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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerome who wrote (42651)	2/24/2001 11:42:46 AM
From: Fred Levine	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 70976

I have visited a number of 3rd world countries, India, Eritrea, taught in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, etc. and been to factories. Given that slavery is dead, people take advantage of the best available opportunities they have. Some are horrible, like having 7-8 year old girls sold into prostitution in Ethiopia. However, when I visited a furniture factory in India, the pay was $2 per day, twice the minimum wage, but way below US standards. There was a huge waiting list for jobs. Take away the jobs by requiring higher pay, and the opportunities will disappear. Given jobs, there will be development of capital, investment, more jobs, and a demand for labor--which will do more to increase wages than any intervention. When I spoke to an English social organizer who was hired as a consultant to protect the Ethiopian prostitutes, she said their families would either starve or sell their daughter. That is grim. As the world gets richer, hopefully people won't face that decision. My grandparents worked in the sweat shops in NY, and that became a good place to be from. The economy is global, and the laws of supply and apply globally. Brian--I agree with your sentiments, but I think if you asked the factory workers, they would want jobs before anything else.

To: Jerome who wrote (42651)	2/24/2001 3:26:25 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

*PovertyLow Wages*Third World Countries** Many people claim that a free market really is free and helps all. Jean Bertrand Aristide cites great example in his book Eyes of the Heart how this is a facade for many third world countries. In 1986, Haiti imported just 7000 tons of rice, the main staple of the country. In the late 80's, Haiti complied with free trade policies advocated by the international lending agencies and lifted tariffs on rice imports. Cheaper rice immediately flooded in from the USA where the rice industry is subsidized. In fact the liberalization of Haiti's market coincided with the 1985 Farm Bill in the US which increased subsidies to the rice industry so that 40% of US rice growers profits came from the governement by 1987. Haiti's farmers could not possible compete. By 1996 Haiti was importing 196,000 tons of foreign rice at the cost of $100 million per year. Haitian rice production became negligible. Once the dependence on foreign rice was complete, import prices began to rise, leaving Haiti's population, particulary the urban poor, completely at the whim of rising world grainb prices. And the prices continue to rise. For poor countries free trade it not so free, or fair. Haiti, under intense pressure from the international lending institutions, stopped protecting its domestic agriculture while subsidies to the US rice industry increased. Brian