreign companies. Benevolence, by the way, is your word. Not mine. I am not some altruistic spokesman for the corporate world and do not believe there is much room for benevolence. Thank goodness because I believe if it were benevolence it would not be sustainable (seldom is) and would not be as effective, as the free market tenets that have worked. That these tenets were underlying the overheating here and the excesses is also not a surprise. Have you looked at internet company valuations lately?<G>
In general I find that the notion of the Asian sweat shop and cruel task masters are born of reading too much Somerset Maugham. The real reasons for Asia's transformation were best presented by Christopher Patten, the last colonial Governor of Hong Kong before the turnover. I'll paraphrase as I have lost the quote.
It seemed to him that the single most important factor in Asia's rise to prosperity has been THE CONVICTION IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF ASIAN MEN AND WOMEN THAT LIFE CAN AND SHOULD IMPROVE FOR THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES. Whatever technical explanations economists might offer, whatever geo-economic forces might have been at work, he believes that the ENGINE of Asia's economic success has been the DETERMINATION of Asians to haul their families out of subsistence and poverty towards a better life. It amounts to a belief in progress.
The second reason he gave for Asia's economic transformation is ECONOMIC LIBERTY. While many of Asia's governments were, and indeed remain, far from tolerant in their approach to civil and political liberties, most have come to recognize sooner or later the need to grant their citizens economic liberty. These governments have come to recognize, often through bitter experience, that enterprise and ambition can do more to transform their economies than regulation and bureaucracy.
Finally, while a belief in progress and economic liberty would have taken Asian communities part of the way to prosperity, it was FREE TRADE which gave Asia its big break. Access to North American and Western European markets made possible the rapid export-led growth of the post-war decades - a useful point to remember for those Asian politicians who attack the allegedly corrosive influences of the West. Free trade was an idea born in Britain. An idea put into practice throughout the British Empire over a hundred years ago, and has been a hallmark of the resilient American economy. Free Trade is an idea, call it a value, which is sustaining economic expansion and trade throughout the world today.
Best,
Stitch |
