Bad Morality
Here is a really subversive idea. What makes it subversive? It is moral.
What if everything imported to the U.S. was required to be produced using U.S. labor law as the minimum standard for those who did the work? You think that might end or significantly reduce the terrorist threat? Consider we are the most blatantly affluent country in the world, and typically use predatory labor practices in the most desperate countries, practices which we haven't allowed within our borders in over a hundred years. Then add the looming presence of our military which is used by corporations to enforce 'corporate' entitlements.
What is it about this which would terrify the conservatives, causing wide spread panic attacks and accusing the originator of the idea of being an unpatriotic communist terrorist? Could it be that suddenly, we're forced to stop buying materials made by children? By people actually making subsistence wages? By people not working 16 hour days? By people who are not knowingly exposed to obscenely dangerous toxin levels? Or is the true terror making Americans pay 10% more for imported goods?
Such an idea would make our lobbyists and their pocketed conservatives screech like little stuck pigs. They'd whine to the heavens, "It would be a horrendous expense for businesses which would usher in the end of the existence!" All the self-serving lies and scare tactics which the avaricious can latch onto to would come out in full force. Still, I cannot think of one moral justification which holds water, for keeping people in other countries in bondage. Not one single moral justification. So if you are a (fiscal) conservative, what is your justification for not treating our global neighbors in a moral manner as though you believed them to be fellow human beings?
Now, if the conservatives truly had conservative values, they would leap at this idea as a way to restore some of the once traditional manufacturing jobs in this country which have been off-shored to modern day sweat shops.
What if everything imported to the U.S. was required to be produced using U.S. labor law as the minimum standard for those who did the work? You think that might end or significantly reduce the terrorist threat? Consider we are the most blatantly affluent country in the world, and typically use predatory labor practices in the most desperate countries, practices which we haven't allowed within our borders in over a hundred years. Then add the looming presence of our military which is used by corporations to enforce 'corporate' entitlements.
What is it about this which would terrify the conservatives, causing wide spread panic attacks and accusing the originator of the idea of being an unpatriotic communist terrorist? Could it be that suddenly, we're forced to stop buying materials made by children? By people actually making subsistence wages? By people not working 16 hour days? By people who are not knowingly exposed to obscenely dangerous toxin levels? Or is the true terror making Americans pay 10% more for imported goods?
Such an idea would make our lobbyists and their pocketed conservatives screech like little stuck pigs. They'd whine to the heavens, "It would be a horrendous expense for businesses which would usher in the end of the existence!" All the self-serving lies and scare tactics which the avaricious can latch onto to would come out in full force. Still, I cannot think of one moral justification which holds water, for keeping people in other countries in bondage. Not one single moral justification. So if you are a (fiscal) conservative, what is your justification for not treating our global neighbors in a moral manner as though you believed them to be fellow human beings?
Now, if the conservatives truly had conservative values, they would leap at this idea as a way to restore some of the once traditional manufacturing jobs in this country which have been off-shored to modern day sweat shops.
4 Comments:
If Republicans dredge up crap about Communism, then ask them about the Northern Mariana Islands. They are a U.S. territory and a classic land of sweatshops. There, workers work for less than half the U.S. wages. They work 12 hour shifts in deplorable conditions. Health care? What's that? Oh, and according to Bruce Babbit in 1998:
"We have evidence that at least some of the Chinese workers, when they become pregnant, are given a three-way choice. Go back to China, have a back-alley abortion ... or be fired."
Ah, the culture of life. Babbit was testifying to the Senate. Senator Frank Murkowski of Alaska was spearheading a campaign to force the Northern Mariana Islands to adhere to U.S. labor laws if they wanted to continue to be able to label their products as "Made in the U.S.A." He even got the measure passed in the Senate in 2000.
His opponent in this effort was Jack Abramoff. Abramoff worked closely with Tom Delay's staff to prevent any such bill from coming to a vote in the House. Delay and his staff traveled many times to CNMI. Delay is quoted as saying of the U.S. territory:
"You are a shining light for what is happening to the Republican Party, and you represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America and leading the world in the free-market system"
and the Islands constitute: "a perfect petri dish of capitalism. It's like my Galapagos Island."
In the wake of the scandal, the Islands are requesting refunds from the lobbying firms that Abramoff worked for, including Preston Gates. No word on whether they'll request one directly from the Republican Party or George Bush.
I agree with what you say regarding the labor laws. I think a good place to start such reforms is our own territory. It might provide us with firmer moral grounds on which to stand while lobbying the rest of the world to meet our standards.
Sources:
http://tinyurl.com/e3ks6
http://tinyurl.com/bhrgx
http://tinyurl.com/da682
http://tinyurl.com/8emta
http://tinyurl.com/87dml
***Applause***
hmmmm morality or profit.... the choice has been pretty clear since that day in 1776 when the whole thing started.... sad to say it has always been profit. [sigh]
In many ways the great experiment was never quite set up to specs. Makes it hard to test the theory.
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