Re: OT: Earth Hour

On Fri, 15 May 2009 09:22:35 -0700 (PDT), gabi <gabiks@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On May 14, 10:35 am, Josh Hill <userepl...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 14 May 2009 08:10:23 -0700 (PDT), gabi <gab...@xxxxxxxxxxx>


100 years from now, all the labor will be done by robots, for all I
know.

not likely, 500 maybe. (but, i'm hoping people will still walk their
dogs.)

My concerns for the people of then are leaving a planet that
isn't blown up, poisoned, or stripped of its species. They will have
to take care of the rest.

For now, I'm neither completely opposed to globalization nor in favor
of it. This is not something that should, in my opinion, be guided by
ideology. Hell, I'm not sure that anything should or can be
successfully guided by ideology. IMNSHO, ideology is for idiots.


i'm rather indifferent to the whole thing myself. culturally we've
embraced
the economy of 'stuff' a long time ago. the worker as interchangeable/
expendable
cog is still playing out.

we bought our son some bedroom furniture about a month ago. the
drawers were
manufactured in china. they arrived via UPS, all *individually*
packaged in double
wall, shipping grade paperboard boxes, each swaddled in bubble wrap
with styrofoam
coverings on all edges. not styrofoam corners, mind, but an entire
frame of styrofoam
around each edge, top and bottom.
the actual three pieces of 'furniture' were delivered *separately*
each on a different day
by the same truck.

i just about died.

the paperboard was easy to recycle. the local packaging center was
happy to accept the bubble wrap. the styrofoam? most likely trash.
over 50 pieces of the stuff.
now, i have no idea were the paperboard, bubble wrap or the styro were
made. nor do i
know if the styro can/will be sold to places in asia were it is cost
effective to recycle them.
maybe in terms of economic dollars it all balances out in the end.
don't know. but when i
contemplate the amount of energy and pollution that went into moving
all this stuff around the world
i wonder if we are not too heavily invested in the way things are
(business as usual) to save the
planet we live on.

There are clear advantages to globalization, but there are also clear
disadvantages, not the least of which is that it is making those of us
who live in the developed world poorer and creating the  risk of
depression. As I see it, we should be finding approaches that
encourage trade industrialization in the third world without doing
this. That will inevitably involve some compromises, but economic
suicide shouldn't be among them.

that seems inevitable. we need to produce, then dump as much product
as
possible to keep our economy going. raising the wages/employment (out
sourcing)
of third world countries in the hope of creating an even bigger market
in which to sell
our stuff serves that function. quantity over quality.

at some point social (quality of life) and environmental costs may be
re-factored
into the equation, but not anytime soon. nor in a big way.

gabi





Well, today, 'globalization' is actually a big shell game. The
multi-nationals find a region where the folk are poor and cheap, build
factories and employ them for a decade, and they are forced to close
up shop because it is no longer 'cost effective' to continue to
exploit the labor force. They start wanting a higher standard of
living, which requires additional pay, which the big boys don't want
to pay. The big boys move on, leaving the populus in a lurch

Charlie

.

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