1. Fair trading - The idea of fair trading is an interesting one to me, looks very appealing, but also feels a bit idealistic. If there was any way to introduce fair trading practices in the world, at least some of the issues raised on my last post would be considered. Fair trading would attempt to provide fair jobs in developing countries. Instead of having people working at almost slave conditions, we would trade with countries like India, China and Bangladesh in a way that may ensure the growth of a middle class, which is the only real driver of prosperity as seen in history. Sounds great, doesn't it? But I did say it also feels a bit idealistic. One of the problems with this idea, is that it would clearly cut down profits. If the main drive for outsourcing cheap labor to these countries is profit, fair trading would diminish the interest in the idea. I believe that this is the main reason the only time you see "fair traded" labels involves food and other exotic commodities. By that I mean, you can't produce coffee as easily in Canada, so we need to export it from the tropics, no other options there so the big players can afford to push for fair trading. With sweatshops, you don't get that. If all of a sudden local business owners in Bangladesh decided that their working conditions isn't good enough, hence they push for fair trade, Wal-Mart and Fresh Co will just go ahead and shop around other desperate countries to provide the same service for cheap.
2. Rational protectionism - One other way to prevent some of the problems outlined in my last post is to introduce tariffs to products imported from countries like Bangladesh. I don't think a blanket protectionist policy is a good idea, but I do believe that using tariffs to regulate prices of goods that are coming from developing countries and are made from inhumane conditions can help. A capitalist economy has profit at the bottom line, not global or social prosperity. So they don't care if 300 people have to die in Southeast Asia in order to be able to make large profits. What they do care about is profit, and if these profits are getting chopped at the border because of tariffs, that will change their practices. Maybe implement conditional tariffs that try to enforce accountability, so for instance if a falling building would make it so that from now on, Fresh Co will have to pay significant tariffs to our government because of their negligence in choosing appropriate manufacturers. I hope this point isn't mistaken by people, and make them think I don't believe in globalization and free trade, I do, I just think it needs to be done responsibly. I also think accountability isn't a real factor in the free market, so this is one way to add accountability to the picture.
3. Tax things we don't like - Another way the government can help this situation is by taxing things we don't want, and giving benefits to things we do want. In this situation, one approach would be to give more tax benefits to businesses that hire locally, and contribute fairly to the local economy. This would obviously impact commodity prices, but I just see it as a necessary evil. Nothing in this world is free, so when we pay so little for things, we have to wonder how this is possible. Efficiency is one possible explanation, but another very real explanation involves the fact that people cut corners. Corners that sometimes should not be cut. For instance, in Canada recently, it has made the news that big banking conglomerates have been firing local workers in order to hire, cheaper, temporary replacements from abroad. They use our government programs in order to increase profits while putting Canadians out of work. Again, this is where taxing or giving benefits comes in, our government is rewarding corporations for bad behaviour. To me this is even more of a problem when you start to talk about the whole "trickle down economic policies", which clearly, and I mean, CLEARLY, is complete rubbish. Businesses want to make profit, they don't give a crap about how they treat employees, or how the overall economy is doing. They just want to make money.
4. Criminalize lobbying - This brings me to my last point. We do not live in a democratic country here in Canada or the USA. We just call it a democracy, but the truth is that when money is involved, the popular opinion isn't a factor. There are two things that move our countries towards changes. These two are money and power. The government and corporations have a complete monopoly of these two commodities, if you will. Corporations make huge loads of money, that they then turn around and pay for lobbying that furthers their agendas. Lobbying is essentially the exchange of dollars for political power. This is where politicians take corporate money, to not only fund their propaganda during election, but also this is the money that moves politics. Money that prevents stricter gun laws in the USA, when 90% of the population supports the motion. It really doesn't matter what people want, if politicians can just sell bits of their influence to corporations, so that they can fund their next election. Elections nowadays are a joke. It's basically a bunch of corporate puppets paying absurd amounts of money to tell us what we want to hear so that we vote for them next time. I mean, just look at the Conservatives in Canada, spending tax payer dollars on advertising to convince us that the Harper government is environmentally conscientious. While at the same time they are developing and destroying the Tar Sans, they are closing down research facilities in Ontario focused on environmental issues and global warming and they are trying to move us away from freedom of research by muzzling Canadian environmental research. So it really pisses me off to see my money being spent to convince me of a complete lie. So people, wake up! While we are all still comfortably employed, living a relatively comfortable life in Canada, our nation is moving in a very terrifying direction. The direction of a plutocratic nation, away from the democracy we like to say we have.
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