----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 5:02 PM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Cancun
> Eubulides wrote: > > >It makes for great agitprop and when was the last time you heard of > >outsourcing or setting up plant-equipment in another country [any country > >to any country] to *raise* unit labor costs and *raise* real wages as a > >historical norm? > > Oh I see, it doesn't matter if it's true, only if it's incendiary. > Sorry. But: 1) average U.S. wage levels are still rising, and 2) > outsourcing in IT is raising Indian wage levels, sometimes > substantially. On the latter point, listen to my interview with > Ursula Huws from my Oct 2 radio show, just posted to the archive > <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html>. Unlike many > prominent commentators, Huws has actually studied the issue in depth > (and it's one of the best interviews I've ever done - she's splendid). > > Doug ====================== The burden of proof-truth is not on us. It's on the Nikes of the world to tell us with a straight face that they're leaving in order raise the standard of living while reducing their pollution profile when they move somewhere else rather than lining the pockets of their shareholders. Boeing now has more workers in China than the US do you think they're getting paid better than their US counterparts? Do you think the watersheds where their plants are located are being treated better than the way they treated the Duwamish river in Everett? And Boeing ain't the exception to the norm. 'Race to the bottom' is a metaphor for all the contradictory consequences of TNC migrations. Metaphors are neither true nor false. The *average wage* issue washes away the specificity of the harms done to the workers that lose their jobs due to TNC migration. What needs to be teased from the data is how many of the workers who've lost their jobs due to TNC migration improved their *real wage* after they found new work. If the data isn't even being collected, well.......... Ian
