Do we make anything anymore?
It’s no secret that as human rights to travel, live and work around the world have become strangled for one reason or another, the rights of capital have enjoyed an unprecedented and virtually unfettered right to travel, invest and exploit.
Under the banner of globalization, our corporatocracy has been able to close borders to people wishing to emigrate and immigrate and yet at the same time opened the floodgates to investment money to take advantage of third world countries with poverty issues, no environmental standards or worker rights. And in the name of cheaper consumer products we in the west have sold our industry, environment and standard of living down the proverbial river.
You can a get a cheaper coffee maker or toaster or BBQ, but chances are it is made and manufactured in China where workers have virtually no rights, the environment is an afterthought and profits for the companies investing abroad are enormous. Meanwhile smaller regional and locally based companies that have unions, pensions, adhere to stricter environmental codes and make products at higher costs, suffer the bottom line consequences. Yet it is these companies that are invested in their regions, they pay their taxes at home, they employ locals, contribute to the social infrastructure like charities, institutions and events.
It used to be that manufacturers produced most of their products for regional and local markets and by and large took their resources from the region as well. It was pretty much a closed loop and the environmental footprint was smaller, though the product more expensive.
Now with multinationals having conquered all with their ability to invade any market and flood it with cheap goods, subsidized by the exploitation of the environment and poverty stricken workers we find ourselves awash in cheap consumer items, but no environment to speak of, an economy that continues to insist that globalization and consuming is a way of life synonymous with Democracy.
We are now at a cusp, living in a world where the chickens are going to come home to roost. We have traded our limited fossil fuels for SUVs and toasters and when the dust settles we will have to find a way to do more with less. We will need to learn to manufacture what we need again at home and not just what planned obsolescence tells us we think we want. We will have to rebuild our rail lines, pay higher food prices, repair, recycle and reuse, give up the ubiquitous air travel to sunny climes, and above all, reinvent our antiquated economic model.
No more BBQs made in China. No more Walmart superstores and the like that cruise into a region and gut businesses and cities like a T-rex on steroids, riding a wave of fossil fueled consumer goods.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:03 am
nice blog. If pretty much all the common folks agree with things like this (free trade being bad) and so on, why is it that our government doesn’t do way more to keep things local!