value added?

[meadow]

And those of us who have any mutual funds are probably bemoaning our current
20% losses at the same time we criticize our corporations efforts to scout
business in third world countries, civilizing people into thinking they need a
toaster, hairdo, jambox etx.  This is a little schizophrenic place to be in.  I
think that we, as well as the middle east, need help dealing with technology.
dian

Jon Ford wrote:

> Bob, I thought your "value added" remark to be truly a classic. Let's look
> at some facts: 1) a huge number of the  products you mention are not really
> "value added"  by US consumptionsince they  (or most of the parts used in
> the products) are actually manufactured in the Third World  under US control
> and ownership. This means the Third World is having to build big power
> plants to provide the modern-style factories to make them, and of course
> provide the child labor for pennies an hour to crank these fine products
> out.  The energy consumption of these countries (along with atmospheric and
> water pollution)has skyrocketed in recent years, as has the demand for
> natural resources to make the products and fuel the machines.
>
> 2) Then, getting even wilder,  many of these goods are imported to the US,
> some being sold here as US products (value added "over there, " making them
> cheaper), reexported to the Third World with fancy brand tags on them,
> higher prices, big profit for the US. Only the middle or upper  class Third
> Worlders can afford said products, but the poor get something a few years
> behind the times, yearning for that upper  middle-class  world that the
> products can magically transport them to. We are really just outsourcing
> what wouldn't be tolerated here in terms of huge energy consumption and
> pollution (of course, we are still by far the largest consumers per capita
> of energy and products of all kinds).
>
> 3) What's  also happening now in the Third World (well, let's say most of
> the world) is that prices are going way up because of increasing energy
> coasts, less land in cultivation, etc.-- the pennies a day the factory
> workers make don't really cover all this very well. So the international PR
> firms of which you seem proud have to work really hard to create
> hyper-consumerism in Third World countries,  to open up new markets
> everywhere so  that very poor people  will be motivated to scrimp and save
> to buy, say, a US brand toaster which they could probably do without-- they
> could warm their bread (if they could afford any) some other way.
>
> Jon "the Zen saint" Ford
>
> >
> >Well I noticed something interesting too....the fact that you totally
> >ignored the point of my original post and fixed on the 'tone' of the post
> >rather than the simple idea that the USA is not quite the energy and
> >resource hog that many of the stats imply since so many of the raw
> >materials
> >imported have 'value added' and then are re-exported to the world.
> >
> >Perhaps you would care to address that issue?
> >
>
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