Chiroptera writes:
A more positive scenario (and relevant to the topic to this thread) is if socialist leaders of the Third World do succeed in diverting increasing amounts of the resources of their countries to improving the lives of their peoples. This would drive the prices of commodities in the West upwards; I suppose that Western leaders could use the worsening living standards that would result to justify overt and covert war against the "tyrants and dictators" of the Third World; more optimistically, maybe as living standards decrease in the West, the Europeans and North Americans would come to realize that they actually share some interests with the impoverished of the world rather than their own rulers.
Yes, but I think that process could be helped considerably by people in the developed countries. Because it won't be easy for many people to sacrafice their lifestyles.
I have always found that people with little at stake in the current set-up are most open to the idea of third world emancipation. I mean people who do not own property, people who don't own shares, people with no savings. These people really don't have that much to lose by central american living standards rising. I mean I am a 27 year old who doesn't own a house, doesn't own a car, doesn't own shares, has 100 pounds in the bank, and debts of about 10,000 pounds. I doubt that my wellbeing would be affected very much by Venezuelans getting a wage increase! Perhaps we just need to wait for the US economy to screw up, so more people are in my position.
Mick
in edit:
and I'm starting to go bald!
This message has been edited by mick, 01-20-2006 09:32 PM
This message has been edited by mick, 01-20-2006 09:33 PM
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