Killing themselves for our pleasure?
By webmaster
The Financial Times is reporting on their front page today that nine people at a giant manufacturing facility in southern China where Apple, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard manufacture their products for the US market have committed suicide.
The factory is in Shenzen and both employs and houses 300,000 people. Our cheap labor - our slave labor overseas - are starting to protest.
These companies that go overseas looking for cheap labor not only have the blood on their hands of the people so tormented by working conditions in Asia that they are committing suicide, but also that of the devastated working class families in America who must buy goods made in China yet are no longer manufacturing anything.
It's time for America to return to rational tariff based trade policies that bring our jobs home.
Comments
#2
Well, 9/300,000 = 0.00003 = 0.003%. The suicide rate in the US (2005 data) is 11/100,000 = .00011 = 0.011%, roughly 3.6 times higher than the rate at that factory. Of course all numbers are untrustworthy; but it helps to put stories like this in context.
#3
"It's time for America to return to rational tariff based trade policies that bring our jobs home."
Please push this proven method more often Thom. It's the great equalizer. It forces countries to think of products they can make within their borders that are better than made elsewhere. Which means folks outside the country won't mind paying a tarrif to get access. And if a country makes something that can only practically be made in that country, so much the better. That's why the U.S. has to get the lead back in manufacturing Solar panels and especially all sorts of renewable energies, before other countries figure out how to make them, and impose their own tarrifs that WE would then have to pay to them.
#4
I'm glad a previous commentor introduced the subject of numbers. Thom did not mention the period of time in which the nine suicides occurred, but that rate is 3 per 100,000. The numbers I could find quickly on the web showed that China's rate in 1999 was 14 per 100,000, the US rate in 2005 was 11 per 100,000, the rate in Japan in 2007 a whopping 24 per 100,000!
I would have expected better scholarship from Thom.
I would have liked to make a more timely comment, but the newsletter arrives here (Israel) during the night and I get to it over my morning coffee - which is during the night there.
#5
I wonder if "Carly" Fiorina will feature this in one of her up-coming political advertisements.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
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From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him."
From Cracking the Code:
"In Cracking the Code, Thom Hartmann, America’s most popular, informed, and articulate progressive talk show host and political analyst, tells us what makes humans vulnerable to unscrupulous propagandists and what we can do about it. It is essential reading for all Americans who are fed up with right-wing extremists manipulating our minds and politics to promote agendas contrary to our core values and interests."
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"If you wonder why and when giant corporations got the power to reign supreme over us, here’s the story."
Normally gas prices go up before a holiday... (Memorial Day weekend)
Normally gas prices go up if there's an oil refinery explosion(AGE Refinery - Fort Worth, TX)
Just filled my tank up. Gas was down 20 cents. We don't have BP gas stations here.
Isn't this proof of collusion?