There was a time when owning something that came from some
distant place was exotic and unique. There was a time when ‘Fine China’ meant
something special. These days, everything you own is from China. Years ago, way
back in the day, a person had to go to a boutique destination shop in order to
get an item from India or Asia. Now you just have to go to your local corner
store. These days it’s shocking if you look at the tag on a new item and it
reads Made in the USA or Made in Canada.
This is not a racist rant. Neither am I insinuating that if
an item is made in some foreign land than it must be inferior. That is a simple
untruth. Mainly because those manufacturing companies, in whatever far flung
land they are, only follow the guidelines stipulated by the corporations
contracting them to produce their goods. As a side point there are some
unscrupulous and opportunistic business men in those same countries who are
creating counterfeit products often right out of the same manufacturing plants
of the corporations they are contracted to. I’m pretty sure that’s what’s known
as Karma. But the real issue at stake here is that corporations are causing a
mass migration of employment to any “Third World” or “Developing” Nation that
they can. I am not telling you anything new here. This is not breaking news. We
aren’t uncovering some hidden conspiracy here. This is a very old story. In
fact it’s so old that it seems we’ve grown desensitized to the whole concept.
And we will continue to do so until it inevitably affects us on a personal
level. And as much as we think this is not possible, it is.
Putting it plainly, if you do a job that any individual can
do in a Developing Nation, you are guaranteed to lose that job. And it will
happen much sooner than you can even imagine. Start preparing now. No matter
how menial or how little you think you’re being paid, it’s too much for any
corporation when they can pay pennies a day to some poor slob over seas with
twelve kids and nothing but a shack with a dirt floor. You don’t know from
slave wages. No matter how specially talented or educated you are, there are a
hundred thousand people lining up for your job at an interview on the other
side of the world as you read this. And they’ll do it for the same amount of
money you spend on toilet paper each month. For just the price of a cup of coffee a day, you could lose your job.
It’s also no secret that there is an ever widening chasm
between the rich and the poor happening in all so-called First World Nations.
And it’s only getting wider every day. Yes the banks played horrible gambles
with our money and lost. Yes the governments are mismanaging our tax money and
destroying our public sector. But all these things are compounded by the fact
that corporations are happily outsourcing our jobs to struggling nations faster
than we can keep up.
People are resourceful and resilient. Many will find other
employment. The problem is the jobs that are left. There’s always the service
industry, or entry level labor jobs. The issue is that people won’t be able to afford
their mortgage and car payments. The wages from those jobs don’t exactly enable
anyone to save for their family’s future or education for their children. And
the obvious problem is that the less money we have the less we have to spend
anyway, so no one is buying homes or cars or anything for that matters. They
will buy what they need to survive. So our society will gradually eat itself
alive until it unavoidably implodes and turns us into the very nations
corporations are outsourcing our jobs too.
But corporations don’t care about that. They could care less
about you and your kids and how you will live and eat, never mind pay for an
education to better yourself. Their only concern is the bottom line, even though it
means the inevitable self destruction of the capitalist society they love so
much. But it won’t die. It will leave a bloody trail of helpless victims. It
will evolve and take on other forms like a disease or a virus. We only have to
look at Greece to know this is true. The events happening in Greece are the
beginnings of a Global Social Cancer that is malignant and growing at an
alarming rate. They talk of austerity but austerity is only for the little
people. You and me and the rest of the 99 Percenters.
And it goes deeper than that. There’s a book you should
read. And if you don’t have time to read because you’re already working too
many hours at too many jobs there’s a documentary version of it. It’s by a
brilliant and brave investigative journalist named Naomi Klein and its called
The Shock Doctrine.
There is only one way to beat anyone at their game. That’s
by playing the game.
