A prime example of why money needs to be taken out of politics. It takes all this shouting from the 99% but nothing speaks to the congress members like the sweet dollars of the 1%.
If wikipedia was able to raise $20M in donations, an anti-sopa fund raised for lobbying could be quite effective, but then congress members would look utterly corrupt.
Let me get this straight: you are using one of the most ruthless [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_trade] command economies in the world as an example of the ills of Capitalism?
China has been blatantly capitalist since the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping, similar to the USSR after the 1965 economic reform.
Don't fool yourself - China is capitalist. It is capitalist regardless of what its leadership claims or the extent to which it uses state mechanisms or market mechanisms.
I'm not just talking about China. It really doesn't matter which country the factories are in. The poor will always get exploited. Be it child labour in India or Indonesia, or closing of GM Flint Michigan.
Exploitation of the poor is at the root of capitalism if you think about it from a basic level. It's all about making profit, and for that you need cheap labour provided by the poor, globalization provides an abundance of poor people to be exploited. Don't like the working hours here? Hey we got queues of peasants lined up outside to replace you. Get back to work.
I'll assume you're bringing up those 2 countries as a direct comparison to North Korea and China? Correct? China seems to be doing alright for now. As for NK? Well when the country was formed, it got the better half compared to South Korea, in that it had all valuable resources and manufacturing. Now you have to ask how did this country with its head start manage to fall behind to its southern counterpart? Had the playing field been level, ie no sanctions placed and NK was allowed to partake in international trade, the story today would be very different.
Pay is certainly a good thing. But perhaps the companies need a heavy touch of social responsibility as part of their manifesto. Unfortunately social responsibility does not fly in the name of profit. That is what I mean by exploitation.
> Unfortunately social responsibility does not fly in the name of profit. That is what I mean by exploitation.
Profit? How about the buyer?
You're free to tell Apple that you won't buy unless they pay enough so workers can have BMWs. If Apple believes you, it will do so and pass along those costs.
What? You're not willing to pay for workers to have BMWs?
Your argument is void because the buyer never finds out what conditions the products are made in unless the factory workers protest such as in this case. Social responsibility is not part of the sales pitch, all the buyer see's are the shiny packaging and the sparkly tv commercials with their favorite celebrity. Were the buyer able to make an informed decision regarding his/her purchase, perhaps they'll choose otherwise.
> Your argument is void because the buyer never finds out what conditions the products are made in unless the factory workers protest such as in this case.
Buyers find out what they're interested in.
> Were the buyer able to make an informed decision regarding his/her purchase, perhaps they'll choose otherwise.
You write that as if there's no relevant experience. "Fair trade coffee" is merely one of the examples.
How is the closing of an unprofitable manufacturing facility exploitation?
Cheap labor is not the only source of profit. Many companies employ only highly compensated individuals to create products & services that they sell profitably.
The root of capitalism is private property rights & the right to voluntarily exchange goods & services.
"Instead of the raise they requested, these workers were given the following ultimatum: quit with compensation, or keep their jobs with no pay increase. Most quit and never got the money."
That's a pretty shitty thing to do. Had the manufacturing process not been outsourced to Foxconn, would this kind of behavior fly under the Apple or Microsoft brand image? Probably not.
Well there's only so many dictators we can knockout at any one time. We've been targeting those oil rich countries in the past decade where the ROI will be worth our while. The minerals of North Korea do look pretty sweet but we need some time to refill our barracks and sort out our own economic mess first. Don't worry though we've got economic sanctions in place against NK already so they won't be developing much.
Thing is, share dilution is not much different from giving an employee or vendor a huge pile of money in exchange for labor that turns out not to generate much revenue. It is bad for business (and will be reflected in a share value drop), but how can you prove it is fraud?
Yes, it's called The Law of Supply and Demand. Once they increase the supply of the stocks too much, the demand will go down and they'll have to go back to having 3 summer homes instead of 4, and 2 private jets instead of 3.
Truthed. My friends company struck a deal with groupon in a strategic attempt to get more exposure, even though they sold their products at a loss. Yes their website got a large traffic spike on the day it hit groupons front page, but no, none of the traffic stuck. Just FYI.
