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Priceless. I'm also really enjoying the Econ 101 dynamics of the HP Touchpad. They were below market value at $99, ergo they sold out within minutes of HP posting them the other Friday night. They appeared on ebay for $250 but their price is already dropping to around 210-230, and craigslist postings have them at $180. The abundance of supply from those who bought more than 1 thinking they'd make a quick buck flipping them are going to be eating their Touchpads soon, or using them as party trays.
There should be NO government interference in this country. It is supposed to be a FREE country with a free market system.
Not addressing what "should be", only what IS. Reality, ya know.....
As for donating organs, even the organs from very old people can be utilized. If one want's to donate "for free" and painlessly (after death), become an organ donor. Heart, lungs, kidneys, corneas, pancreas, liver, small bowel and bone can be successfully harvested and used to help others.
I agree with everything on there except the child labor issue.
Of course you don't agree. You want to oppress the people of other countries so that they cannot develop. If they cannot develop, they cannot compete against you. If they cannot compete against you, then you have a cushy job with ridiculous over-paid wages and you get to consume like a locust.
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Originally Posted by Vegas Joe
It does not matter to me whether or not the children THINK they are better off working in a sweatshop. They belong in school.
Industrialization and development requires a tremendous amount of resources and one of those resources is labor.
Every single country on Planet Earth has had to use child labor to develop, and that includes (gasp!) the United States.
Without your children working, you would never have been able to industrialize and you would be just like any other poor country...oh, the horror...the horror....
Once industrialization has been completed, you now have two things, a surplus of labor, and mo' money.
With that money, you build schools, so that the children who are no longer working have something to do, like get educated so that they can work and they can manage and supervise.
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Originally Posted by Vegas Joe
Not to mention it undermines the job markets in other nations that rightfully ban the practice.
You mean who stupidly banned the practice under threats and intimidation from the US. Note those countries are still languishing because they cannot fully industrialize because they do not have sufficient labor, because you have decreed in your infinite wisdom that they are not allowed to use child labor.
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Originally Posted by Vegas Joe
And no western democracy should allow products from such nations to be imported into the country.
That would make you a hypocrite. It was perfectly okay for you to use child labor, but it is not okay for other countries to use child labor. That smells like "Do as I say, not as I do." I suppose it's easy for you to sit in your insulated ivory white tower and issue decrees and pronouncements from on high, but if you lived in those countries, you would be singing a different song and dance.
His argument is very similar to arguing that the drug cartels are good for Mexico and its citizens. They provide good employment. Often provide social services to poor areas and provide large amounts of foreign income to the nation.
There can be good aspects to any number of bad practices.
His argument is very similar to arguing that the drug cartels are good for Mexico and its citizens. They provide good employment. Often provide social services to poor areas and provide large amounts of foreign income to the nation.
There can be good aspects to any number of bad practices.
I threw you an apple, I get back an orange. Good job.
These are simplistic rebuttals from a free market devotee, and require you to believe that the world runs according to hazily defined market principles, which it does not.
Take his first example regarding child labor. Here is his whole "argument":
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"If we say that the United States should abolish child labor in very poor countries," Boaz said, "then what will happen to these children? ... They're not suddenly going to go to the country day school. ... They may be out selling their bodies on the street. That is not an improvement over working in a t-shirt factory."
In fact, studies show that in at least one country where child labor was suddenly banned, prostitution increased. Good economics teaches that as poor countries get richer and freer, capital investment raises the productivity of labor and child labor diminishes. There's no shortcut through government prohibition—unless you like starvation and child prostitution.
This completely ignores the impact that child labor has on both the children and society in general. He goes into a line about "as poor countries get richer and freer" without ever making a distinction between "richer and freer" and who is becoming richer or freer. How does the exploitation of child labor make a poor country freer? It might make some people richer, but it ruins the lives of the workers and generally creates a less stable, less free, more unequal society. This answer basically amounts to "the market will sort it out," but he is very short on real answers here. Do you ban child labor at some point in your nation's development? Do you expect the companies employing child labor to just suddenly stop?
Suggesting that the only alternative to child labor is prostitution or starvation is not a valid defense of child labor, especially since those things don't go away in its presence.
Basically, this garbage only really makes sense if you think that economic theory is rock solid fact applicable to situations far more complex than a supply and demand graph. Blackmail is not a form of private law enforcement, Stossel. Give me a break.
These are simplistic rebuttals from a free market devotee, and require you to believe that the world runs according to hazily defined market principles, which it does not.
Take his first example regarding child labor. Here is his whole "argument":
This completely ignores the impact that child labor has on both the children and society in general. He goes into a line about "as poor countries get richer and freer" without ever making a distinction between "richer and freer" and who is becoming richer or freer. How does the exploitation of child labor make a poor country freer? It might make some people richer, but it ruins the lives of the workers and generally creates a less stable, less free, more unequal society. This answer basically amounts to "the market will sort it out," but he is very short on real answers here. Do you ban child labor at some point in your nation's development? Do you expect the companies employing child labor to just suddenly stop?
Suggesting that the only alternative to child labor is prostitution or starvation is not a valid defense of child labor, especially since those things don't go away in its presence.
Basically, this garbage only really makes sense if you think that economic theory is rock solid fact applicable to situations far more complex than a supply and demand graph. Blackmail is not a form of private law enforcement, Stossel. Give me a break.
What other alternatives are there to children working in a poor country?
...or they can starve. Would some prefer this alternative?
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