Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utcs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcsri!utcs!shindman
From: shindman@utcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: egg/chicken chicken/egg chigg/eckin
Message-ID: <704@utcs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Jun-85 17:49:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcs.704
Posted: Thu Jun 20 17:49:38 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Jun-85 18:45:45 EDT
References: <893@mnetor.UUCP> <5642@utzoo.UUCP> <896@mnetor.UUCP> <5710@utzoo.UUCP>
Reply-To: shindman@utcs.UUCP (Paul Shindman)
Organization: University of Toronto - General Purpose UNIX
Lines: 32
Summary: 

In article <5710@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
>British industrialization was already well underway by the early 1800's,
>as I recall.  And the West was clearly the dominant culture on the planet
>well before that.  Non-dominant cultures are not in a position to forcibly
>suppress competing industries on the other side of the world!  I certainly
>agree that the West took advantage of its position once it *had* it.  But
>the notion that the West climbed out of the mud in the first place by
>pushing others back down into it is silly.
>-- 

Ok...so maybe you're right...but how did those western industrial
countries climb out of the mud to become colonizing industrial
giants?  Not by pushing others back down, but by pushing their
own down and holding them there.  The same era of western mechanization
and industrialization was also the same era of child labour, squalid
(and dangerous) working conditions, below-poverty wages, and all the
associated social evils of the time.

The west has obviously made great strides since then and has righted
many of the wrongs that got industrialization going.  But western countries
still hold people down in the mud (workers at big companies in 3rd
world countries do *not* get company OHIP, blue cross, dental plans,
vacation plans, educational assistance, and all those other benefits
that we westerners take for granted now) and take an extra bit in
the profit margin from it.  Things are improving slowly in this area,
but I don't see any room for complacency.
-- 
-----------------
Paul Shindman, U of T Computing Services, Toronto (416) 978-6878
USENET: {ihnp4|decvax}!utcs!shindman
BITNET: paulie at utoronto     IP SHARP MAIL: uoft