Progress, Poverty, and Politics

funny how you try to stir things up with no concrete examples. that is called hyperbole speaking of hyper things.

i think this cartoon makes a valid point. while many college-going 'dissidents' decry free trade, for many people in other countries, it brings plumbing, water, etc that those cultures have never had. while unchecked capitalism is not the only way to do this, we have to ask ourselves who we are trying to benefit. if you want to attack class oppression, college students can begin by doing it in their own communities instead of pretending that they know what is happening 6000 miles away.

. Ask the Bolivians think of the "free trade" and the attempt to privatize their water.
Go ahead put, Bolivia, Bechtel and water in a search engine like google to see what to see what "free trade" really means.

Bolivia? Ask your neighbor what he thinks of free trade. Ask your best friend. Hell, ask yourself. All of you enjoy nice jobs and affordable products there in America, eh? World's highest standard of living overall. Nice shoes? Jeans? Auto? TV? Radio? Computer? Internet access? Cell phone? Affordable food, so you can spend your time protesting instead of farming? All these come from privatized industries, too.

Free trade, held in check with the power of a free press, labor unions, and public oversight committees, has built the economy in which you now live so well. Most people in Bolivia would kill to live as well as we do.

Besides, water was probably privatized in Bolivia about as well as energy was in Kalifornia. A monopoly being passed from the left hand to the right, is not privatization.

SJ

When big corporations go to Mexico or the Phillipines they aren't helping the people there. They are lowering the wages and quality of life in many places. They are exploiting them, not helping them. Look at what NAFTA did to Mexico, the situations there aren't better, they're worse.

Nice shoes?(made in China) Jeans?(made in Burma) Auto?(killing the environment) TV?(waste of unreplaceable time, probably made in China) Radio?(mindless crap) Computer? Internet access?(the only positive, unites our minds) Cell phone?(hell with all the money we save from sweatshop made clothes, why not!) Affordable food,(genetically modified and probably made on some privatized land taken away from some peasant far off)


"you can spend your time protesting instead of farming?"

Of coarse, that's the point, I live better because they suffer, there for I fight for them.

"All these come from privatized industries, too."

Let 'em burn!