A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!

(USA Today, American University School of Communication)

(Council on Foreign Relations, Cato Institute, Alfred Sauvy, Frazer Chronicle)

 

During the Cold War, in the early 1950’s, countries that aligned with NATO, (United States, Western European nations and their allies) represented the first world. The Communist Bloc, Soviet Union, Peoples Republic of China, Cuba and their allies made up the second world.

 

The third world was a phrase coined by French demographer, anthropologist and historian Alfred Sauvy, who in an article published by the magazine L’Observateur on August 14, 1952 in which
Sauvy referred to those nations that were woefully underdeveloped and were neither aligned with the Communist Bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the cold war.   

 

The third world was a collection of under developed nations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, which had a colonial past. Early on, in the 1950’s the term meant countries that were in a Non-Aligned movement, and were also connected in economic development, standard of life, and were on the outer reaches of the peripheries of human development.

 

In the ensuing years, the business world-wide would come to understand the advantages of the cheap labor force that existed in these third world countries. Many third world nations were former colonies, having gained their independence after 1950, and have had to face the challenges of nation and institution-building on their own for the first time.

 

Another bond between most categorized third world countries was the fact that most demanded and received western foreign aid, the giving of which many historians and some anthropologist strongly opposed. The term third world in today’s parlance can be misleading because it has no consistent or collective identity among countries it supposedly encompasses.

 

There are parts of the United States that could be termed third world because there is a lack of decent basic education, available health care, readily police protection, and that these areas demand and receive above average governmental aid.

 

As opposed to the cold war and Sauvy’s opinion of what third world means…..today, in parts of the United States, on an enlarging scale, governmental aid is necessary, and business, both foreign and domestic have discovered a cheaper way to manufacturer their goods…..it the United States of American, and it’s labor force which has been re-established as a new third world employment base basically free from unionization or it’s interventional powers.

 

MANUFACTURING GLOBALIZATION

In the latter part of the 20^th century and the first decade of the 2000’s, union representation and the problems it brought not only to the bargaining table, but the board rooms of corporate America began to lose some of its power. Its loss wasn’t a phenomenon, rather it was predictable, when you pay a floor sweeper $30 an hour including benefits, when retirement benefits can break a company, or when people take sick days for a hang-nail, long term, a company is in trouble.

 

As more and more American based companies began to move their operations off-shore, the $30 an hour jobs began to dry up like rain water on a sidewalk in the hot summer sun. Either nobody saw it coming, or more likely, refused to acknowledge the fact that either change was necessary, or that management would make the change for them.

It’s not unusual in the United States for labor force…..in large numbers to sit on their hands kind of watching a situation coming, like a thunderstorm, and wait until it’s too late to get out of the rain, and they get wet.

 

Were the little Chinamen to blame for jobs going overseas, was Bangladesh responsible for taking America’s jobs…..the short answer is no, and sadly it’s the long answer too. The powers that be in labor representation failed in their jobs to guide their members, and management saw an opportunity to make more money and bailed.

 

It’s not convoluted, and it’s sure as hell not complicated, the issue of American jobs going overseas is as simple as water is wet, and the sun’s bright. Pete and Joe Green, owners of Ajax Widgets saw a chance to double or triple their profits and took their business to Korea, or Japan, or China, and commuted from the U.S. once a month to check their ledger sheets.

 

How hard of a decision was it for Pete and Joe Green to move Ajax Widget and put 500 U.S. workers out of work and on the unemployment rolls…..EASY, it was a no brainer. “Let me see,” Joe Green says, “I pay Ralph $14 an hour and it costs me an addition $11 for his benefits, and…..he’s constantly pissing and moaning about his job, and then there’s Najd, a little Chinese who works 12 hours a day six days a week for $30 a month. “Gee I don’t know,” Joe Green says, “I’ll have to think about it, I mean Ralph isn’t that bad…..right?

 

Well actually wrong, Ralph is a dink, and the jerk has outlived his usefulness for Joe Green and Ajax Widget, and anyways, “I like the name Najd, it’s kind of catchy” says Joe Green, hell I’ll get me hundreds of Najd’s working for me…..and make lots more money.

 

AND THIS IS HOW IT GOES

Portions of the United States have been thrown into third world status, and now foreign companies as well as some of those American companies who practiced off shore manufacturing are moving their operations here for various reasons. But the biggest change has been the demise of the unions in the United States, based on short sightedness as well as government taking steps to crush some union activity.

 

American labor is going to have to reinvent itself…..and it had better not take a decade or two, the stakes are way too high. Corporate world has shown that it’s aggressive, cares little for workers rights, or working conditions, and actually has taken several steps backwards with regards to both issues, worker rights and worker safety.

 

Foreign companies as well as foreign countries have been propping up American business, purchasing business, buildings, property…..and even a major toll highways, (Indiana). Shortly Japan will own more than U.S. companies do…..and that’s not a good thing, what happens if Japan calls in its markers?

 

As quickly as American companies have found out that they can get the same product overseas as they do here in America, the take their business and their jobs to that country, it’s inevitable.

 

But times they are a-changing, some domestic companies who outsourced are taking a long look at America sites for their manufacturing sites. In addition some foreign companies are also in the early stages of establishing themselves in several of our nation’s southern states.

 

 

 

OF COURSE THERE IS A DOWNSIDE

Relaxation is a really neat word, I love the word, and I picture myself sitting in my favorite chair with my trusty channel changer at my side, ready to attack another night of fun and games on Tru-TV. My view of relaxation only hurts me, it adds to my somewhat sedentary lifestyle, but in the end only those closest to me will be involved with the decisions that I make.

 

When we start talking about a million foot factory to manufacture generators, or when business decides to cut clear trees from a property, or build huge parking lots for manufactured trucks and cares, or to enhance existing buildings that can handle new technology, the rules and regulations that govern environmental impact need to be followed, the environmental laws that are in place need to be enforced.

 

Cheaper labor, unencumbered environmental, safety and worker rights cannot be pushed aside for the expediency of establishing manufacturing facilities, or recruiting locals to work in these facilities at a lower wage. Rules that are in place need to be observed.

 

I can recall an earlier time in American history, a time when an industry was in its infancy, but with striking similarities. Although the companies were American, they were using processes that had been developed in Europe and many of the managerial personnel were European.

 

There was a total lack of governance regarding to environmental rules, safety rules, or worker rights, and as a result, environmental tragedy, worker deaths, and a general break-down of property is evident to this day. Much of the lands that were harvested these decades ago is dangerous and unusable to this day, and probably will never be usable.

 

The industries that scared the earth in such a manner, that disregarded worker safety and rights, metal and non-metal mining operations throughout the United States. Sadly at the time, workers in the mining camps, villages and to a degree the towns that grew up around the industry were very much third world.

 

We have a chance to re-invent ourselves, but we must remember and learn from our history, let’s not repeat the mistakes of past history, making history like a wheel, turning, but always seeming to stop at the same sites.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!