torresd

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Letters.html

I am tired of listening to
the whining coming out of the Asian press
regarding the American backlash against
excessive outsourcing and excessive
use of the H-1B and L-1 visas
[Challenges ahead for India's IT boom, Aug 1].

How easy it is to be judgmental towards
American workers supplanted by workers
in lower-waged Asian countries.

How many people in Asia would allow
Americans to come to work in their countries
and take jobs away from their workers?

So before you all get caught up in
your own feeling of moral superiority,
think that over.

From the perspective of multinational
corporations there is only one reason
for globalization - obscene profits.

It's no secret to Americans that business
privacy laws in many Asian countries protect
multinational corporations from disclosing
their obscene profits.

Where is all that money going?

To Chinese laborers?

Give me a break -
it's ending up in some CEO's numbered
Swiss bank account or to the Chinese
Communist Party so they can build more
ballistic missiles to threaten Taiwan and others.

If you think that the Communist Party or
the multinationals are going to let wages
rise for the Chinese laborer, get with the
program.

If anything,
wages will stagnate and possibly deteriorate,
because they'll forcefully crush any attempts to unionize.

Trust me - these guys have no end to their greed.

I'll bet you don't know that in Mexico workers
have seen their standard of living drop 27
percent in the past five years while more
American jobs have moved there.

That isn't supposed to be the way it works, is it?

Well, the multinationals keep wages
dirt-cheap the old-fashioned way -
they cave people's heads in if they organize.

NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement]
has been a lose-lose proposition for the populations
of both countries.

How did this lousy piece of
legislation pass the US Congress?

Let me give you a hint: it isn't NAFTA - it's GRAFT-A. I
n our blessed American democracy,
Bush No 1 and Congress debated
NAFTA behind closed doors.

Nobody was allowed to see what was going on.

Later it was established that Mexico spent
US$500 million lobbying Congress for its
assage.

It's a generally accepted principal of lobbying
that the amount of bribe money required is
directly proportional to the amount of lime
required to cover up the stench.

Interestingly,
George Bush No 2 has failed to extend
NAFTA throughout South America as
planned.

Many of the countries have decided that
they did the banana-republic thing before -
no thanks.

So as you toast the multinationals for bringing jobs
to Asia, just remember what they are really there for.

They don't give a damn about you -
they only want to squeeze every penny
of profit out of you.

As for the Chinese inner circle who
also are skimming off the lard -

as they pump more and more of their
newfound wealth into the Chinese military
and ballistic-missile program -

I think you all should take a moment and
reflect on Tiananmen Square and ask if
you are getting closer to or farther away
from democracy.
Dan Hearn
USA (Aug 4, '03)