ECONOMIC RIP TIDE CHEAP LABOR
It is now nearing the end of May 2009. The Economic Disaster has been with us for over six months. Every day on television., on the radio ,in all the media and on the internet, we hear the Money Managers, the new ruling elite, make pronouncements about how they are going to repair the world economy.
I want the readers of these pages to clearly understand the causes of the Economic Disaster and why it will not be repaired under the present rulers of business and government.
We know from previous chapters that the West, Europe and the US, is now controlled by the descendents of wealthy magnates who inherited the expanding wealth of the West.
These men, very few of them are women, are highly intelligent and highly educated people who have matured in an environment where morality was deemed irrelevant to success. Their goal in life is financial power. They have no allegiance to their countries or their countrymen. They are completely indifferent to the well being of workers, middle class or even the working rich. What they want is vast capital control—in a very short period of time. They are not interested in the posterity of their country or those who must be sacrificed for their goals.
We call these men the Money Managers.
We can easily see their immorality in their actions. They committed enormous fraud in the “sub-prime” mortgage debacle. We saw them shunt the manufacturing of the West to Asia. We saw them shunt the IT sector of the Western economy to India. We saw them shunt the agriculture of the West to Latin America and North Africa.
Today, they control the governments of the West and they continue to debase the wealth of the West by giving government money to the failing financial empire.
THE ROAD TO PROFIT
Whatever business you control, the easiest road to fast and enormous profits is through the use of cheap labor.
Cheap labor does not exist in Europe or the US. The labor in the West is not only expensive, it is also highly selective in the tasks it will do. Cleaning toilets and washing dishes, working on difficult and repetitive jobs, hard labor and dangerous labor is shunned by Western workers. Western workers who are willing to undertake these jobs want exorbitant wages. Wages which would cut into the profits of the Money Managers.
The Money Managers recognized this problem and quickly solved it.
BILLIONS OF CHEAP WORKERS
On this planet, there are billions, not millions, of workers willing to work at any type of job, no matter how distasteful, for a minute fraction of the pay of Western workers.
They are found in Asia and Latin America. China, in particular, with one and a third billion people, most of whom are rural, yet want to work in urban areas, was the magnet for the Money Managers.
China’s government, a dictatorial regime which is intent on improving the well being of its inhabitants, developed plans for Western companies to shift their manufacturing to China and gain the benefit of cheap, hard working and skilled labor.
CHANGING THE LAWS
If countries had no laws, the job of the Money Managers would have been simple: just send their factories to China. However, three decades ago, Western countries had laws about trading with other countries. Each country had tariffs that restricted the importation of foreign goods.
Customs officers were stationed at all entry points and assessed every item entering the country, assigning duties that had to be paid.
This process is called: Protectionism. It was part of Western law.
The Money Managers knew they would have to change Western Law in order to bring back the cheap goods they were making in China and other areas of the world where cheap labor could be found.
Changing laws is quite simple. With sufficient money one can easily bribe governments into writing any law desired. In order to ensure that the representatives of the people are re-elected it does become necessary to change the value system of the public.
This, again, is an easy matter.
The public is very trustworthy and non-critical in its thinking. When governments want to go to war, they simply rev up their propaganda machines and the public, within months, is willing to go off to far corners of the earth to die!
Germany, under Hitler, developed his propaganda machinery to such an extent that the German public voluntarily committed suicide. Japan did the same in the Second World War.
Getting people to give up protectionism would be a simple task.
FREE TRADE
Humans adore the sound of the word: “Free.” Join the word “Free” with any other word and the world will agree it must be good. “Free Trade” “Free Markets” “Free Will” “Free Love” “Free Choice” Say “Free” anything and you have a winner.
Knowing this, the Money Managers pushed the concept of “Free Trade.” The world should drop protectionism in favor of “Free Trade.” No tarrifs for goods made anywhere. Cheap goods are good, even if they destroy local workers. “Free Trade” will get new jobs for the displaced workers.
The World Trade Organization was ramped up and China soon became a member. Goods from China and Asia started pouring into the West.
American factory workers were replaced by a new type of worker called the “Service” worker. Service workers did not produce goods. Their services could not be sold to the world community. They were of no value except to people who wanted their services. When the Economic Disaster would hit, they would become unemployed.
IMMIGRATION
As the Western workers disdained jobs that were not pleasant, the Money Managers were faced with another problem.
The construction of housing and building were another part of their plan in order to sell fraudulent mortgages. Local workers were not willing to do construction work which was dangerous and difficult. Immigrants from poor countries would have to be brought in.
These same immigrants could work in the hotels, kitchens, farms and slaughter houses. And, of course, they could be paid cheap wages. The Cheap Labor theme is present again.
The laws had to be changed or ignored for the cheap labor to enter. The government and the media was encouraged to use terms such as “Racist” “Fascist” or “Xenophobic” against people who protested against the illegal entry of such immigrants.
Unfortunately, the immigrants had very few skills, and were, essentially, unskilled labor. Now they are living in the West with no jobs and no hope of jobs, trying to survive with governmental aid. This situation is creating social unrest.
SUMMARY
We can easily see that “Cheap Labor” is at the core of the ‘Economic Disaster.” Initially, the cheap labor was found abroad in Asia and Latin America. Subsequently, it was brought to the West in the form of immigrants.
Cheap Labor is now inescapable. The populations of the West must contend with it. Either they go back to the rules of protectionism and reduce their reliance on cheap foreign goods, or they reduce their living standards to that of their competitors: China, Asia and Latin America.
There is no other choice. Plowing trillions of dollars into defunct financial institutions will only make the rich richer. The workers, middle class and business entrepreneurs of the West are now swimming in the global sea and the fish here are hungry.
