THE BCC Archives

February 02, 2002

Who Are They Helping?

This weekend the World Economic Forum met in New York City. Many so-called activists have gathered from around the globe to protest the concept of globalization. They say that the major corporations bring nothing but pollution, misery and poverty to the rest of the world, all in the name of profit. Lets take a closer look at these folks

For the most part most of these protesters are young college students that come from wealthy families. They attend some of the most prestigious universities in the nation. I ask them where do they think many of these universities get the financial backing to stay in existence. A good deal of the monies garnered by the universities, are from wealthy alumni that donate to scholarship funds. Many of the students themselves are attending these schools because mom and dad have attained a fair amount of money to send them to college.

Ok lets look at the arguments.

Corporations give nothing to the people of the world. Well, there are sweatshops; yes many are squalid to say the least. Repressive governments that actually use slave labor to produce a product of a certain company, also sponsor many. I would agree that such companies should not do business with these nations. However, those nations are thankfully few. Most of the employment by third world nations is for a really small wage. But many of the employees are there to help their families. Fifty cents an hour is not a lot of money, but to these folks it is a decent living. It beats digging in the dirt for food. Okay let us say that somehow, corporations raise the working standards for these employees. How much are you going to be willing to pay for those pair of jeans that you purchased at the mall? You know for sure that the costs will be passed off to the consumer.

A lot of these protesters would like to see civilization return to a simpler way of life. Okay fine. There will be no more vaccinations. This in turn will leave us and our children open for a variety of deadly diseases.

No more research into making crops stronger, thereby causing farmers use more land to grow more crops to offset the natural spoiling of crops thru pestilences, disease etc. The more land that is needed the more forest land is going to be cleared. I can see that idea going over really big with the allied environmentalists.

No more computers or other time saving devices. This should bring us back to the 12 hours a day, 6 days a week workweek. I guess these protesters will have to find real jobs after all this happens. They wont have much time for protesting then I would guess. I note here that many of these Ludite types have websites that advocate the elimination of the very tools they are using. At least Ted Kazinsky, aka, the Unabomber had the strength of his own convictions to hand write all of his thoughts on paper, and not on some floppy disc.

I can go one and one about the inconsistencies in their thought process but you get the idea. Who are these people helping? No one, including themselves, as well.

Rich

Editor

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