"F. George McDuffee" wrote in message
...

As indicated in another thread, this in most cases is called
"cost externalization." As long as any business is allowed to
shift their costs to someone else, they will do so in order to
maximize their profits. This is the nature of business and does
not [necessarily] imply the existence of a plot or conspiracy.

The shift from small scale local operations/organizations to
multinational corporations has greatly amplified and exacerbated
the problem of "cost externalization" and the parallel problem of
"transfer pricing" where profits are shifted to the jurisdictions
with the lowest or no taxes, and the costs are shifted to the
areas with the highest cost and tax deductions.

The basic/root problem appears to be that the economy/financial
system has become so complex that no one understands it, and it
is therefore impossible to regulate and control. What must be
done is obvious, but doing it may well be impossible, i.e. the
genie is out of the bottle and he ain't going back.


Unka George



your post made me wonder, what's the next step? where do we go from here?
corporations felt they had to move off shore to remain competitive. how
long is it going to take before their competitiveness diminishes even being
off shore? where are they going to go when that happens? they're just
going to keep skipping around the globe to continually exploit low cost
labor? at some point is there going to be a world wide labor union?
i remember reading something about japan establishing shrimp farms in
philippines. for a while the filipinos were making good money and were
happy, then japan established shrimp farms in vietnam and the bottom fell
out of shrimp prices. the filipinos had to work like dogs to make a profit.
is it ever going to be possible for nations to collude to favor workers? or
nations getting together to protect their local environment (example,
bophal, india).

b.w.