The real cost of things...

[nadinbrzezinski]

Well over the last few we have seen the usual... the horror Apple is using slave labor in China to produce their goods... and their machines are so damn expensive...

First off they are... using slave labor

Second off, they are not alone

This is the view from Friedman's the World's Flat, or any of the other neo liberal tracts. It is not apple that follows this model... it is US Manufacturing...that is no longer based in this damn country to a large extent.

So if you got an issue with Apple, you got an issue with MANY OTHER COMPANIES. Today I got Hi Tech Boots, hiking boots. They're made in China. They follow the same exact model, and follow cheap labor like moths to light. Though these boots were "cheap," their real cost is not in the fifty bucks I paid for them. It is in the environmental degradation involved, the working conditions of the Chinese workforce, the lack of taxes paid in the US to build OUR infrastructure, and the energy cost to transport them across the ocean. In fact, the real cost is closer to a thousand bucks. Read that again and think about it. This is what is meant about externalizing costs, and privatizing profits.

And until we either start putting tariffs at the border making this business model obsolete, or we start paying the real cost, this ain't gonna stop. It don't matter if this is a Macbook, a Samsung Computer, or those Hi Tech Hiking boots. This is what our business leaders think is free trade... oh never mind Smith would have a cow with it, but that is another story. I mean many of these companies are huge monopolies with more yearly profits than the GNP of a few countries... (alas Mac is not that category, but Microsoft is)

So I'd recommend starting to see the whole picture, and not just a tiny little slice of it. We need to change the way the system works... and for starters I'd advise a full return to Classic Economics and the adoption, like yesterday, of living wages and progressive taxation, as well as the breaking up of these monopolies... oh and a few trade barriers here and there. I don't expect it to happen, but do me a favor and add to the cost of those boots, a small slice of the mess in the Gulf, as they have quite a bit of Oil derived components. The same goes for my mac, or the netbook... oh glorious plastic, and petroleum. The same goes for the food I ate today... you see the fertilizers use petroleum, and while mine are organic, as much as I can, any pesticides use petroleum.

A little food for thought... on this lovely night, after doing some exerise on an elliptical that has... petroleum derived products, while running lights that come from a plant using coal...

Ain't making connections and true costs amazing?

Ed for clarity

[Initech]

1. We need to fight these corporate scumfucks and bring manufacturing back to America.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. We need to change the way the government works

once you get those real costs charged, they will turn tail on Foreign Plants and come back. Hell, some companies are starting to... because of the transport cost is not worth it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Kick

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. kick

[UP_4012]

5. Excellent Post!

But I am afraid the damage has been done, and it can no longer be repaired. Most Americans simply don't give a damn anymore, and our "representatives" don't care either.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. There is a Mexican saying that applies here

there is no illness that last one hundred years nor anybody who will stand for it.

We might see a turning point in attitudes here. Thank the spill in the gulf. That might be a turning point.

Of course that will also require that we move away from a petroleum based civilization... and that will take a lot of money and chiefly, a change in how we collectively think.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Kick for afternoon crew

[Ozymanithrax]

8. We need an international Labor Union...

One that works across all boarders. Corporations can go wherever the costs are cheapest and drive down wagers everywhere. When it comes to those on the bottom rung of Maslow's Pyramid, it is better to work for less that do nothing for nothing at all. If labor can not organize in a global economy, it will be starved to death.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. ++++10000

but that is just one of many steps we need to take. We need to realize what the REAL costs are. This oil mess might be a teaching moment. This is one of the massive costs, and I did not pay for them in my boots, or the bags I at times get at the supermarket, et al.