Misery, Shackles and Death

Wherever you are in the world, do you conclude that your business assists in the world community’s development? Or does your business exploit humans who are otherwise unable (yet) to obtain your freedoms and quality of life? I submit that where you spend your dollar, is the true key.

It is rather astonishing that growing global enterprises are able to obtain slavery or near-slavery labor under the guise of “one world economy”. The so-called “global community” then endeavors not to share the fruits of what it builds, but rather to harness as much as possible, regardless of human consequences. After all, a critical business factor such as “Cost Of Direct Labor To Sales Ratio”, is purely mathematical: Direct Labor Costs divided by Sales by 100.

For example, if you had a manufacturing business in America with a thousand employees, you would be following the set American standards (laws) for employee wages, rights, working conditions and hours. This follows the U.S. Declaration of Independence where it states that all men have “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”. The privileged enjoyment of decent wages comes of course from the resulting product of your factory. The price paid for that product can then be said to be in part, the “price of liberty”.

If then, a similar factory in a land where the only right you have is the temporary privilege of “life”, we can certainly conclude that products made there could be a lot cheaper. Such foreign lands often have built in some hope of freedom in the actual name of the country, such as “Democratic Republic of …”, “The People’s Republic of …”, you get the idea. We know them to be neither democratic nor the people’s.

It has been argued by some, that not all cultures would like the freedoms enjoyed by those of us lucky enough to be able to. Many said this about the Japanese during the Second World War, and as many or more said this recently about Iraqis. They contend that those under the boot of tyranny on their necks appreciate and of course would like to maintain that status quo. They long ago concluded that a Western lifestyle accompanies human freedoms, when certainly we know that to be totally false. As a case in point, you could look at democratic Turkey.

Without education, and under the constant assault of propaganda by Communist or dictatorial forces, threats of violence and so on, it would appear easy to hide behind government-controlled anecdotes from terrorized minions. It’s certainly more profitable. And what could be done anyway? From the Declaration of Independence: “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

Your customers favor the product of lower prices, where labor is possibly 1/100th of yours. How will you compete? If you could, you might be motivated to close your factory, and locate it there. You would then be able to satisfy your customer’s appetite for lower prices, and assisting in your communities decline by laying off your thousand employees. Without customers, we have no business!

Equally true though, is that sooner or later, you have to pay for that free lunch. The global economy has moved thousands of factories to where the cheaper unregulated labor is, and their thirst for oil has indeed increased proportionally. That free lunch is starting to look a little pricey now, is it not?

As a matter of governmental policy the “free world” allows your nation to trade with such nations. Such nations that have no regard for human rights and freedoms, and who subsidize in exchange for political support. It is rather an abuse of your fellow humans, a world away, who will; despite propaganda efforts conclude that your materialistic thirst is their shackle. Would that your government changes that policy to mandate that such affairs should be maintained with like-nations that have a closer appreciation for the human soul.

And while supporting such regimes through these economic ties, we are surely as guilty as the guards that keep them behind the fences. They become more powerful and thus entangle the world in the great deceit, while talking of matters of human rights in other parts of the world.

Despite the current dogma about this global economy, I predict that its failure is assured. Further, that starvation, rampant disease and war are assured for generations until mankind awakes to save his fellow man from tyranny and unspeakable abuses. The salvation of the world lies within its community to share the ultimate prize of life: liberty.