On May 29, 7:50�pm, Peter wrote:
On 5/29/2010 2:34 PM, Douglas Johnson wrote:

�wrote:

The problem is the Chinese slave workforce. �And the fact they hold
don't allow their currency to float. �These sort of things never went
on in Smith's day.

Wrong at least twice. �The workforce in China is not slave. �In many respects,
it is more free than workforces in the US and UK. �The Chinese may take any job
they can get hired for, at any wage, and with any benefits they can negotiate.
True, in many cases, those wages are far less than the US or UK. �But, in many
cases, it beats the hell out of working in a rice paddy.

And slavery certainly existed in Adam Smith's day, both in the US and the UK.

-- Doug

I thought that in the U.S. and U.K., anyone can take any job they can get hired
for, at any wage and benefits that they can negotiate.

In China as in Victorian England/America the population are largely
job slaves. There is no minimum wage, people are in an economic trap
on starvation wages. They have few rights and workplace health and
safety is non-existent. Child labour is common.
Eg all the coal mining accidents and poisonous toys the send over.