RE: [microsound] RE: McLabor

[Christopher Sorg <csorg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 28 Jun 2002, David Miller wrote:

> this just seems like a reaction to the recent news.  the market will
> survive.
> but massing every single CEO into some dishonesty-laden business club,
> really isn't looking at it straight.  it's like prejudice.
> and that's what a lot of the complaining about companies around here sounds
> like:
> 
> "oh those mean old CEOs couldn't care less about the everyman - the
> working-class, blue-collar hero"
> 
> give me a break!

You're correct.  They couldn't care less about the artists who creat their
products, their slave-labor work force or the "mom and pop" stores which
they close down, either.  Okay, I shouldn't mass *every* CEO and large
company into the pot, but it's *not* a reaction to recent news.  It's a
reaction to every big news story since I was born.  Exxon, Nike, Sony,
Microsoft, Enron, whatever.  Doesn't anyone remember business practices 
of the the 80s?  Go down an old list of Fortune 500 companies and see if
you can't remember a scandal or some completely distasteful business
practices that you've heard of.  Of course, it's difficult to be critical
of the situation and still exist within the system, I understand, because
we enjoy so many perks of that system.

> it's about personal freedom, and a system that fosters freedoms.
> this includes a [relatively] free-market system, where businesses can make
> decisions,
> and consumer/people/whatever can react either positively or negatively.
> it's about choice.
> isn't freedom of choice a good thing?  no, seriously.

I think this is one of the conceptual sources of the problem.  Freedom
doesn't exist in a jar; we, the "free", enjoy freedoms because others do
not.  It's not like we're sharing freedom with everyone.  And when the
U.S. government talks about the freedom of other countries, what do they
want?  An open-market system.  Why?  It's not that we actually want
freedom for another country, it's that we recquire their resources (labor
force or natural resources).  Take, for instance, the recent war in
Afghanistan.  You don't find it the least bit suspicious that the U.S.,
Germany and Russia are interested in running oil pipelines through the
country?  Why does the U.S. support Israel so strongly?  It couldn't be
because it's the only respectable military foothold in the Middle East or
anything like that...

> we DO have a good system.
> freedom is NOT a bad thing.
> 
> david

You know, it's not like I don't love the concept of freedom or
anything.  The problem is that is continually linked (as in your
response) to the idea of capitalism.  So are they connected?  There is no
question in my mind that we benefit from the economic slavery of other
countries (for instance, nearly all of Africa and South America).  Is that
necessary for freedom to exist in other places?  Or can the two be
unhinged, so that one can be free without making others suffer?

Chris

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