Tuesday, August 14, 2007

CHEAP LABOR!

When I think about all the exportation of jobs from our country it sometimes seems like such a complex economic issue that I think it’s unsolvable. Afterall, we’re talking about resources, labor, transportation, development and a host of other variables. Then I read a story like the one quoted below and it all becomes very clear to me: CHEAP LABOR.

“. . . children as young as 8 were abducted or recruited from bus and train stations with false promises of well-paying jobs and sold to kilns for about $65.
The victims were forced to work almost around the clock, beaten, and deprived of pay, nourishment and basic medical care.”

Sounds like some horrible 19th Century industrial revolution nightmare doesn’t it? Nope, China, 2007.

The same sort of thing is going on in countries all over the world where CHEAP LABOR is exploited in order to make cheap goods for the western market. From South America to Malaysia, children and other hideously oppressed workers are toiling away in conditions that would make the average American recoil in horror. Your most rat infested, shit covered, naked on the streets anxiety riddled dream probably wouldn’t compare to some of the reports I’ve read about human rights abuses in the name of CHEAP LABOR.

“How terrible” you proclaim upon being informed of such atrocities, but will it effect your buying patterns? When you go to your local mega mart and scarf up some of those $9.67 dress shirts will you stop and think about who made them where? When you grab some item off the shelf that is entirely or partially made of cheap stamped out plastic parts from Malaysia or China will you think about the consequences of your purchase? How about that boutique coffee you drank and paid $4 a cup for while the poor South American or African farmer living in squalor who produced it was paid less than cost. Remember the last banana you ate? Possibly produced by workers who make pitiful wages and are exposed to dangerous pesticides without any protection. The list is as long as the products we crave. . . chocolate from the Ivory Coast, athletic shoes and even mid eastern rugs.

If you’re like most of the feeble proles in this country today you’re saying to yourself “there’s nothing I can do about any of THAT.” Well, actually, you pitiful moron, there is. You can start by contacting your congressperson and telling them that you demand that they support House Bill H.R. 1992, “The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Compensation Act.” Then you contact your senators and demand they support Senate Bill S.367, again “The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Compensation Act.” “But I don’t know how to contact my senator or congressperson.” You whiney little prole. Are you going to remain an inept buffoon your whole life? Quit whining like an ignorant little child and try this: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home
This site lets you type in your zip code (you DO know your zip code, don’t you?) and then gives you a list of all your federal and state elected representatives. Wow, even YOU can do that. You can then e-mail or phone them. . . DO IT NOW.

The biggest problem is that these bills have been held up since January. What seem like simple issues of human conscience have turned into a fight against the corpo-fascist CHEAP LABOR advocates. The funny thing is that they are making the humanitarian argument that these bills will destroy the lives of foreign workers by taking jobs away from them. Can anyone else see the bitter irony dripping off those comments like a $50 a day porn queen covered in . . . oh never mind. . . these lousy recreant bastards claim to be worried about the fifty cents a day they’re paying their slave labor in Honduras while the idea of uprooting millions of Americans from their good paying manufacturing jobs makes them want to dance in the street. Fuck these POS corporate royalists and fuck their POS bought and paid for legislators who go along with such tripe and bullshit.

Contact your legislators NOW and get this bill onto the floor and let’s see a show of hand from these self serving politicians.

So next time you listen to some politician or corporate talking head making some complex issue of jobs, foreign imports, etc., remember, it’s all about CHEAP LABOR.

The other thing you can do, which will go against the grain of American proletariat ignorance, is arm yourself with knowledge. Know where the products you buy are coming from. Ask the retail clerk about the product. Sure, they won't know a damn thing either, but at least it gets other people thinking and maybe, just maybe one of them will stop and find out some information. Hey bozo, you're reading this on the internet, right? Well, guess where I learned the pitifully scant amount of knowledge that I have aquired on the subject. Right! The internet. The next time you go to Google, instead of typing in "big tits" or "mega cocks," try something like "labor issues," "slave labor" or "CHEAP LABOR!"

Inform yourself you sorry assed ignorant prole. Don't walk around like some slack jawed hillbilly moron.

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