"The worldwide public realises there is something deeply wrong with today's world economic system"

[Better Believe It]

We can now see the true cost of globalisation
The worldwide public realises there is something deeply wrong with today's world economic system
Sunday Observer Editorial
January 28, 2012

.... average workers in most of the major rich economies, including the UK, have seen the real value of their wages shrivel away, as they have found themselves in competition not just with their neighbors, but with workers many thousands of miles away.

So as the plight of workers in faraway places reveals the true cost of cut-price consumer gadgets, it's also clear that workers everywhere have been losing out. It would be wrong to think that the answer is to retreat inwards, and return – even if we could – to a closed-border economy. But it must no longer be a taboo to question whether raw globalization brings the benefits that were promised.

We should welcome the fact that China's workers themselves are becoming increasingly restive about their plight. Higher wages and better conditions for them might push up the price of an iPod in London or New York, but they would also help the Chinese economy towards Beijing's aim of a rising middle class and stronger consumer demand at home, instead of economic growth that depends too heavily on cheap exports.

Strong, sustainable Chinese growth, and rising labor standards, would be good for the west too: they should help to narrow Beijing's yawning trade surplus by opening up vast new markets. Apple's critics would once have been written off as naive idealists; but as we sift through the wreckage of the Great Recession, perhaps it's finally time to heed Marx's words, and stand up for workers everywhere.

Read the full article at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/29/observer-editorial-global-capitalism-bad

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[RainDog]

2. k&r n/t

[XemaSab]

3. Shocking to see a mainstream paper saying

"Marx was right."

[Better Believe It]

4. That demonstrates the depth of this economic crisis. They are worried.

[XemaSab]

5. Kick

:kick:

[lovuian]

6. Marx is right

The worker will rise up