| This is going to sound a bit glib, but the problem sort of fixes itself. Look at China. "Sweatshop" sort of manufacturing has largely left. Now the country has more Rolls Royces and Bentleys sold there vs any other sans the US. Where did those shops go? Well, places like indonesia. But, guess what, those manufacturing outfits have since left and gone to Bangladesh. The money goes where people will do work for less. Nobody can stop this. But where it does go, it leaves a wake of prosperity. Maybe not for the people themselves--the kids doing the sweating--but for their kids--or really, their neighbors' kids. Over the last 30 years, 1 billion -- with a 'b'-- people have come out of extreme poverty as defined by international standards. Why? Because people in some countries stopped wanting to do horrible work and others would. And then when those countries stopped wanting to do it, others would. Guess who is next? Myanmar. And round and round and round it goes. This kind of thinking only works if you are ok with generational problem-solving. If not a single person, ever, no matter what, cannot be allowed to not live according to elite Western Standards--then, yeah, it's a problem. Otherwise, international capital flows do the work no single entity or popular movement could ever do:give money to those who actually want it most. |