I really like what Johan Norberg has to say. I pretty much agree with everything he said in the interview. Fantastic. The protectionism stuff is quite awesome too. Just shows how greedy and evil America is. Just by reading the introduction, I can tell that I am not going to agree with or like what Mike Shanahan, the environmentalist, has to say. Ok…so who really cares that ocean animals are being killed from ‘by-catch’ or that shrimp are unnaturally farm-grown. I think it’s just another one of those lame green people going crazy about some useless subject that really doesn’t matter. Maybe Shanahan should put some facts about the pro-shrimp farming folks who have been killed by the insane environmentalists.
It seems like all of the articles are very one-sided. So I don’t think that any of them are going to sway set opinions because each only presents facts supporting their side. It’s kind of like the whole vegetarian thing. Vegetarians like to say that it’s healthy and moral to not eat animals or whatever, but ignore the fact that it is actually detrimental to human growth and health. Here’s a website where you can read about people who have died from being vegetarian: http://whatstheharm.net/childvegetarianism.html
The anti-globalization people enjoy making up stories about how Third World countries are being destroyed and whatever, but they pretend that nothing positive is coming out of it. Very rare, extreme cases, of death and punishment are cited, but these are not the case on the whole. In Anita Roddick’s article, she states that when women from Bangladesh asked for one day off a week, the Walt Disney Company pulled its work from the factory. How absurd and ridiculous is that?!?! I truly doubt that is the case…it’s probably just taken way out of context so it looks bad.
And what’s this garbage about child labor? Who has the right to say child labor is immoral and wrong? In any undeveloped country, it is very important to have several children. More children = more work done. No one was complaining that children were working on family farms or whatever back when America was just beginning. There is nothing wrong with child labor and there never was. People should be complaining about the Chinese breeding their young girls to compete in the Olympics or something. America doesn’t need to be imposing its views and ways of life on other countries.
The Wal-Mart arguments are exciting. But how come they have disagreeing ‘facts’? It seems like the authors made up some numbers that make their personal argument look good. Whatever. I think Wal-Mart is freakin awesome…except some of the employees are useless.
5 comments:
I have no idea how you say such horrible things. Okay, so I don't know very much about globalization, but after reading your post, I feel like you don't either. Until you've been to these "Sweatshops' in various third world countries, how can you even pass judgment on how extreme they truly are. You act like these are ideal jobs and great places to work. And WHAT??!! you agree with child labor. When was your first job. What was it like? How would you like to work on Christmas? Your blog is exactly why America is often stereotyped as ignorant, greedy and unsympathetic. I hate to come off so mean and blunt but I just find your post upsetting.
Wow, are you serious? I can understand what you're saying about things being exaggerated and how the media feeds people information, but I don't think several of your points are completely valid.
You say that workers in sweatshops quit because they can't stand the work and that's the case with any job. People quit office jobs all the time, because they're tired of cubicles and paperwork. Can you say that's the same?
You bring up iPhone girl. Sure, she looks happy and yeah, the place looks alright, but what about the textile factories, assembly plants, coffee fields, etc.? You'll be hard-pressed to find too many comfortable working conditions at most of these places.
It seems like you think all the anti-globalization people make up all of their facts, but they don't. Like I said before, I agree there might be some exaggeration as authors are inserting their own views into their works, but check out CNN, BBC, textbooks, databases, websites. I'm sure you'll find that there is some truth in their arguments.
Garbage about child labor??? First off, it's NOT important to have several children in ALL developing countries. That's some extremely medieval thinking. If anything, more children = more mouths to feed. Then you say that there's nothing wrong with child labor and there never was. I respect your opinion, but can you explain the movements against child labor during America's industrial revolution?
I understand you will say what you want to say and think what you want to think, and that's cool, but throughout your blog, you mention your lack of info or numbers. You say it seems or they seem this or they seem that. To me, you're saying you yourself don't really have the facts to back up what you're arguing.
Man you guys are so mean!I think I'm gonna go cry now.
Let's just clear up some points you made. You mentioned Tiffany Anderson (the GAP girl) and how you thought her suspicions about the sweat-shops were nonsense because the media had taught it to her. Then later you post a picture of the iPhone Girl who looks happy, and you say that the place she's working at doesn't even look like a sweat-shop. So how do you know that your opinions about sweat-shops weren't taught to you by the media? I mean, pictures are the most common form of media. And the picture of the happy iPhone girl could just be a publicity stunt from a company trying to convince the public that sweat-shops aren't as bad as they really are.
You also mentioned the "insignificance" of oceanic animals being killed due to by-catch. The fact is that it’s not just one or two animals being killed, it’s more like thousands upon thousands. It’s one of the reasons the fishing industry is declining. The world is over fishing its oceans. And many of the animals that do die from by-catch are endangered species. And when it comes to the environment, everything is a chain reaction. If you take out one species, it always affects the survival of another, which ultimately affects the survival of an ecosystem, which then affects us. So yeah, it is a big deal.
When it comes to being a vegetarian, not all people become vegetarians because they think it’s a moral issue. A lot of the time it’s a health issue. Meat is high in saturated fats and cholesterol which leads to the blockage of blood vessels which causes heart attacks. Doctors tell patients that have kidney problems to avoid eating meat because it’s bad for their kidneys. And research has shown that there is a positive correlation between the amount of red meat an individual consumes and their chance of having a heart attack. So there goes your argument that not eating meat is detrimental to your health. The website you provided us with didn’t help your position either. It didn’t prove that being a vegetarian is unhealthy; all it proved was that there are some crazy people out there and that not having a balanced diet is unhealthy. Note that having a balanced diet does not require meat. All the nutrition found in meat is also found in plants. There are millions of people who are healthy vegetarians, so you can’t argue that it’s bad for you. And the process of producing meat requires a lot of energy and is really bad for the environment and greatly contributes to global warming. But from what I can see, you probably don’t believe in that either.
Okay, so I do agree with you about how some of the facts can be overly exaggerated. Generally, when people disagree with something, they tend over exaggerate about it, but I do not think that everyone who works in sweatshops are completely happy with their job. Yes the iphone girl does appear to be happy in this picture, but do you really think that is what it is like to work there? Of course when the media comes in to take a picture of what working there is like, they are not going to make it look like horrible working conditions or show her hating her job because they would not want to portray that sort of image of their company. Not everyone works in the same conditions and most of the people who work in sweatshops are probably not as happy as the iphone girl. When you address anti-globalization, I think that many people who write about it are very biased; so it is not credible to believe everything that they say. When you talk about child labor, are you saying that it is okay? Personally, I do not believe in child labor because it could ultimately scar a child, and honestly, I believe children should not be forced to work to the point where their health might be sacrificed. As for Wal-Mart, I have mixed feelings about their company goals. Your post brings up very interesting issues, however I am going to disagree with some of your viewpoints.
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