On Globaloney

Eric Johnson responds to the Marxists protestors at the World Bank / IMF meeting in Washington DC.

At Catholic Light yesterday:

.... This is hardly an original insight, but these protestors should actually visit the Third World. Not as part of some politicized tour group, but just traveling around and talking to regular people. Hopefully, they'd go someplace that reflected their utopia: burning non-fossil fuels, consuming very little animal meat, and not a McDonalds in sight. I spent a couple of weeks in just such a place earlier this year, and everything I saw convinced me that what they needed (economically, at least) was more capitalism, not less.

The average wage there is about $2.50 a day. That's not a typo -- workers could buy a Happy Meal for an entire day's work. If Nike or the Gap sets up a factory there and pays the workers $10 a day, they're "exploiting" the workers to the tune of a 300% pay raise. (I wish somebody would exploit me like that!) With rising wages, communities can afford to pay for better education, which means workers can work more efficiently. More efficiency means the companies can afford to pay them more, because they're more productive. Think that's wishful thinking? It's how America became the leading industrial power in the 19th century. You can look it up....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 09/29/02 08:16:01 AM
Categorized as Classic.