Comment 74146

By Borrelli (registered) | Posted February 10, 2012 at 09:10:56

Those people are now going to be willing to settle for less, at least until something better comes along. What's the solution?

I know I'm gonna open a huge can of worms here, and put myself on some hit-lists, but I think the answer is fairly straightforward: either protectionism, or working to make globalization equitable.

Thus far, the latest phase of globalization (since the late 1990s) has been fully directed by the narrow designs of multinational corporations that are focussed on profit and cruelly efficient in achieving that end.

As that excellent WalMart article touched on, the behaviour citizens/consumers has been central in legitimizing this destructive race to the bottom (which benefits only shareholders). As such, we as consumers have adopted the amoral, instrumentally rational approach to our decisions as corporations have: a $3 gallon of pickles that you didn't know you needed justifies the piddly wage, no benefits, and no job security earned by the person (your neighbour) who puts it on the shelf.

When we as citizens begin to tally all of the things we've given up to get that $3 jar of pickles, perhaps behaviour will change, but those cheap pickles have already started a feedback loop that will be hard to break:

Cheap Pickles-->Low Wages-->Less Disposable Income-->Need to buy cheap pickles.

Comment edited by Borrelli on 2012-02-10 09:14:30

Permalink | Context

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds