There’s an interview floating around on Yahoo! News where Bill Gates is raving about China’s “new capitalism” and how great it is. According to Gates, the best part is:
It is a brand-new form of capitalism, and as a consumer its the best thing that ever happened…[the Chinese model is characterized by a] willingness to work hard and not having quite the same medical overhead or legal overhead”.
The translation, of course, is that Chinese workers are willing to work hard because they have no alternative and would otherwise starve. They have no medical benefits, work long hours, and have no freedom to engage in strikes if they don’t like their working conditions. And China-based corporations have less of a burden or incentive under Chinese law to make sure that their products are safe.
I’m quite sure that Bill Gates would love to have such working conditions imposed upon every employee of his. This is the man, after all, who equates free software with communism and seems to believe that corporate intellectual property rights should be unlimited – notwithstanding the fact that “rights” ultimately derive from the people. I guess it doesn’t matter because corporations are people too and obviously they’re much bigger and richer people than the rest of us.
I wonder how he sleeps at night? I guess it’s the giant band-aid on his conscience. Of course, the cynic might suggest that he just wants to make sure he has healthy slave…er…workers for his future corporate-totalitarian society…but I’m not a cynic, of course. Nope, not lil’ ol’ me.
So basically, he’s saying “Let’s take advantage of all the hard-working Chinese folks overseas. Yay! I won’t be held accountable for anything ‘unfortunate’ that may happen to them either.” Well, I give him credit for being able to disguise his true meaning and being able to fool people into thinking this is a great thing.
As for consumers, I can’t recall the last time being a consumer was such a great thing. As I like to say from time to time, “I’m broke because everyone else (i.e., corporations, big businesses) are greedy.” Consumerism is one-sided. If you think of money as energy, all consumers’ energy flows towards the corporations and I’m pretty sure an equal amount does not flow back to the consumers. (According to economic theory, it _should_ flow back to the consumers, but theory and practice don’t necessarily agree, especially if people get greedy and hoard the money/energy.) No wonder people are just basically tired and worn-out in this society. The corporate suckers are draining away our money, our energy. Day after day…
Well, now, now, let’s not forget what capitalism means (getting rich by stepping on all the little people), he’s obviously sticking to that meaning quite firmly. He has integrity, don’t you know? And that is MORE important than all the little people out there. (Yay, right…)
Okay, going to go “find a happy place” again.
BB,
Cassandrah