quote:
Originally posted by Ronn_Bman:
But SC, don't you see you're saying exactly what I'm talking about right now. It's not just American's, but "American's perfected the process", "they led the way", "they blah, blah, blah".
If it's so bad, why not focus on those companies who did it after it was obvious how bad it was? Because this isn't about just anyone who does it, it's about the American's who do it because it's their fault. Your post explains that point nicely. The American's get two paragraph's and the rest of the world gets a two line statement ending with, "most of the explotation is done at their (American's) behest."
SC, you may think you see the truth and that it's America at the heart of all of the problems you've discussed in this forum, but isn't that a little too simplistic? Kind of like your argument about good vs evil?
You did do a very nice thing regarding Yorick's anti-British post. [img]smile.gif[/img]
That post was aimed at brits in general, those on this board in particular. It caused quite a bit of upset because it was putting down the anti-war movement opinion and called in to question many things said and put them in a context those who held those views were offended by. I don't see all the arguments on this board as anti American arguments, but the arguments whose main line of defense is "look at you, it's your fault" I am entitled to find offensive.
Okay. They led the way. Their profits shot up. Come on Ron, you know how Wall Street works! Companies who don't 'follow the leaders' share price tumbles, - they're seen as less good bets in comparison to the hearts of stone and heavy pocketed entrepeuners. It is an American way of doing business, which is spreading to the rest of the world. Most of the multinationals who engage in these disgusting practices are in fact American. (Although the subcontractors who actually are responsible for getting the work done come from all over, mostly third world countries.)
America struts its stuff and wants to be seen as world leader. It's the only remaining superpower. Okay. So why can't the American government impose legislation that holds business more accountable! Bloody Reagon did a lot to change the face of business, like bloody Thatcher. Goodbye manufacturing industries. Goodbye anti-trust laws... and so on..... Because America is so rich, and has such a powerful presence in the global economy, what American multinationals do is not just nothing! And the American government colludes in helping it achieve it's aims of more and more and more profit, because it perceives that as being good for the American economy. However, those actions have consequences all over the world, very often for the worse. Other companies have to follow suit to be able to compete, or go to the wall. And so bad working practices reintroduced by American companies spread and spread and spread, just because of America's position in the economic sphere. Do you understand what I'm trying to say here??
I'm focusing on America for that reason, and also for the obvious reason that this is a forum about the 'war' with Afghanistan, which America is prosecuting, and it is American's, as I've already said, who are asking why the world sees them in such a negative light. Of course I'm focusing on America in my replies! To do anything else would be absurd.
Last point - as you know very well, Ron-B, I have no ruth whatsoever for Britain's colonial past, which I think had the effect of destabalising the majority of the third world, and which can never be condoned or excused. And I don't give a stuff who criticises Britain for that, because it needs to be said, the more often the better. I do not identify with my country to the extent that I am offended when people have a go at it. Why should I? I'm a human being and a global citizen.