Comments on: In Praise of Exploitation

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 23:10:24 +0000

When you talk about ‘investment’, are you referring to FDI or are you taking about encouraging foreign entities to invest in local companies? From what you’re arguing here I’m assuming it’s the former, but my response to this depends on this distinction.

By: tom

tom — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 23:42:51 +0000

Are wages really typically higher? My understanding was that Free Trade Zones in developing nations frequently receive temporary waivers or lax enforcement when it comes to meeting the country’s labor laws, including minimum wages, in order to encourage investment. Eventually the company will be brought into compliance, but of course they can always pull up stakes and move somewhere more inviting…

The introduction of foreign investment also has the potential to destabilize local economies, preventing traditional jobs (e.g. agriculture) from being a viable option. Painting poor conditions in these factories as a “they can take it or leave it” situation oversimplifies the issue. Globalization is inevitable, but the fact that the process is making the involved workers more wealthy than they were (by at least some metrics) doesn’t mean that they’re being treated fairly. Nor does it mean that enough capital will accumulate in the local economy prior to the company moving on for any difference to have been made.

I’m optimistic that the process will ultimately be beneficial to folks outside the industrialized world, but it doesn’t seem clear-cut to me.

By: Brian Moore

Brian Moore — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 21:58:52 +0000

See, once you’ve gotten that crack in the armor, it’s pretty smooth sailing from there on out.

Once they’ve agreed that corporations are at least a little good, while allowing them to insist they could be doing “more” good, you’ve got them.