:
: : Anyways, urban poverty is the beginning of urban prosperity, assuming free markets exist and that governments exist to protect the rights of individuals.: SDF: No it's not. Urban poverty is the beginning of "lifestyles" such as the Filipino women described in Jeremy Seabrook's VICTIMS OF DEVELOPMENT whose sole means of survival is prostitution.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$Again, God, once again, what role does the culture itself play? It's impossible to look at the economics of a society w/o also looking at the culture. You cite one book relating to prostitution (outside of Olongapo City and Clark Air Base, I imagine) and extrapolate that to be true in a universal sense. As Steve Allen says; "Dumbth"
: : : SDF: Pray tell, what skill do teenage Vietnamese girls learn working for Nike? And how is it useful to them?
: : Sure; showing up on time for work, working cooperatively, working as part of a team. In short the same skills that pimply faced (sorry all you students out there) teen-agers learn when they work at McDonalds. It's too damn bad they have to work under the watchful eyes of commie wardens though. That's a bummmmmmmmmer.
: SDF: And it's too bad there's no prospects for advancement, either in wages or in positions, for any of those women, in Vietnam or Malaysia or Indonesia or wherever there's cheap labor to exploit.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$Again, what role do those governments play in keeping their citizens oppressed? That's the important question, isn't it? Your attributing far more political power to Nike then any reasonable person would.
: : : : By our standards the girls who work for Nike are getting a raw deal, but not by their standards.
: : : SDF: So you can tell others what their standards are?
: : No, idiot. Reread the sentence.
: SDF: So you're just incredibly condescending, hope you feel vindicated. You really do make Leona Helmsley look good. "The little people" have different standards for survival than we do, their lives are cheaper after all...
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$If that's the way you want to see me, fine.
: : : : The money they earn they can send back to their families, the same as many Mexican migrant farm workers do here.
: : : SDF: Farm workers here earn somewhere on the order of three dollars an hour. Girls who work for Nike earn 20 CENTS an hour. Nobody sends money home on a job that earns 20 cents an hour.
: : Depends. If they are charged a nickel a day for room and board they can. Per capita for Viet-Nam is $1,304, approx. $100.00 month.
: : Ahh, the wonders of Socialism.
: SDF: How do YOU know?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$Looked it up in the Rand McNally 'World Facts and Maps' 1999 edition.
: The folks in the Pico-Rivera pay ENORMOUS rents and work in the same damn sweatshops!
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$Where's Pico-Rivera?
God, I wish I were one of your students........
Did I ever tell you about the self-admitted Greenie professor that I had for a PoliSci class? It was great!! I took an F for the course as a personal protest about his teaching methods, he was way easy, but intimidating to the poor schmucks who needed his beneficience and third world students who were trained from childhood to respect mediocrity. During breaks they said they agreed with me. I'll never forget the girls from Viet-Nam who said that. I asked them why don't you speak up, tell him what your telling me. They tittered in that sweet way they have. Of course they never did say anything. But I knew that they were laughing at him inside. Anyways, I retook the course with another professor, this one from Spain, and aced it.
Somehow I have the feeling that you'd be just like him. His name was Baum. Any relation?
