Dead Body Theatre

[Tim May]

On Sunday, July 27, 2003, at 11:20  AM, James A. Donald wrote:
> This is the same moron marxism as expressed in the word
> "sweatshop": To a naive and ignorant socialist it seems that if
> each man selfishly pursues his own desire, the result will
> necessarily be chaos and hardship, that one person's plan will
> naturally harm those that are not part of it, hence such
> phrases and concepts as "sweatshop" which presuppose that one
> man producing a plan to create value and another man providing
> equipment to implement that plan, has somehow magically made
> the workers in a poor country worse off, that saving,
> investment and entrepeneurship is unproductive, that
> investment, particularly investment by rich people creating the
> means of production in poor countries, is a plot to swindle the
> poor, a scam, a transfer from poor to rich.
> \

The move to "boycott stores selling sweatshop products" is gathering 
steam, so to speak. Stores like The Gap, Old Navy, Target, etc. are 
making plans to stop buying from so-called sweatshops.

Of course, when this happens all those employed in these "sweatshops" 
in Bangladesh, Malaysia, etc. will be unemployed. What, do people think 
shutting down the garment factories means the workers will get jobs at 
Intel and Microsoft? Or that  somehow their wages will be increased to 
economically-unsupported levels for their country/

Duh. I'll chortle as yuppies and GenXers may more for inferior clothing 
while millions in Bangladesh and Malaysia starve to death over this 
"save the poor people!" scam.

As for the standard of living issue, I _do_ think the standard of 
living has declined over the past 40 years, aside from some 
availability of high tech products and medical care. Most of my 
employed friends are working half again as many hours as my father 
worked, are spending twice as much time sitting in traffic, and are 
living in smaller houses than my parents and my family lived in. And 
they are paying several times the tax burden. If the wife works, which 
was rare in the 1950s and into the early 60s, and they have children, 
then they may be paying a further substantial hit on childcare and 
nannies.

I would not want interference to stop free transaction in jobs, but 
it's disingenuous to ignore the fact that many today are working two 
jobs, or very, very long hours, to maintain a house that is generally 
smaller than in years past.

(Yeah, there are are a lot of McMansions. But many engineers in their 
30s are still living in crappy apartments. And working 50-hour weeks, 
at minimum, with hours per day spent sitting in traffic. And on call 
with cellphones and laptops. And taking work home. And checking their 
e-mail every night and weekend. And paying 50% or more of what they 
make in federal income taxes, state income taxes, passed-on property 
taxes, sales taxes, energy taxes, highway taxes, and Socialist Security 
taxes. And what they earn in investments, after paying taxes on income, 
is taxed a second time, even if the alleged investment gains are mostly 
due to monetary devaluation.)

You often let your intense hatred of Marxism blind you to the very 
horrific situation we now face.

--Tim May