General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Heads Up!! "Obama Ready to Defy Base in Order to Advance Trans-Pacific Partnership" [View all]Albertoo
(2,016 posts)Is there a good reason an Indian or Chinese worker should earn so much less than a Western worker? Or further back, a Japanese, Taiwanese or South Korean? Up until the 70s, the Western worker enjoyed a huge multiple over his foreign counterparts because China and India were inefficient closed borders affairs.
Competition has meant lifting literally hundreds of millions people out of poverty. The Japanese, Taiwanese or South Koreans were on average poor in the 50s. Now, they live in societies equal to those in the West. And Western economies did not suffer as a result in real terms. China had been brought to its knees by Mao. They now have hundreds of million middle class people thaks to competition. Last 50 years brought more people out of poverty than at any other time in History.
The main thing that says 'screw labor' is different, it's the race to the bottom in taxes, including tax havens. It directly translates into a widening gap between the top and the minimum wage.