Saturday, May 06, 2006

Labor arbitrage: Happy Meals, Unhappy Workers

Labor arbitrage exploits human effort by searching the world for the cheapest labor possible, regardless of the effects. Labor arbitrage is one of the major causes of the worldwide totalitarian endeavor called Globalization.

But, labor arbitrage would not be possible without economic collaboration and cooperation of former communist and bare knuckled capitalist.And, no one abuses workers better than brutal communist states, like Vietnam, in partnership with bare-knuckled capitalist states, like the U.S.

Adam Smith envisioned such an effect as negative. Karl Marx, who read and understood Smith, envisioned it as well. Both men would condemn the joint efforts of communist states and capitalist states that arbitrage labor.

Aaron Glantz and Ngoc Nguyen report, "Vietnamese workers earn less than $2 a day making stuffed animals and Happy Meal toys for U.S. consumers.” You know the little package of toys kids cry for at fast food restaurants. But, Vietnamese workers fought back, calling for wildcat strikes until the government raised wages to prevent factories from moving to other countries. Read: Happy Meals, Unhappy Workers

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