Matinee- No Logo Brands- Globalization

Excellent film that takes a good look at globalization and corporate branding. Hosted by Naomi Klein. Subtitulo en Español.

More Chinese Toys Recalled

The lists keeps growing and growing. This from the The New York Times:

"Amid a fresh wave of toy recalls yesterday, a consumer advocacy group said it had found hazardous levels of lead in many toys made out of vinyl plastic, potentially expanding the scope of testing and recalls of contaminated toys.

A random testing of more than 50 plastic toys found high lead content in 11 of them, according to Mike Schade, a campaigner for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, which helped organize the testing. Ten were made out of polyvinyl chloride, also referred to as PVC or vinyl. Three contained “extremely high” lead levels — a Go Diego Go backpack, a Superfly monkey and a pair of Circo Lulu boots."

Product safety laws are pretty useless when we now import just about everything sold here from China where few if any laws exist.

Another Day...Another Factory

Will it ever end?

The Promises of Globalization

Many promises have been made by politicians, economists and various business leaders about the benefits of globalization. Under this system, we were told that the extraordinary wealth produced by it would in turn 'trickle down' to everyone. To those whose jobs would be outsourced, they were told that the 'new' jobs that would be created would be better and high paying.

Take a look at the reality. The corporations and their executives have, in fact, grown more wealthy. Workers, on the other hand, have seen a different side. High skilled manufacturing and tech jobs have been outsourced to low wage countries and this process shows no sign of changing. In fact, the trends show that companies are ever looking for the next lower wage country to do business in. Many of the jobs that have been created are low paying service jobs. Imagine that after working in a textile plant for the last 15 years that suddenly you find that your job no longer exists and you are forced to work in the garden supply department of your local Wal Mart. Not a pretty picture.

Even the company execs are not immune to this process in the long run. The overhead costs of having a corporate headquarters, say in Miami, are high. Overseas manufacturers see high priced American or European managers as a pull on profits and can simply purchase the company and move the headquarters to a cheaper location.

I personally see no end to this 'eternal race to the bottom'. Companies have no reason to change course and the politicians that make the rules have been so seduced with campaign contributions from the business sector that they have no need to reign this in either. Only time will tell....